Syntax guessing

Part of a series on
Adventure games
Subgenres Presentation Interactive fiction Interactive movie Visual novel Gameplay Escape the room Action-adventure
Topics Interactive Fiction Competition Interactive storytelling Syntax guessing Text parser
Companies The Adventure Company Adventure International AnimePlay Accela Inc. Arxel Tribe Capcom Cing Cryo Interactive Cyan Worlds Daedalic Entertainment Dōjin soft DreamCatcher Interactive Funcom Infocom Legend Entertainment Level 9 Computing LucasArts Microïds Quantic Dream Revolution Software Sierra Entertainment Telltale Games C's Ware Key Type-Moon Nitroplus
Tools and engine ADRIFT AGS IMUSE Inform KiriKiri NScripter Ren'Py SCUMM TADS Wintermute Engine Z-machine
Lists List of graphic adventure games List of text-based computer games
Websites Adventure Gamers Adventure Classic Gaming Just Adventure

Syntax guessing, also known as guess-the-verb, guess-the-noun and the syntax quest, is a problem sometimes encountered in text-based video games, such as interactive fiction games and MUDs. For various reasons - including a limited vocabulary, or a simple VERB-NOUN parser - the command syntax necessary to carry out an action may be obscure, such as with a button where the player must type POKE BUTTON, while PUSH BUTTON does not work (a "guess-the-verb" problem), an item described as a pillow that can only be obtained by typing GET CUSHION rather than GET PILLOW (a "guess-the-noun" problem), or a situation where the command TURN THE DIAL works but TURN DIAL does not (a generalized syntax guessing problem). If syntax guessing is necessary at a critical step, the game may appear unwinnable, with the player stuck until the right phrasing is guessed or is supplied by a walkthrough. A quest that requires syntax guessing to complete is a "syntax quest", especially if it consists of little to no content other than syntax guessing.

People whose native language is not English are particularly affected by syntax guessing. TADS games supply a fair list of verbs commonly used in their documentation; if the game designer uses new actions not covered in this list, and which cannot easily be inferred by the purpose and context of the object, the player will probably encounter this problem.

A similar problem can occur when attempting to accomplish a game goal using a certain combination of actions, locations and objects, which may appear rational and legitimate to the player, and are accepted by the game, only to be incorrectly handled and resulting in a gameplay error or game crash.

See also

• Natural language understanding