Entry Point For Playing

Everyone here seems to be a little Balzac working hard on their masterpiece. What about those of us who just want to play and review and have no interest in writing? What’s the best entry point for us? (I’ve discovered the Archive, but what I’m looking for is a resource that can be used by actual human beings.)

http://ifdb.tads.org/

That’s more like it. Thanks.

Mind, reviews and thoughts about games also have a place here. Feel free to start a discussion.

I think Anchorhead is the game that pops up most often, beating even Photopia. Make of that what you will. :wink:

Weird. For a moment there I could have swore it was the guy from the Twilight films posting on the forum.

You mean Edward?

You got it right, dude: only poetry has as many authors as IF. And mostly just as bad.

Why can’t people just read Shakespeare?

Somebody write a game about a chibi version of Balzac running around, just trailing pages of la comédie humaine like a Team Fortress 2 character with the suitcase

(Looks for middle finger emoticon, and settles on this one: :imp: )

You’re pretty good at pointing fingers, yourself, nkfdsfmxukksin. What games have you contributed to IF? Just so I can see a benchmark of a “good” game.

I’m sure he’s the author of many classic CYOA-type games. He always has kind words to say about them in his “reviews”.

Ah, that explains it. People usually hate others for things they’re afraid to look at in themselves. Although, maybe he was thinking this was the “Uninteractive Shakespeare Appreciation Forum.org.” A common mistake.

but that’s precisely the point: why write another crappy barely interactive piece of static fiction when I could be playing Jigsaw?

I guess I’m one of the few people in the IF scene that legitimately just plays IF, not write them…

I’m your audience and you treat me like crap because I happen to not perceive your genius

Are you saying that Jigsaw is Shakespeare, or somehow making a point that a game like Jigsaw is the equivalent of Shakespeare in IF, or am I just giving you too much credit altogether? I guess the point I’m making is – the point of the thread was about what IF games are good to play, and your response was “why bother playing IF, just read Shakespeare”. How does this translate to being a fan of IF?

I am very, very confused.

Anyway, here’s some T-shirt ideas for USAF.org:

If it’s not Shakespeare, it’s crap!

Bard Life
This one would have a picture of Shakespeare in the classic ‘gangsta’ pose, of course.

Front: Shall I compare thee to IF without puzzles?
Back: you suck like twitter or something

BACK ON THE ORIGINAL TOPIC:

IFDB is a good place to find IF, but in my experience it only works if you already know what you’re looking for. So I could find Counterfeit Monkey, or a list of Emily Short’s IF, but it would be hard to find, say, a good science-fiction game (without using an existing game as a starting point to find lists).

Do other people also feel this way? And is there a workaround?

Well, you can search polls and lists too. Searching lists for “sci” takes you straight to:

http://ifdb.tads.org/viewlist?id=4nk4dimuv4lw9v9d

that would be Nelson

I was responding to this:

“Everyone here seems to be a little Balzac working hard on their masterpiece.”

and BTW, my point was “why bother writing yet another lame IF”

perhaps you could take a crash course on interpreting metaphors by reading some Shakespeare sonnets or any other poetry

Shh! Judge Judy is on!

This is now my go-to comeback for any situation.

:laughing:

How do you know? The best thing about IF comps, in general, is that you have no idea what’s going to be coming out. So, if you’re a fan of IF, as you say, why do you want people to stop writing their IF games? Wouldn’t that defeat the point?