The latest posts from people on trying out IFComp for the first time and then not doing it because they saw the AI-generated art and text had gotten me thinking: is this generative AI stuff actually worth “debating” when it’s pushing newcomers out of IFComp?
My previous post on the matter was about judging for IFComp. I’ve spent a few years in the IF space, so participating in this year was a no-brainer decision. I might personally dislike the LLM entries, but the system does theoretically allow me to ignore these games and just focus on the stuff I care about.
But as I see posts from newcomers and returning members talking about how their personal shuffles are giving them terrible AI entries and then giving up, I started thinking this mindset I have is not something new players should be expected to have. Yes, this is an approach many of us judges ended up taking. But considering cases like kaliranya the streamer, I don’t believe new people and outsiders can talk about IFComp without feeling they’re legitimizing something they abhor.
IFComp 2025 has been surprisingly quiet, even if we consider how niche interactive fiction is. I initially chalked it up to people and podcasts being busy, but I think the added factor of “look at all of these AI art covers” made covering these games especially more daunting. Adding to what I already said, I feel like saying the same stuff about what one likes and dislikes about AI while discussing IF with outsiders might be adding too much stress.
I know what I’m thinking about loudly is going beyond the scope of judging and authoring. It’s about other people outside the IF community looking into us. But I think the public perception of IFComp is at stake if there are no rules discussing what should be done about this technology. I thought it would be fine if the competition made people disclose what LLM technology they used in creating their games, but now I think that without any other supporting mechanism is just bad optics.
I think I’ll revise my “I can’t judge these generative AI games in good faith” stance to “We need to do something about how IFComp is perceived by people”.