Talk:Avatar (1979 video game)

how do you join the big online avatar game?

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Depends on which version you want to join. Really this article needs a discussion of the roots of the game, the different versions which are significant (think Avatar 90 - this discusses an earlier version mostly), CERL/NOVANET, and historicity/ground breaking nature of the early versions. Avatar is more important to gaming history than most people realize, I believe.

-Ian Baron —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.160.214.79 (talk) 12:19, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

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BetacommandBot (talk) 19:03, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

"Out-do Oubliette" Misconception, Motivation, Dates

Hi - Andrew Shapira here.

I want to correct a misconception that seems to be spreading. My motivation for working on Avatar didn't have much to do with outdoing the authors of Oubliette. I was aware of Oubliette, liked playing it occasionally during a period of a year or three, and wanted to create something better than Oubliette, but that was only one of a large number of things motivating me. I suspect it was the same with Bruce and Dave. As for myself, I liked working on Avatar, and liked creating something that I thought was good. There was a feeling of struggling toward the ideal game of its type (which is not achievable). I also liked what I was learning over time as I worked on the game. Getting the game to be playable on PLATO was challenging, especially with respect to speed, memory limits, disk space limits, and game balance; I sometimes liked working on these challenges and enjoyed it when we found good solutions.

Also, the History section says that 'students' wrote Avatar, perhaps bringing to mind college students because so much PLATO activity occured at or near the University of Illinois, but Bruce, Dave, and I were high school students or junior high students when we started the first version(s) of Avatar. Bruce and I graduated from high school in 1981. I believe, but am not completely sure, that Dave graduated from high school in 1980.

Someone ought to check the dates in the History section to make sure that they are correct, and consistent with the ones in the introduction. I think we started Avatar in 1977 and released it in 1979, but I would have to go back and double-check that, so this paragraph should not be taken as my claiming that those are the real dates. Many features never made it into the initial release. At one time, maybe around 1978, there was a motel where characters could check in and produce a child whose traits were derived from the parents'; I do not think this was ever present in any released version.

I'd correct the main article, but I'm not sure how to do it in a properly referenced way. Someone can contact me by email about that if they wish.

- Andrew —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.112.21.41 (talk) 06:52, 24 January 2009 (UTC)