Has anyone actually played one of this companies works? I realize the company has a bad standing with the IF community overall (I even got into the fray), but wanted to know if someone has bitten bullet or knows someone who has.
I’ve tried some of them myself, and I once planned on writing my comments about it somewhere. However, I was sufficiently warned about Sherman. I’d rather not comment on it.
Try going through the rec.arts.int-fiction archives and see for yourself.
I played one game that someone sent me and my opinion of it pretty much mirrored what I’d heard from everyone else about it: that it wasn’t much good. There were a lot of bugs, a lot of typos and a lot of things that just didn’t make any sense (in one location I hit someone and broke his nose, yet the room description still indicated he was standing calmly by the bar; in another location, exits moved entirely at random). I haven’t played any of the later Malinche games, more due to Howard Sherman’s personality (or lack of) than anything else, so maybe he’s improved but part of me finds that I don’t really care. I certainly don’t intend to buy a game by someone like him.
But as he’s sold 150,000 copies of his games, I guess me not buying them won’t bother him too much…
