The Gaming Philosopher

Beyond Division , by Joseph Geipel A parser-based game about interspecies telepathic communication, Beyond Division immediately creates a positive impression by its implementation. For instance, commands like "follow hare" are understood. During the entire game, the implementation just feels solid. The writing attempts to rise above the level of the mundane, but sometimes comes off as forced or awkward. A sentence like "Tall trees with tops full of the remnants of unobtainable varmints are scattered all around." does not give us a clear impression of what is going on. "As you wait in the midst of the blizzard, your sense beyond the blizzard improves somewhat." is abracadabra to me. And I'm not sure the verb 'to emanate' is well chosen in "Pure power is emanating all around the cavern from a glowing circle on the west cave wall." But this is nothing that a good round of editing couldn't fix. The general tone is fine and the pr...

Introcomp is a yearly competition for introductions to interactive fiction games. The idea is that authors write up the first small part of their game, show it off, and get some early feedback. Everyone else in the entire world may vote on as many or as few entries as they like, on the usual 1-10 scale (10 being the best). However, they are asked to judge games with one thought in mind, and one alone: "How much do I want to play more of this entry?" With that question in mind, let's move to the first three games I played. Some spoilers will, of course, follow. Lair of the Gorgornath, Part 1: "Bring me the Beard of Nimrod Supertramp" , by Andrew Watt Two things immediately strike the player: the awful title, which promises a combination of overused fantasy tropes and unfunny humour, and the interesting use of colour in the game to distinguish between moments of reality and dream. So we're off to a mixed start. The game is a choice-based low-interact...

Thanks to the 38 people who voted, we have a new "Interactive Fiction top 50". The results can be found here .

Want to play some interactive fiction semi-together? Check out the topic I just opened on the interactive fiction forum, where I invite everybody to join in playing Mike Sousa's and Jon Ingold's 2002 TADS2 game Till Death Makes a Monkfish Out of Me. I hope to see you there!

Today is the last day you can vote in the IF top 50, so please go to the forum topic or send me an e-mail if you haven't done so yet. (Realistically I'm not going to finalise my spreadsheet before Monday 20:00 GMT, so if you wake up on Monday with the horrible realisation that you've forgotten something important -- well, consider that your grace period!)

You still have one week, until the 15th of March , to send in your votes for the Interactive Fiction Top 50 . You can either post in that forum thread or send me an e-mail. Lists can contain up to 20 titles, but less is also acceptable!

In 2011, I organised a vote for the Interactive Fiction Top 50. You can find the thread here and the results here and here . Now three and a half year have come and gone, and it is time for a new vote. So please participate! The aim is not to decide what the best IF ever is by majority vote -- that would be foolish. Rather, the aims of the top 50 are: To create a good opportunity for people to think about the best games they have played, and discuss their ideas on this topic with others. To allow people to be inspired by what they see on other people's lists. To create a useful list of great games at which you can point newcomers to the IF scene. To create a way to track how the taste of the community evolves. To make this work, I need your help. Please send me a list of between 1 and 20 interactive fiction games that you consider to be the best IF games ever made (or at least the best that you have played). The list can be posted in this topic , or mailed to myfirst...