Editing Infocom (section)

===Reception===
Infocom games were popular, ''[[InfoWorld]]'' said in 1984, in part because "in offices all over America (more than anyone realizes) executives and managers are playing games on their computers".{{r|mace19840402}} Infocom stated that year that 75% of players were over 25 years old and that 80% were men; more women played its games than other companies', especially the mysteries. Most players enjoyed reading books;<ref name="dyer19840506">{{Cite news|url=https://www.resonant.org/games/infocom/Articles/globe84.html |title=Masters of the Game |last=Dyer |first=Richard |date=May 6, 1984 |newspaper=Boston Globe }}</ref> in 1987 president [[Joel Berez]] stated, "[Infocom's] audience tends to be composed of heavy readers. We sell to the minority that does read".{{r|ferrell198801}} A 1996 article in ''[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]]'' said Infocom's "games were noted for having more depth than any other adventure games, before or since."<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Next Generation 1996 Lexicon A to Z: Infocom|magazine=[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]]|issue=15 |date=March 1996|pages=34–35}}</ref> Three components proved key to Infocom's success: marketing strategy, rich storytelling and [[feelies]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2007}} Whereas most game developers sold their games mainly in software stores, Infocom also distributed their games via bookstores.<ref name=briceno2000/> Infocom's products appealed more to those with expensive computers, such as the [[Apple Macintosh]], [[IBM PC]], and [[Commodore Amiga]]. Berez stated that "there is no noticeable correlation between graphics machines and our penetration. There is a high correlation between the price of the machine and our sales ... people who are putting more money into their machines tend to buy more of our software".<ref name="ferrell198801">{{cite news |url=https://archive.org/stream/1988-01-compute-magazine/Compute_Issue_092_1988_Jan#page/n17/mode/2up |title=Interactive Text in an Animated Age |work=Compute! |date=January 1988 |accessdate=November 10, 2013 |author=Ferrell, Keith |page=17}}</ref> Since their games were text-based, patrons of bookstores were drawn to the Infocom games as they were already interested in reading. Unlike most computer software, Infocom titles were distributed under a no-returns policy,{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}} which allowed them to make money from a single game for a longer period of time.

Next, Infocom titles featured strong storytelling and rich descriptions, eschewing the inherent restrictions of graphic displays and allowing users to use their own imaginations for the lavish and exotic locations the games described.<ref>{{cite magazine|last= |first= |title=Crib Sheet|magazine=[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]]|issue=24 |publisher=[[Imagine Media]] |date=December 1996|page=26}}</ref> Infocom's puzzles were unique in that they were usually tightly integrated into the storyline, and rarely did gamers feel like they were being made to jump through one arbitrary hoop after another, as was the case in many of the competitors' games. The puzzles were generally logical but also required close attention to the clues and hints given in the story, causing many gamers to keep copious notes as they went along.

Sometimes, though, Infocom threw in puzzles just for the humor of it—if the user never ran into these, they could still finish the game. But discovering these early [[Easter egg (virtual)|Easter Eggs]] was satisfying for some fans of the games. For example, one popular Easter egg was in the ''[[Enchanter (computer game)|Enchanter]]'' game, which involves collecting magic spells to use in accomplishing the quest. One of these is a summoning spell, which the player needs to use to summon certain characters at different parts of the game. At one point the game mentions the "[[Implementer (video games)|Implementers]]" who were responsible for creating the land of Zork. If the player tries to summon the Implementers, the game produces a vision of [[Dave Lebling]] and [[Marc Blank]] at their computers, surprised at this "bug" in the game and working feverishly to fix it.

Third, the inclusion of "feelies"—imaginative props and extras tied to the game's theme—provided [[copy protection]] against [[Copyright infringement of software|copyright infringement]].{{r|dyer19840506}} Some games were unsolvable without the extra content provided with the boxed game. And because of the cleverness and uniqueness of the [[feelies]], users rarely felt like they were an intrusion or inconvenience, as was the case with most of the other copy-protection schemes of the time.{{citation needed|date=November 2010}}

Although Infocom started out with ''Zork'', and although the ''Zork'' world was the centerpiece of their product line throughout the ''Zork'' and ''Enchanter'' series, the company quickly branched out into a wide variety of story lines: fantasy, science-fiction, mystery, horror, historical adventure, children's stories, and others that defied easy categorization. In an attempt to reach out to female customers, Infocom also produced ''[[Plundered Hearts]]'', which cast the gamer in the role of the heroine of a swashbuckling adventure on the high seas, and which required the heroine to use more feminine tactics to win the game, since hacking-and-slashing was not a very ladylike way to behave. And to compete with the ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]'' style games that were also appearing, Infocom also came out with ''[[Leather Goddesses of Phobos]]'' in 1986, which featured "tame", "suggestive", and "lewd" playing modes. It included among its "feelies" a "scratch-and-sniff" card with six odors that corresponded to cues given to the player during the game.

====Invisiclues====
Originally, hints for the game were provided as a "pay-per-hint" service created by [[Mike Dornbrook]], called the Zork Users Group (ZUG). Dornbrook also started Infocom's customer newsletter, called ''The New Zork Times'', to discuss game hints and preview and showcase new products.

The pay-per-hint service eventually led to the development of [[InvisiClues]]: books with hints, maps, clues and solutions for puzzles in the games. The answers to the puzzles were printed in [[invisible ink]] that only became visible when rubbed with a special marker that was provided with each book. Usually, two or more answers were given for each question that a gamer might have. The first answer would provide a subtle hint, the second a less subtle hint, and so forth until the last one gave an explicit [[Strategy guide|walkthrough]]. Gamers could thus reveal only the hints that they needed to have to play the game. To prevent the mere questions (printed in normal ink) from giving away too much information about the game, a certain number of misleading fake questions were included in every InvisiClues book. Answers to these questions would start by giving misleading or impossible to carry out answers, before the final answer revealed that the question was a fake (and usually admonishing the player that revealing random clues from the book would [[spoiler (media)|spoil]] their enjoyment of the game). The InvisiClues books were regularly ranked in near the top of best seller lists for computer books.<ref name=briceno2000/>

In the Solid Gold line of re-releases, InvisiClues were integrated into the game. By typing "HINT" twice the player would open up a screen of possible topics where they could then reveal one hint at a time for each puzzle, just like the books.

====Interactive fiction====
Infocom also released a small number of "interactive fiction paperbacks" ([[gamebooks]]), which were based on the games and featured the ability to choose a different path through the story. Similar to the ''[[Choose Your Own Adventure]]'' series, every couple of pages the book would give the reader the chance to make a choice, such as which direction they wanted to go or how they wanted to respond to another character. The reader would then choose one of the given answers and turn to the appropriate page. These books, however, never did sell particularly well, and quickly disappeared from the bookshelves.