《游戏大师Chris Crawford谈互动叙事》一9.5 真实案例

本节书摘来异步社区《游戏大师Chris Crawford谈互动叙事》一书中的第9章，第9.5节，作者： 【美】Chris Crawford译者： 方舟 责编： 陈冀康，更多章节内容可以访问云栖社区“异步社区”公众号查看。

9.5　真实案例

游戏大师Chris Crawford谈互动叙事
下面我们来看一个真实的文字冒险的例子：由Jon Ingold与2009年创作的《Make It Good》。下面列出游戏回显的所有文本（未经编辑）；以大于号“>”开头的文本是玩家的输入。我们不难看出，其中的文字叙述比一般电子游戏当中的要更有文采，具有更多文学作品的品质。

Broken Top Boulevard, Outside No. 15 (in the black chevy)
The boulevard through the windscreen is lined with ash trees, thick trunks casting shadows and gnarled roots mangling up the sidewalk. You're sitting in your car, parked too high up the kerb; just outside the gate to No. 15. Just an ordinary house. With a body inside.
"Homicide. One Jack Draginam, accountant. Married, no kids. Stabbed. Yadda yadda, blah blah. We got the call from the maid - geez, who has a maid? Apparently she wanted to stress there's a lot of blood.”
"Oh, Inspector. Word is, if you don't crack this one, you're out of a job."
The glove compartment is closed. Sat on the passenger seat is a whiskey bottle.
>open glove compartment
(unlocking it first - with the car key)
You pull open the compartment, and it catches after only opening a tiny crack. Stupid thing.
>go inside
(opening the black chevy first)
You open the car door.
You clamber out of the driving seat.
Broken Top Boulevard, Outside No. 15
The boulevard is lined with ash trees, thick trunks casting shadows and gnarled roots mangling up the sidewalk. Your car is parked too high up the kerb; just outside the gate to No. 15. Just an ordinary house. With a body inside.
There'd better be some faces too: you need the slam. What did the peep at the station say? Inspector, the only case you cracked open last year was the Michaelmas liquor. He has a point. If you come up blank (or facedown in a gutter) you'll be off the payroll. And then you'd really have a problem.
Down the street there's a dog, running about.
(opening the front gate first)
The gate swings creakily.
You step into the porch.
Front Porch.
A tasteful little porch; white painted wood strapped onto red-brick
building. The front door is north, and through a small diamond of frosted.
glass you can make out nothing of the wood-panelled hallway inside. Your neck is sweating; sunlight hides behind the trees to the south.
A hanging basket with a couple of petunias in is attached just to the left of the door.
>go inside
You knock a smart rap on the door. After a short wait the door opens, Angela's face appears, then the rest of her. She looks just like she should considering, no time to do her face.
"Yes? What do you want?" she says uncertainly.
"Can I help you? "
>show badge
(to Angela Draginam)
"Oh, Inspector! I'm sorry.. do come in, I'm glad you came so quickly." You follow her into the house. It has a smell you recognise, all right.

现今的互动小说明显优于过去的文字冒险，词语解析的问题几乎被消除了。在过去的文字冒险游戏当中，玩家往往会通过反复试错找出可以被接受的用词；而现在，IF软件一般都直接提供了字典供玩家参考。

不仅如此，IF软件还能处理同义词，玩家可以选用多个同义词。同时，IF软件还能把代表一个任务或目标的指令输入自动解析成多个步骤。在前述的实例文本当中，玩家输入了“go inside（进入）”指令，IF软件就将其解析为一系列动作：open car door（打开车门）、open gate（打开门），以及enter porch（进入走廊）。我们完全有理由相信，IF软件在智能处理方面还会不断得到发展，进而能够越来越好地理解玩家的指令输入。

尽管如此，输入指令的语法还是相当死板，玩家必须以特定的标准形式进行输入。虽然IF软件能识别多种简单的变体，但是总体来说，IF软件（乃至所有自然语言处理软件）提供的语法自由度比真人说话时的语法自由度还是小太多。

如今，IF不再像以前那样，用诡异的谜题来挑战玩家，而是提供合乎情理的谜题，让玩家能够通过解读文字描述来解谜。很多时候，IF谜题还需要玩家具备深入的人性洞察才能解开。