> > If you were to play a game in the style of AGL games (and thus quite text dominant), which would you prefer?
> >
> > 1) Having certain scenes and characters depicted with graphics to provide a visual connection and feel for the game.
> >
> > 2) Omitting images so that the player may create his or her own visual imagery of the universe they are playing within.
>
> The second one, definitely. The world of Zork was unbelievably fantastic for me because I had it all in my head. I have played a few text based games with extensive art, and found that the boundaries they set on my imagination were not worth the benefit of having an actual image right there for me.
>
> The AGL games which include images are a mixed blessing. I love the map in FQ and a lot of the item images in GOAT but there were a few things in some of the games where I thought, "Hey, that's cool--but I kinda liked what I had imagined before."
>
> Of course, I have always had a very vivid and visual imagination (and I remember one night in Chat when people took advantage of that--Grr) so that may make me an exception rather than the norm.
>
> Don "As you might have guessed, I tend to prefer table-top RPGs over CRPGs, though I love a good CRPG--just not for the graphics. :-)" Monkey

I'd say it really depends. I *love* to see graphics, as long as they're good graphics. However (and I don't think I'm alone in this), no graphics at all are definitely better than bad graphics. (And I personally have a fairly high standard for good graphics.)

I like maps, and diagrams for things that would be confusing to depict in text, and graphics that are cool Easter eggs, but I personally think AGL is a medium that works better in text. My two cents would be to use them sparingly, and only when the author feels it's necessary. (That's what it all boils down to in the end, doesn't it? Only the author can really say whether the thing works as a whole or not...)

BTW, I'm all with Don about the old IF games; roguelike games are another example. I play NetHack (Anybody here a Hacker?) and I *always* play with ASCII tiles. The graphical tiles it came with nearly made me puke (pardon my high school French), and though the fan-made Falcon's Eye 3D isometric tiles look better, I still found the game nearly unplayable with graphics after I'd gotten used to the elegant simplicity of ASCII graphics.

Ar"If anybody knows what I was talking about in that last paragraph, I'd like to hear their input"thur