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''Midnight Stranger'' (1994) is the first of two published interactive multimedia CD-ROM based collaborations between writer and director Jeff Green and the Animatics Multimedia Corporation. Noted for its cinéma vérité style,〔Maxwell, Eden, "Relationships That Pass In The Night". ''Computer Gaming World'', October, 1994.〕 it is a Point Of View (POV) video-based experiment in simulated socializing that takes place in an anonymous city late one night. Players navigate between several locations, and can interact with one or more people in each location to varying effects based on the player's "reactions" to that person. The main technical innovation of ''Midnight Stranger'' is its use of an emotional continuum ''Mood Bar'' for interaction with the in-story characters rather than a text interface or an itemized set of options for each interaction. The ''Mood Bar'' simulates some of the frustration and uncertainty when dealing with other people in social situations,〔Rahlmann, Reed. ''Newmedia Magazine'', September, 1994.〕 and provides a more realistic role playing experience.〔Lowell, Jeremy. ''Shift'', Winter 1995.〕 ==Gameplay== The major technical innovation of the game〔''Ottawa X Press'', February 23, 1994, "Do You Want To Be A Midnight Stranger?".〕 is its user interface which consists of a continuous coloured band called the ''Mood Bar'' that appears below the characters when they pause in the “dialogue” for user input. The red, left end of the bar represents a negative response ("no", "I disagree", "I don’t like that"), the blue central part of the band represents a neutral response ("I don’t know", "I don’t care", "I have no opinion"), and the green right end of the bar represents a positive response ("yes", "I agree", "I like that").〔Jim Gasperini, ''Wired'', December 1994, "(Virtual Loneliness )".〕 While the bar is a smooth colour gradient that shows no clear demarcations, giving the illusion of infinite choice, there were usually only three possible pathways from any given bar, with varying percentages of the bar devoted to the choices depending on circumstance. Only one other production has been published using this device (Mode, 1995). Navigation is primarily between still images of street scenes and building fronts. Moving the mouse raised a small "GO" icon in directions you may progress, bringing up another still image location. Some of these icons appear on entrances to public locations; a movie theatre, restaurants, clubs, etc. Clicking on these takes you to an interior scene including people. Rolling over some of these people raised a "TALK" icon, indicating that clicking on them will instigate a "conversation".〔Gerry Blackwell, ''The Toronto Star'', February 16, 1995, "Take a virtual walk on the Wild Side".〕 Because of disc size restrictions at the time of creation there was a serious limitation in the amount of video content that could be included on a disc. To accommodate this and still have enough material to constitute a viable product, Green conceived of a technique for embedding small frames of video into full screen still frames, usually the head and shoulders of the speaking character being the only part of the frame that moved.〔Reed Rahlmann, ''NewMedia Magazine'', September 1994.〕 This approach was both lauded〔David Wade, ''CD-ROM Today'', October 1994.〕 and criticized in published reviews, since it is a clever solution〔Eden Maxwell, ''Computer Gaming World'', October 1994, "Relationships That Pass In The Night".〕 yet often creates distracting disjoints between character motion and the framing image.〔Matt Foley, ''Axcess Magazine'', Vol. II, No. 5.〕 Midnight Stranger has eighteen onscreen performers with varying depths of content.〔 Only three of the characters are involved in a plot that can lead to various "endings", involving a supernatural object of extraterrestrial origin. In an effort to create a filmic feel, a feature causes that after a given amount of time (about sixty minutes) in game play the "relationship" with any character will lead to an "ending" that triggers the credits. If you manage to find the object there are several scenes where an icon appears representing the object. If you click the icon a brief special effect ensues, depending on the circumstance.〔Drew Carnwath, ''Campus Canada'', November 1994.〕 The overarching concept is that "you" are a stranger in a late-night city who engages random people in conversation, on the street, in bars, clubs or restaurants. These conversations, dictated by Mood Bar choices, can lead to dead ends or various "fulfillments",〔 depending on the character. Three of the female characters can lead to short sex encounters with minimal (waist-up) nudity.〔Ty Burr, ''Entertainment Weekly'', October 14, 1994, "Looking for love in all the ROM places".〕 The disc was given an "adults-only" rating mostly because of the extremely strong language, mostly delivered by one character ("The Hood"). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Midnight Stranger」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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