"The Virtues of Text-Based Games"
by Famulus

The beginning of computer role playing games came with the invention of keyboard entry on computers and teletype printout. The earliest full-text adventure games by Infocom were incredible ways for a single user to interact with the world. The nearly limitless vocabulary, the hidden Easter eggs and the ability to interact with creatures, characters and objects in the game made these linear, plot-driven games more fun then they should have been.

Then graphics became an issue.

The death of infocom came about at a time when the King's Quest and Ultima games were gaining immense popularity among the masses of computer gamers. Where games had been largely typed into computers from magazines, these series were pre-programmed whiz-bang adventures combined sound and graphics in ways that soon drove a stake through the heart of the text-only adventure game. The ironic thing is that the new sound and graphics adventure games relied heavily on text to drive the plot. The graphics only served to 'move' the character or adventuring party about going from place to place.

Therein lies the rub.

One of the oldest caveats for writers is "Show, Don't Tell." Perplexing as it may seem, by showing pictures of the monsters, mountains, treasures, spell-effects, etc... the imagination of the player is robbed. Showing these images, in effect, TELLS the player what to see. Instead of a hulking orc covered with the gore of its victims, players were treated to a four or sixteen color graphic image of something that could only be described as a cross between a bear and an overweight goat. These haphazard attempts at displaying horror often robbed any chance of immersion from a game.

At their worst, they helped to create the Monty-Haul generation.

Text-based games require more from the player. Instead of moving a character around with the click of a mouse or tap of a key, the player must devote some mental effort to read the room description, or at the very least scan the incoming text for clues as to what to do next. The worst role-player in a text-based adventure game is more immersed into the campaign universe than most mediocre graphics-based adventure gamers. Instead of an nearly microscopic icon with a rinky-tink picture of what is supposed to be the mighty artifact Foereaper, the text-based adventure gamer gets a full blown description. Instead of waving a silver sword-like appendage protruding from the graphical representation of the character, the text-based gamer can use the mighty artifact in ways that would push the graphical game beyond its limits. Many permutations of verbs can be used to create interesting, amazing and humorous effects.

Versatility is the key to the text-based adventure game.

The graphics-based game is limited by the creativity of both the observer and the programmer. On the text-based side, the only limit is the imagination of the player. If a survey were to be taken of one hundred gamers in the realms, all of various classes and levels, of what a goblin from the west gate of Crossing looked like, it would be nearly certain that one hundred different, but valid, descriptions would be returned. The imagination of the player is the only limiting factor in the text-based game. By being shown, not told, the adventure comes to life in the mind of the player instead of the monitor of the computer.