A resort for retired goldhunters

[ryos]

aquaMat wrote: [quote author=brell link=1190744915/15#20 date=1191156901]Please give examples of:

1. Nasty surprise deaths

Brell, you wanted me to give a few examples...I give a few below, and those are only of the first few rooms of the 4 paths I tried yet. There might be more examples, but these are the ones I now can remember:

Purple section
1.  Rooms 13498 - 13500:  When jumping from that tiny floor bit (Left middle of room 13499) onto that bit with the purple key in  13498...and you walk back: surprise fall (well....one tends to forget that a jump is needed).

1. Well, I cannot help if you forget that a jump is needed.  Why not take a look at your map?

Whoa guys, deja vu. I had this exact same conversation a few months ago with Aquamat about Small Palace of Gore (see attached image for context). Sadly the posts seem to have gone missing...

I and others have argued before that room boundaries ought to be safe, even in hard mansions. This subconscious expectation is built up in the player by playing the built-in mansions. Nobody thinks about crossing room boundaries, nobody remembers the details of the room they just left, and most certainly nobody thinks to check the map before walking off an invisible cliff.

Toybox wrote: Actually you get used to having to jump into the next room instead of walking there. Or you can jump into the next room, turn back in mid-air and go back where you started from - then take a peek in the map to see if there is a floor at all to support your steps

Ok, so maybe not NOBODY. But the point is that the game conditions you to trust the room boundaries. I would go so far as to posit that the association is as strong as one of the code-enforced rules of the game: Jack can jump, spiders kill you, and room boundaries are safe.

An unsafe room boundary feels like a broken promise, like a save pedestal that does not work or a vine that is fake and sends the player to his death.

I trusted you!

cries the falling Jack.

You promised you would hold me, but when I jumped to you I flew right through!

Likewise, floor tiles that go to the edge of a room are an open invitation for Jack to step across. Put a gap on the other side, and the player feels cheated when he dies.

Such a player would likely conclude that the mansion is poorly designed. He might even hop on the Internet, track down the mansion's designer, and point out the deficiency in hopes that he might find it helpful.

So. What happens when the designer then gets defensive and responds, in essence, that the player is at fault for forgetting that the designer has broken the rules of the game? Well...that would depend on the player.

...BUT...this is just rehashing arguments I'd vowed to let lie, having agreed to disagree and moved on and all that. I just couldn't let the irony pass me by (that aquaMat was repeating with Brell the same conversation that I'd had with him previously, but with the roles reversed). I thought it was funny! Let's all have a laugh together. ;D ;D ;D