One of the things that came up at our first Oxford-London meet-up was that people were interested in scheduled IF discussions on ifMUD. Those with extremely long memories may recall that back in 1999 or so we used to have something vaguely like this, the ifMUD Implementors’ Lunch. One difference about the new thing is that it’s not meant to be exclusively about craft or IF authorship – while those are things we can talk about, we also want it to be open to people who want to speak as players or critics.
As a first trial, I’ve proposed an initial one of these on the #theoryclub channel March 1, 8 PM GMT (= 3 PM Eastern, noon Pacific), on the topic of character interiority in IF. There is some more information on my blog.
Graham has said he can come to one of the Oxford meetups, but I don’t think he has plans to do the ifMUD discussion thing. Just so I’m not falsely advertising anything here. (It’ll still be cool, I hope!)
The next of these, on time units and pacing, is this evening, 8 PM British Time / 3 PM Eastern / noon Pacific. There’s some background here. (Note: I know the last thing said “GMT”; this is because I forgot we’d be on summer time by now.)
The most recent transcript is now available (sorry for a delay in posting). You will notice also that at the end of that transcript, zarf proposes a speed-IF based around these ideas, if you’re interested in contributing on the topic via examples.
Our next meeting is scheduled for June 14, on the topic of interactive nonfiction. That can include everything from educational simulations to persuasive pieces to personal memoir. As before, there are some suggested reading pieces for those who are interested in preparing a bit for the discussion.
Whoops, I just left a post about how Nine Princes in Amber is relevant to the first Theoryclub discussion on the Practice Jam thread and it should’ve gone here. Here’s the post.
A reminder that this meets again tomorrow, July 12th, on the ifMUD #theoryclub channel. 8 PM GMT (= 3 PM Eastern, noon Pacific), on the topic of testing. (Take THAT, PracticeClub! Uh, sorry.)
Sorry about the non-happening of this last month: it was down to a fairly minor emergency as such things go. As it’s now been a little time, I think the most straightforward thing is just to reschedule for August 9, at what would be the ordinary time for the next event.