An article that I don’t feel qualfiied to write would be one focusing on the art of translation in interactive fiction that’s either been adapted from another language, or is available in more than one (as is common with some French/English games.)
The difference in narrative and language conventions (such as some of the confusion around Linus’ gender in Solkatt that people in the Neo-Interactives spoke about, due to the name reading as masculine to English speaking audiences, and French speaking audiences picking up on the use of feminine gendered pronouns) and how it influences interactive fiction seems like it would be really interesting to read about from someone more informed on the topic.
There’s also the difficulties in terms of straddling word-to-word fidelity and conveying the meaning, or feeling of a piece- and how subtle changes in the intonation or cultural associations can warp a piece. I imagine it would be really interesting to hear from someone more involved in the visual novel scene, where Japanese/English translations are more common, and issues pertaining to localization or loan words crop up.
Similarly, I only feel perhaps half qualified to write this one- tracking the progression from the commonality of the AFGNCAAPC, to the highly customized, wildly detailed and personalized protagonists that have emerged in the Choice of Games style.
Of particular interest would be the cultural context and player expectations surrounding this stylization, such as increased audience diversity, or the desire to roleplay a character because of genre conventions (romance), and how this works for, or not at all, for different interactive fiction communities in generalities.
There is also the craft element as well, and to what degree interactive fiction can benefit from characterization of the protagonist. The use of different story point of views and tenses also contributes to the amount that roleplay might provoke dissonance, if the protagonist does something the reader absolutely wouldn’t, breaking the suspension of disbelief, versus being in the position of merely guiding a pre-determined figure in a story, or creating their own little character from scratch wholesale.
I’m really only somewhat familiar with the more hyper detailed protagonists in the modern era, and it would be nice to hear from someone with a more established history or personal experience of the AFGNCAAPC running rampant.