Entry Point For Playing

IFDB has a pretty powerful search feature, but you need to know how to work it to get relevant data. Searching for good sci-fi is rather simple since it’s one of the major genres: ifdb.tads.org/search?sortby=ratu … commercial (I like to throw in a minimum number of ratings requirement to filter out games rated 5 stars by one person only.)

the point is that in IF as in poetry there are far more people writing than reading

you’re a funny guy

What’s your source?

Weaksource.

assipedia?

You Might Also Like Floppy Bard.

[size=85](Disclaimer: I made this game very quickly, as a present for my significant other, who enjoys reciting the St Crispin’s day speech. Other people might not find it fun, or even playable. Also, it makes noise.)[/size]

That was awesome. :laughing:

also called common sense

it’s a known fact that whenever someone discovers IF they also discover IF authoring tools in the same breath and start designing their own IF just after 5 failed attempts at the ADVENT prompt

Again- “known fact”. By who?

I don’t think this is true. The people who, after playing IF, are inspired to create their own, are also generally the people who would join an IF forum. In other words, the set of people who create accounts on the forum or the MUD or post on raif is not representative of the set of people who have played IF.

I completely agree with this. The mobile audience, for instance, probably isn’t posting here, as a rule. And that’s a huge potential audience – and most likely, a casual gaming audience. Developing takes more commitment than a typical casual game player is going to give.

Great recipe for the perma-death of IF.

so the set of people who play IF once and never bother to play more or share their thoughts about it is really that big?

I’m posting this from my smartphone. My laptop is dead.

casual gamers are playing some Flabby Candy ™ Saga ™

they have neither brains nor attention span for IF. plus, they hate typing on the phone, aside from chat and twitter. Everyone knows games are about tapping the screen and shooting, not typing har har

Rather than stupid gamers, I tried instead to try to advertise IF in the mobileread forum. These are people who like to read, after all. On electronic screens! Plus, they really dig freebies (who doesn’t?) It was quite underwhelming: aside from nostalgic old farts and a smartass divulging his CYAO, I got no replies. These are the same folks comfortably cracking away Sherlock and Miss Maple puzzling mysteries in their favorite genre fiction. It’s puzzling.

Literates think IF is games for kids and gamers think it’s boring old game format for literate folks. It’s equally hated by all.

I enjoy reading novels, but I’ve never joined an online community for it and I don’t think I have the experience to write a novel of my own. People can download games and write reviews on IFDB without joining this forum or the MUD, which is what I did for a few years before starting to write my own IF.

All gaming is about rewarding the player. The Tetris clones are engaging, but people will get tired of them. Books never get old, and IF uses the medium of literature – imagination – for its visuals. People without imagination are not my intended audience.

So you’ve seen. However, with the negativity you show on this board, I’m assuming your “advertisement” wasn’t exactly glowing, or enticing. If a story or game is compelling, whatever the medium, it will have an audience. The size of that audience, to me, doesn’t matter. And I’m not interested in making pop art. There’s enough pop art and mindless distraction in the world. I would rather do something that inspires people to think – even if that audience is small.

(Here is the thread name’s talking about, in case you guys want to know)

I seem to recall that we have some idea of the size of the “IF audience” based on the number of votes the IFComp and XYZZYs get each year - and it’s a fair bit higher than the number of people who post here…

Stefan, if you’re still here, you might want to check out the all-time top 50 on IFDB. Or the People’s Republic of Interactive Fiction’s list of games to start with. The IFDB list is supposed to be the best games, without regard to their suitability for beginners (the top-ranked game, Spider and Web, was one of the first I played, and that wasn’t a good choice), but there’s a fair amount of overlap too.

Oh no

We lost another one! :laughing:

welcome to the zoo, indeed

BTW, why is it that that top 50 list only got 34 entries?