I thought it might be fruitful to provide a list of past times this conversation has happened (with varying results over time). These discussions usually include debating the value of story in games vs narrative, where to draw the line between parser games and choice games, etc. Sometimes they’re enthusiastically discussed and sometimes aggressively, but the actual content hasn’t really changed at all over the last 25 years.
They went away a little bit the last few years but seem to have come back.
1996 (rec.arts.int-fiction)
Does int. fiction have to be a game?
1998 (rec.arts.int-fiction)
Are there any alternative to puzzles? (contrasts puzzle games with CYOA/branching)
1999 (rec.arts.int-fiction)
Defining IF (yet again) (was: Are there any IF+RPG?)
1999 (rec.arts.int-fiction)
What is IF?
2002 (rec.arts.int-fiction)
What is IF really?
2003 (rec.arts.int-fiction)
class on if (update) (contains a lot of the same discussion in this thread almost word for word)
2004
‘interactive fiction’, a meaningless signifier?
2005 (rec.arts.int-fiction)
Why newcomers struggle with IF.
2006 (rec.arts.int-fiction)
Defining IF (again)
2008
Communicating the type of game to the player
2009
CYOA trend
2010
Emily Short – Down with Parsers!
2011
What is CYOA as opposed to IF
2012
Surprising conclusion: CYOA is not MCA!
IF and Choice (or, another goddamn CYOA thread)
2013
Something I noticed
IFcomp is gone all hail IFComp
2014
On the overwhelming response to non-IFComp events
2015
Why are there so little parser games now?
2016
Why can’t i get into CYOA or restricted parser games?
2018
IFComp 2018 Reviews