Another great pick… I’ve read a lot about St. Bride’s in the past, and have research cited in that article, but there’s a lot of new material that I’ve not seen before referenced there… including a ton of magazine articles & 'zine scans on archiveDOTorg… I was not aware of the origins of Silverwolf as a serialised “lesbian” fantasy tale.
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I played Snow Queen and liked it. I had no idea there was such an intriguing backstory to the creators. Rabbit-black-hole, here I come…
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“A grad student’s side project spawns a text game renaissance, leading to thousands of new games and decades of innovation.”
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Thank you for emphasizing what a pivot-point the release of Curses actually was. The description of the newsgroup becoming slowly overwhelmed by hint-requests and discussion, all sparked by this one seemingly inconsequential game about a lost map on a dusty attic really drives home the point.
I can only imagine how many players had the experience of a dim lightbulb in their heads growing brighter and brighter as they started realizing “So I could make an ‘INFOCOM’ game too…”
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This edition of your blog series is most timely and relevant. This topic has been very active recently. This provides a lot of clarificattion.
Excellent, as always!
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“Atari, Façade, an experimental play and a boldly ambitious vision: how the Oz project hoped to invent the future of interactive stories.”
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“The groundbreaking hypertext that blurred the boundaries between page and screen, and creator and creation.”
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“Two lovers, two dancers, two pillars, two moons: the game that charged puzzles and landscapes with deeper meaning and set the stage for a new era of interactive fiction.”
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Thousands of rooms, millions of words, decades of worldbuilding and a war to end all wars: the story of long-running MUD “Achaea.”
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“Read you a story? What fun would that be? I’ve got a better idea: let’s tell a story together.”
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“The storytelling strategy game that was too behind-the-times to sell on release, and a revolutionary sleeper hit a decade later.”
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“A game about a single conversation; an NPC who asked players, for once, to take her seriously.”
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“…a player treating an NPC less like a plot-point vending machine and more like a compelling character…” (my emphasis)
This nails the average NPC. Fantastic choice of words.
Thanks for reminding me of Galatea. I haven’t really dug into the piece any deeper than some exploratory tries.
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“The incredible story of the first alternate reality game that turned players loose on a mystery with a thousand clues.”
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" “Is it a game?” the robot boy David in the A.I. film would ask when encountering confusing human behavior."
That sentence made me lose The Game. That other one.
I was deeeep into The Beast. I almost failed to graduate from college because I was too busy moderating the Cloudmakers Yahoo Group!
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You still haven’t won?
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“What could fiction be like if freed from the tyranny of the line, or the screen?”
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“A kingdom in a browser tab, an avalanche of puns, and the best and worse of internet culture.”
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As an RPG-er and listener to Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff I thought I was pretty up on Robin Laws’ oeuvre. I’d heard of King of Dragon Pass, but I had no idea Laws’ involvement was so substantial or that it was such an epic game.
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