Oh, Eliza!

Eliza is awful! It definitely is a parody of BAD therapists and therapy! My brother just got his masters in Psychology and I can only imagine him being similar to this! Yeah, my brother and I have a complicated relationship. Anyway, this is the kind of therapy-style that is so utterly frustrating to encounter; not because it is a computer, but because it's a very Socratic way of figuring out your problems...which is why you went to the therapy session to begin with. Thus, you might as well sit at home and ask yourself questions instead of paying the "doctor" to do it at the office.

The Cave Adventure was so irritating! I couldn't go anywhere! I was stuck stumbling through the forest and following a brook with silt in it. I got to a set of gates, but when I tried to use my keys that I took from the building, it said it didn't know what that was! I was so frustrated. So, I began to wonder, since this new media is so new and the problems that arise with it are subject to the ignorance of the people dealing with the media. The same thing goes for Eliza--despite the fact that it was extremely sophisticated for 1966, it still has problems such as only understanding certain ways of phrasing.

I started to think that if we referred to those interactive games as people, The Sims, where there are extremely few mishaps and misunderstandings, are normal, average IQ-ed people--then to the bad, behind-the-times games as mentally handicapped or physically handicapped people. They're just as capable in some aspects, but in others, they fail dramatically compared to the other games.

Just a little way of sympathizing with the game world.