How do I, Drew Cook, rate games? What is my process? I can tell you that I don’t have an “I don’t like thing” rating. For instance, I don’t like college football, but I would never rate a game poorly because it is about college football. I don’t expect authors to cater to my tastes, as I think that would get pretty boring for everyone, including me.
In fact, there are a lot of games that I find pretty uninteresting, content-wise, but I recognize that they demonstrate a clear application of craft and care. That deserves respect, so I rate those games well.
However, because I haven’t signed a ratings contract, I do sometimes do the opposite and rate games highly simply because they are enjoyable to me. Life can be quite hard, after all, and I am grateful for whatever joy I can find for myself.
A case in point would be Damon L. Wakes’s Uninteractive Fiction, the most poorly rated game in the 2024 annual Interactive Fiction Competition. I think I saw one player say that a short game was never worth more than five out of ten points (I can’t wait to show them my Spring Thing game!), and perhaps there is a commonly held idea about length, effort, and quality. I understand completely. I just said that I rate games I don’t like highly, provided they demonstrate craft and care!
However, Uninteractive Fiction spawned a lot of fun conversations about the medium, and there were some pretty good jokes here and elsewhere. I got a lot of pleasure out of this metagame, and none of it would have happened without Uninteractive Fiction.
In truth, on a per-line basis, the code for Uninteractive Fiction generated more smiles for me than anything else I played. I rated it an eight. If you looked at the results and wondered, “who the hell is handing out these high ratings?” I was one of those people. I still feel the same way about it, too.
Jumpscare Manor
Damon L. Wakes
spoilers
I, a bumbling rustic from the hills of western Arkansas, might have been forty before I heard the name “Cluedo.” It was Clue where I came from, and we played it quite a bit. I was always intrigued by Miss Scarlet, who looked out from her card as if in the midst of a silent, appraising condescension. She was the most interesting–in my boyish reckoning–of all the suspects.
I feel a bit confident–without checking–that the geography of Jumpscare Manor corresponds in some way to that of the Clue. The characters aren’t there, though, it’s just you and the anticipation inspired by the title.
There is a jumpscare, as promised.
I had two thoughts. The first is this: it would be nice if we could talk about IF all year the way we during IF Comp, wouldn’t it? Whatever the quality of Jumpscare Manor might be, it can’t give us the Uninteractive Fiction experience because a huge part of that is people showing up and talking about games. My experience of it is inseparable from its venue. That’s true all of the time, but perhaps it is more true for games like Jumpscare Manor.
The other thing I thought is that a werewolf failing to be scary to the sound of a trombone would have been a nice experience. Speaking as a fan.