Subject:      I-F World News
From:         whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu (Gerry Kevin Wilson)
Date:         1997/04/01
Message-Id:   <5hrtfa$e0@agate.berkeley.edu>
Newsgroups:   rec.arts.int-fiction


Well, let's see, lots of news coming in today, let's start small and work
our way up.

1.) Avalon has been cancelled due to lack of interest.

2.) Scott Adams and David Lebling will be doing a text adventure together
    in October.  Supposedly some sort of sequel to Adams' "Funhouse."

3.) Leon Lin has just sent word of his next game.  It's tentatively
    titled "To Die For" and is a gothic horror game, heavy on puzzles,
    and lacking any sentient NPCs at all.  He says he's tired of debugging
    them.

4.) Graham Nelson's latest is that he's going to redo Jigsaw, only this
    time the player will take the part of Black.

5.) The crowd that brought us "Shades of Grey" has reassembled to write
    another game based on Piers Anthony's series "Tarot."

6.) Douglas Adams is finally starting in on "Restaurant."  Activision
    convinced him to do a full graphics version in exchange for 2.3
    million dollars!  Apparently the gang from MST3K will be building
    Marvin the paranoid android.

7.) Andrew Plotkin has sworn off text adventures and joined a Buddhist
    monastery.  Let's all wish him luck in his search for enlightenment.

8.) Here's an odd little note that I read in an industry rag.  Sierra is
    apparently changing their interface yet again.  Apparently the current
    one requires too much reading.  So, the characters in the games will
    now 'speak' via 'thought bubbles' with pictures in them, ala the old
    game show "Concentration."  In addition, since Sierra has found that
    nine out of ten players are too stupid to beat their games, they are
    hiring David Baggett of Crash Bandicoot fame to redo their puzzles.
    David says that he's going to take a cue from his fictional group
    Akmi and develop the "eeziest parser in the world."  Supposedly, no
    matter where you click, the parser interprets that as the next correct
    action on the path to winning the game.  Guess King's Quest fans will
    be losing a lot less sleep.  Sierra says that since they no longer
    need the old interface, they will be giving it to Legend
    Entertainment, which has shown some interest in using it.

9.) Magnus Olssen has decided to do a sequel to "Uncle Zebulon's Will" at
    long last!  From what I hear, the cute fox from "Weather" will be
    making a guest appearance, and all NPCs will be based off the START
    AI system.  Uncle Zebulon will know the distance between all
    significant stellar objects.

10.) And finally, I have recently sold an article to Citadel Journal, a
    magazine that specializes in Games Workshop miniature wargames.  The
    article was titled "Tie a Yellow Ribbon...." and discussed an
    alternate form of magic for the Bretonnian army in GW's game
    Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  No news yet as to when the article will
    appear.



Anyways all, Happy April Fools' Day, and bear in mind that a few of these
bits of news might even be true...or not.
-- 
	My new email address is: whizzard@pobox.com.
	If that's too long for you, try gkw@pobox.com.

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