[MUD-Dev] Circumstances & Situations

[JC Lawrence]

On Tue, 6 Jan 1998 16:10:23 PST8PDT Ola wrote:

> JC Lawrence <claw at under.Eng.Sun.COM> wrote:

>> This is actually a very critical point, this ability of text to
>> vary the granularity of detail from huge and gross ("There is a
>> mountain here.", "He is tall.") to incredibly tiny ("His vest is
>> patterned with a tiny mosaic motif of dancing unicorns and rutting
>> satyrs stitched in silver wire and gold paint.").  Additionally it
>> is the _lack_ of provided detail, of filling in the blanks, that
>> coerces the reader into filling them in for themselves; it actually
>> forcibly compels the reader without choice or compunction, to
>> create the scene for themselves, filling in the detail in a manner
>> that is real and understandable to them, and more importantly,
>> likely to have emotive accessability (as different from impact) for
>> them.

> Hypothesis:

>> Graphics can't do that as it either offers the detail (likely in a
>> form which doesn't have emotive accessability or immediacy for the
>> viewer), or it offers no detail and thereby shows the viewer that
>> there is no detail there (after all, it can't be seen).

> Falsification:

> Make the world dark.

No, this does not change the ability to genericly control the level of
detail, it merely moves the choice of perception of detail to the
player (he chooses what he is proximate to, and thus what detail he
sees).  Text has the ability to vary the detail level dynamically
within a single scene, and thus using that flow of concentration to
guide and control the user's attention focus -- all without requiring
any actual behaviour of the reader.  The visual world occassionally
attempts that (consider some of the better visual flow analysies of
the great masters (Picasso, Rueben, and Turner are great cases in
point)), but cannot guarantee the pattern of visual flow which text
can due to its linear nature.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
                                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
----------(*)                        Internet: jc.lawrence at sun.com
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...