#2 Add multiplayer game capability

[Fredrik Ramsberg]

How about adding true multiplayer capability to Zinc? I
know there are MUDS, but in my experience they are
designed for large-scale participation where all parties
may not want to cooperate, ie whenever a person grabs
an object, it must reappear for others to be able to get
it. In a way, they're maintaining multiple versions of the
world state, and this must lead to paradoxes. I'd like me
and othe IF authors to be able to use our skills in Inform
or TADS to build IF games, just like we're used to, but
where multiple player characters can be active
simultaneously. As a player, I'd like to be able to walk
around a game world together with my friends and solve
puzzles and gather information cooperatively, without
having to share a single player character. And without
all the D&D-elements of MUD:s too!

It could be accomplished through a set of reserved
words to work as signals from Zinc to the game and
from the game to Zinc. Zinc would add information
about which player types what before sending it to the
game, and the game would add information about which
player(s) should receive the information. A game would
of coure have to be written or at least modified with
this in mind, but I think it should work equally well for
say Inform and TADS. This is what a conversation with
the game could look like if played through Zinc (the
conversation contains information about who is typing
and who should receive certain text, but that's all
consumed by Zinc and hidden away from the player):

>W

You enter a small chamber. There's a chest at the north
wall. An exit leads east and another south.

Bruce and Sheila are here.

>OPEN CH

Bruce pats you on the head.

>OPEN CHEST (the game fills in "OPEN CH"
automatically, like in BorderZone)

Opening the chest reveals a large heap of diamonds.

The above conversation could look something like this if
played through an ordinary terp (<!#a> means
either "this is player 1's input" or "this output is intended
for player 1", depending on in which direction the
information is travelling):

><#!a>W

<#!a>You enter a small chamber. There's a chest at the
north wall. An exit leads east and another south.

Bruce and Sheila are here.

><#!a>OPEN CH

><#!b>PAT BOB ON THE HEAD

<#!a>Bruce pats you on the head.
<#!b>You pat Bob on the head.
<#!c>Bruce pats Bob on the head.

><#!a>OPEN CHEST

<#!a>Opening the chest reveals a large heap of
diamonds

<!#bc>Bob opens the chest, revealing a large heap of
diamonds.

(In reality, Bruce couldn't really stop Bob's input in the
middle of the sentence while playing on an ordinary terp,
but through a multiplayer terp, he could.)

[Nobody/Anonymous]

in full areement and would be enjoyable for
family/party