Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Feelies
Infocom, old developer of adventure games such as Zork and Hitchhiker's Guide, used to have something they called "feelies" that would come packaged with their adventure games. Feelies were various objects associated with the game, such as sunglasses and pocket fluff with Hitchhiker's, or paper materials that expanded the setting, like books or letters from the game. The wikipedia article talks about them as if they were just copy protection, but people I've talked to who played these games seem to feel that they were more. The feelies, especially the books that described background story and other paper works, often not only expanded the world but were needed to make it through the game. This seems to provide a good mesh of a game and real world materials to add to the experience of that game.
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4 comments:
I am dismayed at the lack of mention of the Startropics manual riddle where you submerge it in water to find a hidden message. While not necessarily a feelie, it's definitely a descendant of it. Ditto with Meryl's codec in Metal Gear Solid.
I remember the "feelies" from King's Quest. They actually worked pretty well for copy protection in my area. Usually, they were well written and definitely added something to the game.
I definitely believe the bring the game more life and translate it into the real world. Good point.
I wonder if the idea of collector editions (which include items not necessary to play through the game) stem from feelies. I can't think of any games today that come with feelies. I wonder what some of the reasons would be? Money issues? Concepts not fitting together? Fear of losing separate physical items needed to progress through the game? I already lost the septim that came with Oblivion, but that's just an accessory.
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