Happy Valentines Day - Or Err Something?

So we're nearly at the big day, Valentines day or the international geek day of mourning. Of course, I'm not doing anything special. Writing perl. Working on this blog. Working on my social book marks for my side project and if I'm very lucky, seeing what Syria has in store for the main character of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars. But I don't want to be stingy, or seem bitter - I want to give you a Valentine's day gift. Click the link below.

Violet. 

You're welcome. Violet is a text adventure, or interactive fiction game. This is one of the genres that I grew up playing, and I've never lost my taste for them. Sadly, you will never see them on the shelf at your local EBstop, but on the upside you can find them on the internet for free. An IF game is similar to a book in that it is text-based (any IF game which contains graphics is a heresy and must be purged), and all the action takes place between your ears. Unlike a book, you have to earn the content. Typically IF games are arranged around puzzles or riddles, and this works at two levels. The first level is what do I need to do to solve the current problem, the second is how do phrase that in a manner which the game will understand. Luckily, I'm a nice guy - Violet is a very forgiving game. It reminds you of which problem you're currently working on at the top of the screen and if you type "hint" it will give you a series of clues on how to solve the problem.

The original Infocom games were like novels, and I'm talking high throw weight novels like War and Peace or Ulysses. On your first play through you could easily burn hundreds of hours, if not more. Violet is short, and quite sweet. You could probably play through it in a lunch hour without using the hints.


Violet is also kind of rare (besides being quite a striking young woman, I'll admit that on my first play through I was a little smitten) as it is a romance. So far as I know Plundered Hearts (a pirate romance) by Infocom is the only example of IF in that genre that was released commercially. Before you start getting visions of Fabio or the women that typically grace the covers of romance novels, I'll remind you that this is geek romance - we do things differently here. "I don't think you have the upper body strength to pull that off, budgie" is a parser response in this game.


Which is odd as romance is the single largest fiction genre in American literature. The sales team for the average big five publishing house's romance division is usually larger than all the other divisions combined. I've never believed the common wisdom that female geeks and more specifically female video game fans, are rare. I've met more than a few, some of my fondest memories are of going down to the Treasure Island arcade with my elementary school crush and her father. She demolished me at Pac Man, but I ran Xevious. People make a big deal about women who game, but again, they out number us - the entire "casual" (a term that has gained traction in the gaming world which I detest) genre of games is geared toward women. They are the number one demographic who plays them. My favorite tank, and my favorite DPS (damage per second - a player class who focuses on dealing damage) in World of Warcraft, both were the same woman.


I think the problem is one of perception. I think some people, particularly male gamers, (another obnoxious word, gamer) choose not see how many how many women share their hobby with them. Maybe many women don't feel comfortable discussing their hobby with their friends and family? I think that's what happened with that girl in elementary school, she seemed to love the arcade as much as I did, but I suspect she worried about whether her friends would think it was "cool."


I think geeks are coming up in the world by necessity though. It's been a long slog from the days when brute strength was attraction++, to now when as a survival and income generating attribute intelligence is more heavily weighted. If you want examples, just look at the movies. From back in my day we have John Cusack's roles in Savage Steve Holland's films. A case could be made that he didn't play a geek in Better Off Dead, as he participated in a sport (downhill skiing), but I still say the way the characters acts screams "geek." Matthew Broderick played geeks in both Wargames and Project X. More recently, in Zombieland the romantic lead is a geek. So perhaps there's hope for us yet, but in my specific case, I'll refrain from holding my breath.



I think I've gone on long enough, and my Nintendo DS is calling - so as I've been taking a trip down memory lane, let's go out with a song:









I'll be back on Monday, and we'll have lots to talk about - my experiments with Google Doc for MLA formatted papers, some thoughts on my upcoming research paper, and more. In the meantime feel free to gloat, commiserate or point and laugh in the comments.