If the parser (the software component that analyses natural language and responds to it) in Interactive Fiction is what makes it stand out from other forms of electronic literature and what allows the reader to become a co-creator of the narrative, it is also the element that makes entry into the genre so confusing for newcomers. Noted IF author Emily Short, has stated in her classic blog-post “So, do we need this parser thing anyway“ that the command prompt (the blinking cursor after the ‘>’ symbol indicating that the story is waiting for input) “is a lie. It tells the player “type something, and I’ll understand you.” Which it won’t.” Indeed, seeing a blinking cursor will most probably invite an inexperienced player to type the first thing that comes into their head – not the clear and concise imperative command in line with the rules of the game-world, which is expected by the parser. For the uninitiated in IF-speak, without some kind of support, frustration and resignation are not far off. The better quality IF of the past would include instructions and examples of language use in the included documentation (if the games were purchased, that is). However, the vast majority of IF written today is distributed online for free and does not come with paper-based documentation. Not only that, but we should not need to read instructions to be able to play a video-game. Well-designed graphics-based video games include tutorials built into the game-play that teach you the game-mechanics as you play or have optional tutorial mini-games. In comparison, the only support that most IF games have to offer (there a few key games that do cater specifically to beginners) is indicating straight away the existence of a command which will call up a list of some of the more commonly used verbs. This is exactly the reason why blogs like this one and others exist – to show you which initial commands can get the story moving forward so that you don’t lose hope at the first sign of a “>“. On the plus side, the good thing about learning these commands is that many of them are universal and will be understood by the vast majority of IF works.

 

Guessing the Verb

As I’ve mentioned before, the first generation of text adventures would only understand 2 word verb-noun collocations, such as: get lamp, climb tree and throw axe. Later parsers would understand more complex sentences with articles and prepositions, such as: turn to page 569 in the book, examine the writing with the magnifying glass, and put the torch in the cage and lower it.   After the initial task of learning some basic commands and getting the story moving, at some point new players will invariably get stuck at a puzzle because they simply do not know how to express themselves in a way that the game will understand them. This common obstacle of older adventure games is known as “guess the verb” syndrome because the games were incredibly strict in recognising synonyms and related concepts. You had to guess the exact verb, or the game simply wouldn’t understand your command. I can give you a good personal example of  “guess the verb”:

The first computer game to be commercially sold, in this way kick-starting the computer game industry, was a text adventure called Adventureland. It was also the first computer game I ever bought and the first text adventure I ever played. Although very basic in plot and execution, it nonetheless took me years to complete the game – and not because of the difficulty of the puzzles, but because I couldn’t guess the exact verb the game was expecting to solve one of those puzzles. Adventureland had a vocabulary of 120 words (not to say that it didn’t use more words in its descriptions, it did – but these were not recognised upon input). However, in order to make the software fit in the small memory of the home computers of the era, only the first 3 letters of each word was recognised by the game – so OPEN DOOR and OPERATE MACHINE would both be recognised as the verb OPEN. One of the puzzles, and the one that kept me stuck for years, was to get past a very thin bear on a ledge. I tried every verb I could think of to get past the bear: PUSH BEAR, PULL, MOVE, HIT, KILL, THROW, KICK, JUMP, etc. I effectively gave up playing the game. Many years later, I found the solution in a computer magazine (this was well before the Internet and the availability of walkthroughs) – a player, having got so frustrated at the game for it not understanding any verb he threw at it, typed in “SCREW BEAR” – and the bear duly fell off the cliff! The creator of Adventureland, Scott Adams, explained that because the bear was thin, he was hoping that players would consider making a loud noise so the bear would fall off the cliff – thus the solution to the puzzle was SCREAM BEAR.

