The rebirth of grue

Posted by Paul Jessup.
First posted on 26 May 2008. Last updated on 30 June 2009.
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 You are in a maze of twisty passages,
all alike. What do you do?

It has been over thirty years since those words were first displayed on a teleprompter screen, signaling the boom of interactive fiction or IF games. The purpose? To wander in a pseudo-fantasy environment, exploring the world around you and trying not to get killed. The world was displayed as text, giving a brief description and…

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Let me congratulate author Paul Jessup on introducing the readership of ACG to the wonderful, art-for art’s –sake (or game-for-game’s-sake) world of modern Interactive Fiction. After text adventures became overshadowed by graphic adventures and lost their commercial viability, as Paul indicates, the IF torch continued to be carried by a dedicated electronic community that still thrives today.

However, I’d like to put a different spin on the characterization of that community, and I don’t think I’m splitting hairs. It’s not an “underground” community in any sense of the world – it’s just, by and large, mostly non-commercial at this time. The authors, reviewers, and players of IF are an open and welcoming group who would like nothing better than to share with newcomers the pleasures that they enjoy. At present, the IF world is putting serious energy into making its gaming interfaces easier to use with minimal learning curve in hopes of attracting people like the readership of this website.

The use of the term “superstar” is understandable, because historically the same small group of IF figures have been interviewed over and over in online publications. But that’s actually another perception that the IF community would like to see change. There are many thoughtful, creative and articulate authors and community supporters just as capable of speaking and writing on behalf of IF, and, to quote Emily Short herself, “I think it’s healthier… if there are lots of different voices representing us.”

The above remark is drawn from a recent email I received from Emily. As she and I are not personal friends, her accessibility and that of virtually every significant IF practitioner I have ever contacted over the years is further testimony to the openness of that world. Knowing that she had been a cornerstone of the feelies dot org site she mentioned in the article, I asked about its status. She has turned her role over to others and was unsure about its current activity. I’m afraid it is not the case that “feelies are hot,” as no new game has offered feeling on the site since 2004. Creating and distributing these can entail a lot of work, and I suspect that other priorities identified by the community may have eclipsed the rebirth of feelies, originally an Infocom invention.

Finally, Adam Cadre, whose Photopia I also admire immensely, has put himself on indefinite hiatus from IF. His last large game, Narcolepsy, was written in 2003. Though he has ideas for future IFs, that particular medium has been displaced by a movie on which he’s been working, which itself forced him to temporarily shelve a novel-in-progress. Hopefully he will return to IF, but, even if not, he has left an impressive legacy of varied and original works.

United States By Harry Kaplan • On 11 July 2008 • From Brooklyn, NY, USA

Excellent

Great article! I have yet to really explore the world of IF, because for now I only had a taste of a few older titles. Nevertheless, even reading about how it all develops gives one immense pleasure.

Poland By Igor Hardy • On 27 May 2008 • From Poland