And speaking of MacGuffins… Imagine a humorous game poking fun at genre conventions and community memes where all of the various adjective food stuffs in this thread are collectibles…
Could even throw in other joke awards like the tin apple of mediocrity*, the aluminium pear of hasbeenary**, the silicone lemon of the succubus***, or the Titanium Dragonfruit of Technomancy****.
*Tin is arguably the least remarkable of the 7 classical metals and apples are arguably the most generic fruit, at least from an America-centric viewpoint. A joke award for a game that gets mostly ‘meh’ scores.
**A reference to Aluminium having once been considered a precious metal but having been rendered common by advances in metallurgy. A joke award for a game that was highly praised when new, but which has failed to stand the test of time. Pear is kind of random and hasbeenary is made up because I can’t think of a word to summarize a hit game aging poorly.
***Actually, a somewhat serious attempt at making a award name for a “Best of AIF” category… Not sure I should explain this one outside of the AIF section. Thought of making a Stiffy McCain reference, but wanted to keep it classy and something that could slip past the radar in a g-rated game. Also, at this point, I found myself wishing there was a dagger key on a standard keyboard.
****A hypothetical award for a game that does something technically impressive. Kind of a joke since IF isn’t a genre known for pushing boundaries on the technological side. I feel like Titanium is the metal most associated with advanced technology, Dragonfruit feels like an exotic fruit that might be used as a codename for some big tech project, and technomancy is a term for magic done with technology. Also, getting really annoyed there isn’t a dagger key that can be shifted to double dagger on standard keyboards.