some thoughts on IFComp

[Lucea]

Another option: audio versions of IF. This is easier, hypothetically, with Twine because there are fewer pieces of text to record. Still quite an undertaking for something the size of Birdland. But a option.

(The work I’m thinking of in particular for this is SPY INTRIGUE, which was my favorite work of the comp but apparently turned some people off because… capital letters? But again, that’s one of the largest Twine games of all time, so yeah.)

[jepflast]

@evouga

Regarding experimental games, as long as the comp remains a publicly-voted contest I don’t see experimental games doing well relative to crowd-pleasers. IIRC games like Shade placed extremely poorly in the comp back in the day. But I don’t necessarily see a problem with that; experimental games can be rewarded at other venues (such as XYZZY). The same is true for games with strong ideological themes (e.g. porpentine and Kaleidofish’s works).

I agree, and I’d to pick up this thread again for a second to cram in a couple of minor points.

I like this sentiment from the Muzzle thread:

@dfabulich

IFComp and XYZZY strive to be an open public vote with artistic integrity. It’s a bit surprising that nobody else in the world does that (that I’m aware of). They either refuse to let the public vote, or they make it a free-for-all popularity contest. Nobody tries to have it both ways, the way the IF community does.

I think modifying the muzzle rule would do very little to damage this situation. And if it becomes slightly more of an Elevator Music contest, then so be it. There’s a place for that. Meanwhile, the IFComp could do more to recognize artistry: perhaps an award (or 3) for the game with the highest Miss Congeniality Score Differential (compared to its public score). Games like Synesthesia Factory, Spy Inrigue, Capsule II, and Taghairm might have been recogzined by something like that this year. That would give authors something else interesting to shoot for.

[GlassRat]

@jepflast

Meanwhile, the IFComp could do more to recognize artistry: perhaps an award (or 3) for the game with the highest Miss Congeniality Score Differential (compared to its public score). Games like Synesthesia Factory, Spy Inrigue, Capsule II, and Taghairm might have been recogzined by something like that this year. That would give authors something else interesting to shoot for.

I think that’s a really cool idea actually.

[zarf (Andrew Plotkin)]

The unspoken assumption there is that authors are more perceptive of “artistry”. Maybe true, maybe not. (And it might lead people to enter trivial games in order to gain a judge’s vote.)

Are you just feeling your way towards a juried IF award? Nothing wrong with that as an idea; if you are, it’s probably better to go right there, rather than using the pool of (self-declared) IFComp authors as a de facto jury.

[jepflast]

@zarf

The unspoken assumption there is that authors are more perceptive of “artistry”. Maybe true, maybe not. (And it might lead people to enter trivial games in order to gain a judge’s vote.)

Are you just feeling your way towards a juried IF award? Nothing wrong with that as an idea; if you are, it’s probably better to go right there, rather than using the pool of (self-declared) IFComp authors as a de facto jury.

That’s well noted. Rather than defend the notion that the authors have a better artistic eye, I’d like to back away from that and just say that such an award does not have to overtly note “artistry”; such an award would make very good use of the data that we don’t see and make the contest more interesting. Regardless of the authors’ critiquing abilities, they certainly seem to be more inclined to give all the games a fair shake, let’s say.

[Sarah-Adams]

Neil, yes, I also use Jaws and, although I prefer Internet Explorer, I do often use Firefox since it seems to handle some websites better. I think I may have been unlucky with the Twine games I played as none of them seemed to work properly for me in either browser so, after trying a few games unsuccessfully, I assumed this was going to be the situation for the other web-based games and just didn’t bother playing any more that weren’t downloadable parser games. Although, as I mentioned, I did successfully play ‘Scarlet Sails’, I have played a number of ChoiceScript games and always found them perfectly accessible. I think part of this might be that I am not terribly tech-savvy and have no idea how I might go about tweaking Jaws to get it to play Twine games more effectively, if you have any hints on this then I’d be extremely grateful!

[Neil]

To be clear: When I said most Twine works are accessible, I meant in general, not necessarily in this year’s competition. Of all the games I played, these are the hyperlinked games that I played successfully with JAWS:

Arcane Intern (Unpaid)
Birdland
Cape
Crossroads
Duel
A Figure Met in a Shaded Wood
Forever Meow
Kane County
Nowhere Near Single
The Insect Massacre
Unbeknown

You should be able to play all but one of these without any problems; Forever Meow is a bit tricky, but it can be done. If you have problems with any of these and want to try them, maybe PM me and we can figure it out.

Also, for anyone who wrote a game for the competition and is wondering if it is screen reader friendly, you can contact me and I’ll let you know. I will try playing it if I haven’t tried it already.

Neil

[Lucea]

You know, what the hell, I have free time – I am willing to record audio for one(1) IF entry if people are interested. A good deal of podcasting experience, a somewhat smaller amount of voice acting.

[Dannii]

Lucea, that would be an awesome prize for a future comp!

[catacalypto]

I’d also be willing to record audio for one (different) IF entry if people are interested. I have (I’m sure) far less podcasting experience than Lucea, a fair bit amount of stage acting (which is nowhere similar), and a fair bit of “recording small snippets of poetry or prose” for absent friends in far places. But I really love this idea, and want to support it, and I figure the best way is by throwing my hat into the ring as well.