[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface and who the hell is suppo

[Brandon J. Rickman]

On Thu, 25 Sep 1997, "Travis Casey" <efindel at polaris.net> wrote:
>clawrenc at cup.hp.com <clawrenc at cup.hp.com> wrote:
>>What is wrong with:
>>
>>  % get rock
>>  Do you want the:
>>    1) stone
>>    2) pebble
>>    0) Cancel command

>The "cancel command" part seems to imply a modal interface, which can be bad
>in a time-intensive situation, such as combat.  Also, this could be annoying
>if the command was typed by accident... for a somewhat silly example:
>
>The orc draws his sword!
>
>% weld sword
>Do you want to weld the:
>  1) long sword (in scabbard)
>  2) two-handed sword
>  3) short sword
>  0) cancel
>
>The orc attacks you!

The "orc attacks you" part seems to imply a time based interface, and you
seem to think that a player caught with his pants down deserves some kind
of special dispensation for making a typo.  But being unprepared for what
the game is going to do is part of what playing the game is about, at least
I presume so in this case.  (It can be fun when a game surprises you so 
suddenly that you physically jump.)

In what situations would you be likely to mistype "weld sword" with an
orc in the room?

- You were wandering around unarmed.
- You were in the middle of changing weapons.
- You were planning to charm the orc into not attacking you.
- You had been previously disarmed and had forgotten to wield a new weapon.

The question was how do these relate to the interface?  In the first two,
you (the player) were just being stupid, so nothing to do with interface.
In the second and third you made a tactical error and although the interface
didn't cause the problem it made it a little worse.  Your minor fumble 
became a double fumble (and in Ars Magica a triple fumble kills you.)
The fourth case is very complicated as it deals with both the internal 
behavior of the game world and the relationship/awareness of the player
with their character.  So it isn't a graphical interface problem, it is a
body-machine interface problem.  Dozen of boring papers have been written
on the subject. :)

Anyway, if a game surprises me and I further fumble the command/knock the
mouse off the desk, I am actually more inclined to work through the
consequences of the fumble than when, say, I am killed repeatedly by a
fireball-tossing wizard because the mouse is not responsive enough.

(And this indirectly leads me to a debatable assertion: A game
that is primarily concerned with defeating the player is a very
unrewarding activity.)

- Brandon Rickman - ashes at zennet.com -
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