Thursday, April 7, 2016

Thoughts on Persistent Worlds in Interactive Fiction

So this topic on intfiction.org got me thinking. While only slightly (and I mean very slightly) related, the topic of “persistent worlds” has interested me for some time. Persistent worlds aren't usually (if not ever) used in IF, aside from Eamon. (Whether Eamon is considered IF is another topic for another day, but I digress.) What I mean by a “persistent world” is something like Aemon, where the game takes place in the same world, and items, skills, Etc. are migrated from the previous game or chapter to the next. (They're usually associated with “RPG’s” thanks to Aemon, but I can imagine several different genres or stories taking advantage of this capability in IF.) Not to mension the problem with save games. Think about this: A new game, entitled “the Adventures of Super Simon, Chapter 1”, for example, is released. A year later, Chapter 2 is released. You can't use your old save game, because Inform or TADS (or any other of the major IF platforms) doesn't work with old save games (or save games from an earlier chapter, in this case). (This would also be true for updates of chapter 1; the old save game cannot be used.) If an authoring system was created that utilized persistent worlds (or an authoring system like TADS was upgraded with a persistent worlds option, for example), this would not be the case. I can think of several series that could benefit from using persistent worlds:
  • the various games by D. B. Taylor (especially the “Lurking Beast” series)
  • the Andromeda Series by Marco Innocenti
  • Mike Snider’s “Convergence Saga” (if Mike has plans to continue the saga, that is)
  • and many, many more!
Overall, I think that at least one authoring system (either an update or a new system) that took advantage of the idea of persistent worlds would be a good thing to have available. The possibilities are endless!