Quest, for instance, has a way to play games on their website. MudConnect had a way to play on there too. It would be nice if we had something here as well.
Someone ventures here interested in Interactive Fiction and thus we can already start them on their adventure. Whether they are hand picked for “decency” and “all age levels” is a different matter.
My apologies, if there are already is a built in game system I may have missed. Thank you.
This website is simply a forum for connecting people who share an interest in IF. It’s not focused on any specific tools, like Quest, etc. Everything beyond discussions and answering specific IF questions is handled on other sites.
The two main sites are probably:
→ IFDB - https://ifdb.org/
→ IFWiki - https://www.ifwiki.org/
IFDB is all about games.
IFWiki is all about resources, information, and features an events calendar (game jams, etc.).
Beyond that, I don’t know of much else that acts as a hub for IF. This site is definitely where the community of IF, in general, gathers. However, each authoring tool usually has it’s own dedicated community on their own specific sites.
I don’t do social media, so others can chime in on how that looks for the general IF landscape.
Let me know if I misunderstood your question though.
Are you talking about ClubFloyd-like communities where people come together to collectively play a game together? Because the moderators of this site did not make the website (it is hosted by Discourse), this is not (to my knowledge) really an option, unless we have one “runner” who reports the results of the actions to a forum thread.
IFDB has many, many games with links to play them in-browser or download them. It also has ratings, reviews, etc. so you can find something you’ll enjoy.
I meant people are already here, why not entertain them. Or for new people that may have wandered in here first, grab them into the world of IF. We are already a collective of people who come here frequently, why not enjoy a quick game of Zork or something similar, while waiting?
No. Just meant that this site could have it’s own game interpreter, or have a select few games (could rotate) that can be played in the browser and people visiting could try out some games here. One less step. After that, they may very well travel further out to parts unknown.
I tried that once, but nobody likes my jokes.
Our overall philosophy for this site is that we want to do one thing well (provide an asynchronous, long-term public forum) rather than a lot of things badly. That’s why we’ve generally left the problem of playing IF online to IFDB.
We love your jokes.
You can link to an online playable game in a post. But as games often want to be a full webpage they’ll often get confused if they’re embedded. Opening it in another browser tab also means you don’t have to stay on the same forum page.
(Technically you can embed Borogove games here, but that’s usually best for showing a programming example, not a whole finished game.)
You land in a stealthy crouch inside the intfiction.org compound walls. This is it. Only a single low paid security guard stands between you and the secret games you know are hidden here.
To choke him out, go to 2.
To distract him by throwing a rock, go to 5.
(2) You sneak up behind the guard and get him in a headlock, beginning to choke him unconscious… But he reaches up with fingers that have been strengthened by decades of typing commands into parser games and begins to prise your grip open!
To headbutt him, go to 3.
To get your legs involved, go to 4.
(3) You bring your head back and then sharply forward, bashing your skulls together and knocking both the guard and yourself completely out.
BAD END
(4) Choking out the guard with both your arms and legs, you finally feel him start to slip away into a peaceful sleep. But he feels it too! He pushes a panic button on his walkie talkie, and an alarm begins to blare!
Go to 6!
(5) The guard hears the rock clatter and immediately grabs his walkie talkie. “There’s someone here!” he screams. “Send backup!”
Go to 6!
(6) Alarms blare and doors fly open. Dozens of security guards flood into the compound! You had no idea the operation was this large… surely they must be protecting the secret intfiction.org games!
To run, go to 7.
To fight, go to 8.
(7) You can’t hope to fight off dozens of guards, so you throw down a smoke bomb and disappear. But you’ll be back! They can’t hide these secret games from you forever!
END
(8) As the guards swarm around you, you prepare your signature attack:
Go to 9 to perform a FLAMING PUNCH!
Go to 10 to perform a WHIRLWIND KICK!
(9) You crouch down and flames begin to swirl around you… then you leap up into the air, screaming with triumph! The conflagration drives back the security guards, who flee in terror!
But embers spark out and land throughout the compound, which catches fire!
It burns to the ground before you can find any of the secret games…
BAD END
(10) You spin around in circles, your leg extended, and the guards fly away like bowling pins!
You are left standing on your own in the intfiction.org compound… You search it systematically, opening crates and powering on dormant computers. But there’s nothing! No secret games at all!
Unless…
You turn and look directly at the camera.
You are in the secret game right now!
GOOD END?!
(I wanted to use details tags, but it didn’t work very well… 
)
I don’t think it’s enabled here but there is this: