Comic 372 - Hypocritical Arguments
Posted on Wednesday, the 28th of August at 12:00 AM, 2019
in 2019
First
Previous
Author Notes:
It worked when I tested it. Hopefully it works in practice. I guess we'll see.
Also, if you've read this far, you might be curious as to what a verbcoin is.
So here's a quick explanation. It's like the pop-up menu you get when you right click on Windows. Except instead of getting a list of commands, where the function of the commands are fixed, but which commands are available are context-sensitive. Instead it's the function of the commands that are context-sensitive, with the commands that are available being fixed.
Think of it like this, you click on something, and a box appears with an eyeball, a mouth, and a hand. Then you click on one of those icons, and what happens depends on what you originally clicked on. If you click on a bowl of peanuts then the mouth, you'll eat a peanut. If you click on a person then the mouth, you'll talk to that person. If you click on that same person but click on the hand instead, you'll punch them. Likewise, if you click on the bowl of peanuts then the hand, you'll pick up a peanut.
I'll let you decide whether or not that's a terrible interface. If you want to tell me that it's a bad interface, then please use better reasons than the ones in the comic.
But I suspect that the only people who care, are the ones who make games. Not the ones who exclusively play them.
Now let me tell you about the dumbest thing ever:
Context sensitive verb coins with verbs changing position depending on which and how many are shown.
Oh, you want to use muscle memory?
Show verbs, then move to the left to pick-up? Left and up for open/close verbs?
Nope. You have to open the verb coin and then try to find the verb you want to use and... what hotspot did I just click? I forgot.
Anyway: If you can't use keyboard shortcuts just throw the game into the trash right away.
If you want to take away options that aren't applicable, that's fine. BUT GREY THEM OUT!!!
Don't go messing with the order.
And keyboard shoutcuts. Those are an absolute joy!
I get the feeling that casual players don't use them, but who cares. They make our life so much easier. :)
But don't worry, I always demand them!
...
Now don't get me started about position-based shortcuts vs. name-based ones (applies to games which always show verbs on screen)...
If it's based on the name then e.g. _O_pen is on one side of the keyboard and _C_lose on the other side!
Doesn't make much sense. How large are the hands of people anyway?
It's also a translation hell!