An example of a badly designed puzzle? I would say so. A screaming (pun intended) example of “Guess the verb”? Without a doubt. Thankfully, most modern games created by the IF community have well-designed puzzles and are much more merciful in recognizing synonyms and related concepts, and are better able to guess what the players was trying to say and, in turn, produce error messages that can guide them in refining their input. Most modern IF can understand several hundred verbs and most objects referred to in the text descriptions are implemented as objects in the game with multiple references; eg –  COLT. 44, PISTOL and GUN, might be equally recognised.

Magic Words

The most commonly implemented verb commands are related to object manipulation: GET LAMP, WEAR DRESS, OPEN CHEST, TOUCH WALL, etc. Other conventional IF verbs are used to navigate the environment and control the player-character:

LOOK – a general refresh of the description of the current room. Useful in getting a more verbose description of a room that has already been visited.

EXAMINE – when wanting to look more closely at a specific object. This is possibly the most important verb in IF!

INVENTORY – shows a list of what is being carried.

In order to move around locations in IF , we use compass headings: N, S, E, W. It is not necessary to type GO NORTH – just typing N or S will suffice. The use of compass headings was implemented in the very first adventure game “Colossal Cave”, aka Adventure, because it was developed as a caving simulation and this is how directions are given by spelunkers. The convention has pretty much stuck throughout the years because it is straightforward and easy to understand.

Many games also include non-player characters (controlled by the game), which you may attempt to have a conversation with. Depending on the complexity of the game, this may simply be a way to get information from the NPC by using TALK to THIEF, or you may need to find out something specific: ASK THIEF about EGG. In some games, it is possible to give orders to NPCs (which they or may not accept): TELL THIEF to GIVE ME THE BAG or THIEF, FOLLOW ME.

For the sake of expediency, most commands can be given omitting articles and adjectives, so instead of having to type:

>GET THE BLUE ORNATE VASE It would suffice to type >GET VASE.

Using this form of pidgin English is entirely optional. Players can choose  to type complete sentences and use commands such as EXAMINE instead of the common X abbreviation.  However, not doing so may seems at odds with the idea of using IF for language learning. But if we consider what kind of learning actually takes place during these interactions, nothing is lost. Improving typing skills, in this case (although certainly practised), is not one of the main goals. Whatever command a player types is first cognitively processed – the player knows that the vase she is referring to is the only blue and ornate vase it the vicinity, and omitting articles, prepositions and adjectives in commands does not mean they have not been assimilated by the player – it is merely a quicker and less tedious way of getting through the narrative.

In addition to action and reporting verbs, meta-commands, which affect the program and not the story are also used:

SAVE – allows you to save your position in the story so that you can return to it later. Very useful in case your character suddenly dies – all too common in IF from the 80s.

RESTORE- allows you to continue the story from where you last saved your position.

UNDO – not all games implement this veritable magic word, which allows you take back your last (possibly fatal) move.

TRANSCRIPTION – an incredible boon for language teachers/learners, this command begins outputting all in-game text and exchanges to an external text file. Useful for post-play language analysis.

 

The save and restore commands, first implemented in adventure games, are now a staple of most modern video games. In IF, they allow for experimentation and the exploration of different pathways through the narrative. It can be said that if one plays through a work of IF without ever restoring or restarting the game and making different choices, they are not experiencing the whole story, nor will they be privy to all that the author has built into the game-world. In IF, even dying and failing produces text, which should be considered as being part of the overall narrative. The implementation of the UNDO command, in this way, allows for the narrative to be more fully explored.

 

One of my top recommendations before playing IF for the first time is printing out and distributing this post-card sized list of common verbs, created by famed IF author Andrew Plotkin (available here in PDF format).

IF for beginner's card

IF for beginner's card

 

 

For a more in-depth analysis of commands that can be used in IF and a sample transcript of exchanges, do yourself a favour and read Emily Short’s ‘Introduction to IF’ manual. For teachers and learners of French, you can find a translated version here.

If you’d like to see a step-by-step guide of an actual session of playing IF, with very clear explanations, look no further than here.

 

 

Next up: Where to get Interactive Fiction (and by the way, it’s FREE!)