I know the standard frustration cliche in parser IF is guess-the-verb, but Acheton’s annoyances are more in guess-the-noun.
There is a small earthenware pot here, labelled “London Dry” on one side.
> get pot
OK.
> drink pot
I don’t understand that!
> drink london
I don’t understand that!
> drink dry
I don’t understand that!
> drink liquid
I don’t understand that!…many variants and a Google search later…
> drink gin
You take a large swig of gin from the pot. It is very strong and you soon start to feel its effects.
Here’s another one:
> light match
OK.
> light pile
I don’t understand that!
> light driftwood
I don’t understand that!
> burn driftwood
I don’t understand that!
> burn pile
I don’t understand that!
> light fire
A few small flames are visible in the middle of the pile of wood.
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I suppose the “London Dry” problem is a classic example of the Zork “Baseball Maze” type problem. Almost any Englishman or woman from the late seventies would have heard of London Dry Gin and that was back in the days when its old English nickname of “Mother’s Ruin” would still be well known and it was still a drink associated with the older generations. These days it is as trendy in these windy isles as Craft Beer and poncy coffee mainly due to the tax relief on small stills introduced by the then Conservative government in the mid nineties.
At the very least they wouldn’t have to use Google to come up with “gin”. It still is reasonable to state DRINK GLASS meaning you want to go for the contents of the glass.
Absolutely. Despite the difficulty (and random unfairness) of these games I think that cultural problems are rare regardless of the Cambridge author involved. My memory may be faulty though.