It sounds like you never got inside Nyantech headquarters? There is quite a bit more to the game after that-- I would even say that all of the Pogoman-hunting stuff is merely a prologue to the actual game. I would recommend revisiting this game if you have the time! (Also note that the hints in the hint menu are context-sensitive, i.e. you’ll only see hints relevant to your current situation but there’s plenty more to go back and check out if you get stuck again.)
I hate to pour cold water on your appreciation of this joke but that’s a built-in Inform library response to the YES command…
One last thing: don’t take my replies as critiques of your reviews; I found them entertaining and insightful. I am impressed that you not only played all those games but wrote reviews for all of them, and all in under three weeks! I just felt like there were a few things worth pointing out in response.
Thanks for reviewing! Happy Thanksgiving!
I take criticism enthusiastically as it highlights my weaknesses that I can then improve upon. I also appreciate the community interaction. Happy belated thanksgiving to you as well! Now to address those critiques…
Billy Mays responds:
[spoiler]First, I would like to state that I am happy that I warmed up to this game a little more than I had initially and that I adjusted the score appropriately prior to the scoring deadline.
The bait role is the most dangerous one, and the most dangerous role is usually reserved for the most experienced member. Also, you can not afford to ever be unprepared as while you are hunting them, they are also hunting you. Vampires have evolved over hundreds, thousands, of years to become the ultimate predator, what the hero and her teammates have committed to is a lifestyle change.
While the confidence to improvise and make sound decisions under stress is a large part of self-empowerment, the overwhelming majority is preparation. Having a superior level of preparation is usually what separates weakness from strength.
You shouldn’t have to “learn” to stick up for victims to defend them from predators, empathy is a base human characteristic, and if you choose to use that empathy to actively defend others: it is more often than not your level of preparation that distinguishes between being a “hero” and selfishly putting others at risk. Here was my main disconnect with the story, while the hero had selfless and noble goals, the successful conclusion appeared more from the unrealistic incompetence of the antagonist than anything else.
Overall, this was a great game that accomplished a lot of things. While it was not one of my top picks of the comp, I do respect its high ranking and would like to congratulate the author.[/spoiler]
Billy Mays responds:
I played through this game twice, it didn’t do anything for me. Sometimes you just need to cowboy up in life.
Billy Mays responds:
I ran out of time methodically mapping everything out. Even though the game came with a generic ingame map, I am very meticulous when I go through a text adventure. It is near the top of my list of games to go back to post-comp and explore a lot deeper. I am happy with my final score of 10 on this one.
Billy Mays responds:
Nobody pours cold water on Billy Mays, my original statement still stands.
My biggest regret of the competition was scoring Detectiveland an 8 when in hindsight I should have scored it a 9. It just really felt like an 8 to me at the time. Nevertheless, it all turned out well for the author despite my shortsightedness. A well deserved congratulations to Robin Johnson!
Is Bill Mays reviewing Introcomp 2017?
You better believe it! 
Also, my list of retrospectives from 2016 was much longer than the single entry I had just posted, but deleted them out of concern that they would garner little interest. I’m going to interpret your simple question here as MASSIVE interest for that list you knew nothing about prior and will be posting it in this topic later on today…
Among other things, I go into why I loved Color the Truth then as I still do now and why I slammed the creative writing in certain parts of that game within my review despite the fact that the creative writing in the game was/is amazing and clearly deserving of the 10 I scored it.
I still don’t know why, but I’m sure it’ll be a fun journey getting there.
I’ll freely admit that creative writing is my weak point, which is why my introcomp game is an adaptation of a Sherlock Holmes story with all text by Arthur Conan Doyle.
I look forward to your huge list!
It was really only 7 or 8 points…maybe? But ok, there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm brewing up around here regarding my retrospectives, so yes, I will produce one huge list of them much later on today.
In the meantime, here is another retrospective of mine from the 2016 IFComp:
I had contacted Peregrine Wade (please correct me if this was somebody else) for the very first time after the results were released to convey my anger and confusion as to Ventilator’s low placement. After some back and forth, Peregrine suggested that I copy my reviews from here and place them in the IFDB under their respective titles. I responded that I would even though I had no intention of ever doing so. That was because writing these reviews in such a candid manner is what I imagine driving at night loaded up on cough syrup must feel like: exciting and similarly terrifying.
I think you’re grossly underestimating your talent here.
Thank you for entering! I can’t say anything else regarding this until after judging.
Yeah, sorry, I had a difficult time coming up with a “huge” list of retrospectives. Including the several I had already posted, I think I may have been able to get to 11 or so if you’re willing to accept that at least 4 of them were pure padding. I think I’m going to release them here periodically until I run out of retrospectives or the feverish demand for them subsides.
I eagerly await retrospectives and padding alike!
I’d also echo what Peregrine said about cross-posting to IFDB. Anyone who wants to migrate their reviews from the forum would help the database grow. I don’t think it’s a drawback that yours are candid. If you’d rather not, of course, that’s understandable. I just think it’s a good idea to encourage in general.
OK, I’ll consider doing that over the next couple of weeks if it will help the IFDB.
Then here’s one that falls into the retrospective category:
I feel in hindsight that I penalized The Queen’s Menagerie and Stuff and Nonsense too harshly for their shorter lengths. Both of those games still to this day evoke happy thoughts when I remember playing them, and while I did award or deduct points for length in my final judging metric for all of the games in the comp, I just feel that I judged these two games a little too harshly on that criterion of mine.
Here is the judging metric I use to score/review any IF game I’ve ever played (in order starting at most important to least important):
- How much did I enjoy it?
- How long was it (with preference directed towards larger projects)?
- Font selection (with a huge preference for standard, agreeable fonts because I just want to play a game, not read a ransom note).
- Any game breaking bugs?
- Typos/music/sound effects/graphics/animation/video: Not usually on my radar, but something I do appreciate when an author makes a nice decision here.
- Anything that randomly pops into my head at the time.