Examine: Bring it back...

Why was "examine" eliminated? I did read the debate over it (and added in), but without it surface descriptions of an object are going to have to be tied in with finer scrutinization of an object (using "look"). I know that an "examine" command can be added in the new alterable menu in 4.0, but the player will have to work harder to find it, and more responsibility is placed on the player to use options in multi-locations.

Just add the verb as "examine;x" ... so all the player has to do is type "x #object#"

It's all about encouraging better game design, really.

Players don't expect to have to use two different versions of a "look" command to find out about an object. No other system works in that way, and it does not give a good game-playing experience.

You can of course add it back in (along with "scrutinise", "really examine", "search", "study" and as many others as you like, if you want to drive players truly insane).

"x object" - *snickers - for "examine object." Maybe it would be easiest if Quest came along with a brain scanning device that could "really examine" the player's thoughts and process their commands at the thought-level. That'll be my feature request for a #.next-version.

In all seriousness, my method of game writing requires the use of a separate "look" and "examine" command, so I'll just have to teach the player....

...Here I am whining about clickable commands being taken away from the player, but when I was introduced to text-ad games when I was 11 years old (Zork), I had to figure it out all commands myself, since everything was typed in, and did so quite quickly. So maybe my problem isn't with the easiness of Quest Pro, maybe my problem is that I'm assuming the player's are lazy and won't try to figure out how to play the game on their own or aren't smart enough or a little of both-- I'll look into this and update my viewpoint to version 1.17.

Am I understanding it right that Quest 4 doesn't support the EXAMINE command?

No. As of Quest 4.0, by default the "examine" command means the same thing as "look at" (actually this is the same as in Quest 3.53 if a game author specified a "look at" response but no "examine" response).

It is possible for a game author to create their own "examine" verb though, if they want to have a different response for "look at" and "examine".

Oh, that's a relief. I thought Quest had ridden itself of the EXAMINE command altogether for a moment there. At least with EXAMINE and LOOK now meaning the same, we ought to see less of those abominations where you need to use both in a game.

yeah, i gotta say, it was pretty annoying.
However, there are some places where that could of been useful

Although, Alex:
What happens if you run a Quest v3.53 game in Quest 4 that needs the examine command?
Does it still work?

I guess I do not understand the debate here. If you need the examine verb just add one.... It will then work for every object in the game. No big deal.

Although, Alex:
What happens if you run a Quest v3.53 game in Quest 4 that needs the examine command?
Does it still work?

Yes, Quest has always been designed to be backwards-compatible. If you run a Quest 3 game in Quest 4, it should work in exactly the same way.