IF in the Wild - Unexpected mentions of IF in places not explicitly about IF

[pinkunz]

I was listening to a YouTube video while working today, when I unexpectedly heard a discussion involving Collossal Cave Adventure and what it spawned. The clip focuses on when he first mentions this, but the whole video is a fairly interesting discussion about how we classify games and how communities can form and splinter over these definitions (ahem, sounds familiar). Not everyday I encounter interactive fiction outside of these circles.

✂️ IF in the Wild

[pinkunz]

Have another one to add. If anyone else comes across IF in the Wild, please feel free to share!

✂️ Failbetter and Inkle mentions in the wild

IF mentions are fairly common, like earlier they mention mainframe games like Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork, but I rarely come across mentions of Failbetter and Inkle in mainstream videos.

[pinkunz]

I actually have a whole short series about Adventure games, IF, and genre to share today. Too many mentions to list and honestly interesting discussion about genre conventions and the future of the genre as we understand it. You know it goes deep into the navel gazing when it mentions Andrew Plotkin, Raph Koster, and David Shute in the same video. My kinda stuff.

Who Shot Guybrush Threepwood? | The Death of the Adventure Game

Who Shot Guybrush Threepwood? | The Future of the Adventure Game

Who Shot Guybrush Threepwood? | Genre and the Adventure Game

[EJoyce]

I don’t know if the intent of the thread is to focus on more substantial discussions found in unexpected places, but for something that’s literally just a mention, I was surprised to see this in a word game app:

[pinkunz]

@EJoyce

I don’t know if the intent of the thread is to focus on more substantial discussions found in unexpected places

Nah, that is just a reflection of the type of media I typically consume combined with the fact that I was the only one to share any mentions up until now.

If you find IF in the Wild, in whatever form, feel free to share it!

[bg]

@pinkunz

If you find IF in the Wild, in whatever form, feel free to share it!

There’s also this, which is not a mention of IF, but a real thing that resembles IF: “Ghost apples”

[pinkunz]

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow XYZZY reference

I dunno if many folks here have read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - it’s a literary fiction novel from last year about a pair of game designers working through the 90s, aughts, and teens, and despite the nerdy premise it was pretty big (it made the NYT notable books list, among a bunch of other plaudits). I thought it was generally pretty good, and got almost all of the video game stuff right (the take on how producers work seemed to be a little confused with how they w…

[Encorm (N. Cormier)]

I’m currently reading Null States by Malka Older and one of the side characters is a huge parser game fan. Not something I expected to see in a sci-fi book set 70 or so odd years into the future, but fun!

[inventor200 (Joey "Jess" Cramsey)]

@Encorm

Malka Older

I would be super surprised if Malka Older isn’t in an IF community, maybe with a pseudonym.

[Encorm (N. Cormier)]

I wouldn’t either! It’s not a reference I would expect from someone not in the community.

(I assume you’re familiar with her work? She’s very good at sci-fi worldbuilding so it seems up your alley.)

[inventor200 (Joey "Jess" Cramsey)]

@Encorm

(I assume you’re familiar with her work? She’s very good at sci-fi worldbuilding so it seems up your alley.)

Oh, absolutely. I love her worldbuilding and the interesting consequences she explores as a result of certain technology developments. When I finally figured out why flamethrowers are so prevalent in Infomocracy, I had a visceral “aha” reaction, lol.