intfiction.org

Since I find most of my games via awards lists, I was wondering if/when the 2017 XYZZY Awards will be happening? It seemed to get off to a late start last year, so I'm not too worried, but I was curious anyway. I hope it continues, as I'll be looking forward to it...

I think it's one of the things lacking in the IF world. One might not have had time to play all 78 IF Comp games, and then mix it in with the Spring Thing and the other various IF comps sprinkled throughout the year and it's not always an easy find for a newbie constrained by to get a sampling of the best IF has to offer.

It would be nice to see a YouTube type of site for IF games - highlighting what's trending, what's new, what's exceptional, what players are most talking about... I don't think any of that is particular easy to find unless one digs deep, and in this technology-driven day and age, one shouldn't have to.

More IF awards and contests should partner with indie sites like itch.io instead of being self-contained.

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I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words; I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here.

They did a survey recently on what changes people would like to see on ifdb. I’d love for it to be more of a curated thing or feature cover art more, but a lot of features would depend on someone volunteering to run it, and volunteer power is hard to find longterm.

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-@MathBrush on Twitter. This account was formerly known as craiglocke. The intfiction mods are the best.

The rough draft of my book on IF history and criticism is available at https://www.dropbox.com/s/xd2isl3tk7dxt97/learning-text.pdf?dl=0

I'd say at least 85% of my day is spent surfing YouTube. There are a few channels out there that will discuss IF but only during comp time. Sometimes you'll find someone's playthru of Anchorhead or Zork or something, but I agree, it would be great to get a channel that really talks about IF and pretty much nothing but IF; all the comps, all the chatter. Sort of like Emily Short's monthly link round-up or Planet IF. I would totally make the channel myself, but I've learned to let people with a bit more focus handle things like that, so I can concentrate on what I want to do mainly which is just write IF.

But yeah, I think YouTube or Vimeo is the next frontier for critical IF discussion.

If I'm wrong and there are channels out there like I talking about, please let me know.

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Youtube IF content is a great idea. I started a (unfinished) series, but it's in Spanish, sorry. But I was inspired by Leigh Alexander Lo-Fi
series:

https://www.youtube.com/user/leighalexander1/videos

My attempt here (spanish):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K5tnQc ... E4RakJ6qf0

Video "Let's Plays" for a game that is all text can be a little monotonous since there's no action happening onscreen, and reading all those words can tax even the greatest orators. Lynnea Glasser does a really nice job streaming reactions to IF, but she also uses a face cam and does it live including chat comments. She also doesn't read every bit of text, doing more commentary than narration.

Perhaps the angle to go for would be more reaction and commentary, and this might work better with two people co-playing a game, either live in the room, or over Skype as Jenni and Ryan and a rotating guest do on Clash of the Type-ins. That's an audio podcast though.

Don't let me discourage you - more coverage of IF is always a great thing!

(And anything to get more mellifluous MTW baritone is also good.)

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https://pyramidif.itch.io/

Could this be a job for Twitch? Maybe folding ClubFloyd in there somehow?

A new iteration of ClubFloyd (ClubFloydLIVE?) via Twitch sounds really interesting! I would totally watch that (most likely the archived video later and not the live stream.)

I'd suppose you'd want to have 1-3 "hosts" who are camming or voice only, then invite other live participants into a monitored onscreen text chat.

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https://pyramidif.itch.io/

Sam Kabo Ashwell has been organizing the XYZZY Awards for the last several years. I don't know if he checks this forum regularly though. Has anyone asked him directly?

That is. Leigh and I just read some of the text, and provide comments and design ruminations. My series is oriented as that: provide commentary, context, etc. I though on doing that too, invite an author to play their game online.