While I agree with a few of your points, I still feel like Torment served a couple of really useful roles, in this regard.
For the snobs, it provided some dumbed-down entertainment that wasn't TOO dumb. I mean, at least they were trying something different and meaningful, even if you don't feel like they pulled it off particularly well.
Second, for the people with limited exposure to good literature or philosophy -- it provided a glimpse at some ideas they might not have seen before, even if it WAS through Matrix-colored glasses.
If you already know C, you're MUCH better off just spending a couple of hours picking up the idiosyncracies of Inform. 99% of your work will be wasted if you try to write IF from scratch in C.
As a hobbyist game designer, I can say that it's not necessarily that they don't know the difference. People play these games for hundreds of hours, and it's hard to write hundreds of hours worth of engaging and interesting content. You have to strike a balance between the two, and the longer you play a game, the more the balance of your personal experience is going to shift towards the repeatable stuff.
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Y'know, I was just thinking. I love PC games, but I wish the controls were worse.
While I agree with a few of your points, I still feel like Torment served a couple of really useful roles, in this regard.
For the snobs, it provided some dumbed-down entertainment that wasn't TOO dumb. I mean, at least they were trying something different and meaningful, even if you don't feel like they pulled it off particularly well.
Second, for the people with limited exposure to good literature or philosophy -- it provided a glimpse at some ideas they might not have seen before, even if it WAS through Matrix-colored glasses.
Every snob starts somewhere, y'know?
If you notice an error in a post and don't correct it before hitting the submit button, it's like deliberately stabbing your readers in the eye.
This makes me even angrier than the idea that you didn't know any better.
If you already know C, you're MUCH better off just spending a couple of hours picking up the idiosyncracies of Inform. 99% of your work will be wasted if you try to write IF from scratch in C.
As a hobbyist game designer, I can say that it's not necessarily that they don't know the difference. People play these games for hundreds of hours, and it's hard to write hundreds of hours worth of engaging and interesting content. You have to strike a balance between the two, and the longer you play a game, the more the balance of your personal experience is going to shift towards the repeatable stuff.