Community plays collaborative Zork, grues tremble in fear
by Scott Jon Siegel 
{ Jun 21st 2007 at 8:05PM }
Normally considered single-player experiences, the text adventure genre has just taken a large step in a collaboratively multiplayer direction. Several members of the Idle Thumbs forum community have designed a special forum-bot that plays text adventures with other members. His name is Ziggy.At the moment, Ziggy is programmed to play Zork, a classic text adventure made by Infocom in the late 70s. In a thread started by Ziggy, players post replies with commands like "go north" or "take letter." Ziggy then replies, performs the commands, and continues the game.
The Ziggy threads allow for commenting as well, giving players the chance to discuss moves before executing them. This makes the whole a great deal more collaborative, although so far it hasn't been helping. The first play-through of Zork resulted in death at the hands of a hungry cyclops, and the second at the hands of a hungry grue. It's clear that after two losses in a row, the adventurers could use a little extra help in their third attempt. Anyone know the way to the Great Underground Empire?
[Via GameSetWatch]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jonah Falcon @ Jun 21st 2007 8:21PM
You're kidding, right? Zork I? I finished that 20 years ago. (laugh)
J.Goodwin @ Jun 21st 2007 8:23PM
Never played a MUD, I see.
Jonah Falcon @ Jun 21st 2007 8:45PM
Of course I have. But maybe you should read the article closer.
m3mnoch @ Jun 21st 2007 8:45PM
um. what does community-driven zork have to do with muds?
in fact, it's the exact opposite:
ziggy == many people controlling the same, single avatar in a single player game.
mud == many people controlling many individual avatars in a massively multiplayer game.
m3mnoch.
ScreamingSkull @ Jun 21st 2007 8:52PM
well put
J.Goodwin @ Jun 21st 2007 9:18PM
To me, they are the same. A group in a MUD or a single character in Zork...same thing to me.
vdeogmer @ Jun 21st 2007 11:09PM
I suppose in your world, up is down and white is black?
Yaktastic @ Jun 22nd 2007 12:38AM
hey all, just a reminder
"kill cyclops" = victory
"hit (or strike) cyclops" = death
Thrawn @ Jun 22nd 2007 1:07AM
What happens when ziggy gets to Flood Control Dam #3?
chispito @ Jun 22nd 2007 2:29AM
xyzzy
Oh crap, there goes my password.
chispito @ Jun 22nd 2007 2:31AM
On second thought, there goes my nerd cred' since as I'm sure you all know, xyzzy is from Colossal Cave/Adventure/whatever it's called now and not from Zork. Foot -> mouth.
mistersquared @ Jun 22nd 2007 9:47AM
"You see a strange looking man with a bag in his hands. It looks like he wants something..."
Jonah Falcon @ Jun 22nd 2007 1:32PM
"You see a strange man with a piece of candy..."
Okay, okay, that's not Zork. :p
m3mnoch @ Jun 22nd 2007 7:22PM
@J.Goodwin
"To me, they are the same. A group in a MUD or a single character in Zork...same thing to me."
but this is a group in zork, not a mud.
but, wait...
yep. how silly of me. of course you're right!
they're exactly the same! just like world of warcraft is completely the same thing as oblivion.
good call, man.
m3mnoch.