It is my privilege to announce the First Quadrennial Ryan Veeder Exposition for Good Interactive Fiction.
I was inspired to inaugurate the Exposition after playing several games that I did not like. My hope is to encourage the production of games that I do like, by conducting an Exposition of games devised solely to please me—an Exposition for which I am the only judge.
A complete introduction to the Exposition, including the rules and schedule, can be found at rcveeder.net/expo. I will cover only the basics here:
It is gravely important that I do not know who any of the Exposition entrants are. Otherwise, I will be unable to judge the entries with total impartiality. To maintain my ignorance, I will be sequestering myself in the following ways:
- Muting the hashtag “#rvexpo” on all my Twitter clients
- Making intfiction.org redirect to this video in my browser
Discussion of the Exposition can therefore flow freely here and on Twitter, as long as each tweet about the exposition includes the #rvexpo tag. The Exposition can also be discussed in other online contexts as long as it is conducted in a mindful manner, by following the precepts of spoiler culture with which you are no doubt familiar.
I understand that it is my responsibility as well to avoid viewing materials that could compromise the anonymity of the Exposition, and so a certain share of that mindfulness falls to me. There are two sides in this contract to which you and I have both acquiesced.
This arrangement entails that all communication with me, including clarification questions, submissions of intent to enter, and ultimately game submissions, must be accomplished via a third party. That third party is the Stewards of the Exposition, Emily Boegheim and Jenni Polodna. It is their charge to respond to all your questions, confirming answers with me if necessary. They can be contacted at jennipolodnaandemily@boeghe.im. They may also answer your questions in this thread, if they feel so inclined.
(I am led to understand that this forum was made to endure a prolonged debate of IFComp’s rules having to do with authors publicly discussing their work during that competition. I am very much concerned that some person may interpret the rules of my Exposition as a snide commentary on or a parody of this issue. Such a person’s interpretation is incorrect: The only purpose of the Exposition is to entertain me.)
Your intent to enter must be submitted on or before January 18, 2016, so that I know how many dolls to make as prizes. Your entry must be submitted on or before February 28.
I think that’s everything.