§13.16. What are relations for?
It is easy to say what verbs are for: they are to express relations. But what are relations for?
Inform 7's focus on relations between objects is unusual as an approach to interactive fiction; the concept does not exist in most design systems, or rather, it does but is submerged. Traditional design systems do, after all, have the spatial relations of being inside, on top of, and so on. It could well be said that these are the only relationships that inanimate objects ever have. A stone can be on top of a table, and if so then that expresses their entire association.
This is because the stone, and the table, have no opinions, emotions, knowledge or memory. If the stone is taken away and then put back, nothing has changed. People, on the other hand, tend to remember having met each other before; they like being in some places, but not others; their behaviour depends on who, or what, is nearby. Being conscious, they have internal states, unlike the stone. Relations are a simple but powerful way to express and talk about such connections, and although they have numerous uses in physical contexts too, they are at their most powerful when helping to make the characters of interactive fiction come alive.
![]() | Start of Chapter 13: Relations |
![]() | Back to §13.15. Temporary relations |
![]() | Onward to Chapter 14: Adaptive Text and Responses: §14.1. Tense and narrative viewpoint |
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