The Ryan Veeder Exposition for Good Interactive Fiction

[Emerald (Emily Boegheim)]

@Healy

@Afterward

I was inspired to inaugurate the Exposition after playing several games that I did not like.

I must confess I am filled with intense curiosity about what these games were. Emily, is it alright if you ask him about this?

Ryan says:

I don’t remember, it was at least a year ago

[HanonO (Hanon Ondricek)]

For some reason in my head on first skim I thought he said “I just played a lot of games I didn’t like” which was juxtaposed with the ifcomp thread comment. That’s not what he said or meant, I know now, so no foul!

[severedhand]

Me: Emily, can you ask Ryan to pass me the mashed potatoes?

Emily: Ryan, Wade wants the mashed potatoes.

Ryan: Here they are, Emily. Pass them to Wade.

Emily: Thank you, Ryan. Here you go, Wade.

Me: Thanks. And tell Ryan thanks for sending the mashed potatoes down.

Emily: Ryan, Wade says thanks for passing the mashed potatoes along.

Ryan: He should think nothing of it.

Emily: Wade, Ryan says you should think nothing of it.

Me: Phew.

[cvaneseltine]

“Be careful that your Entry’s personality is not too distinctive, though, or you run the risk of compromising the anonymity of the Exposition.”

How exactly will “distinctive personalities” be handled?

For example: if Ryan receives an entry that reads like vintage Porpentine (using this example because Porpentine has one of the most distinctive voices in IF), will that entry be disqualified? Or will it only be disqualified if it really is Porpentine’s work, and Ryan identifies it as such? Or will it only be disqualified if it is signed “Porpentine”?

[Sequitur]

More to the point if I write a story about, I don’t know, plush dolls that are also feathered dinosaurs which is actually a thinly-veiled allegory for the struggle of the post-proletarian working classes in late capitalism, will I be disqualified?

[Emerald (Emily Boegheim)]

@cvaneseltine

“Be careful that your Entry’s personality is not too distinctive, though, or you run the risk of compromising the anonymity of the Exposition.”

How exactly will “distinctive personalities” be handled?

For example: if Ryan receives an entry that reads like vintage Porpentine (using this example because Porpentine has one of the most distinctive voices in IF), will that entry be disqualified? Or will it only be disqualified if it really is Porpentine’s work, and Ryan identifies it as such? Or will it only be disqualified if it is signed “Porpentine”?

The Judge responds:

For an Entrant to knowingly compose an Entry in an identifiably distinct writing style is functionally equivalent to the Entrant signing the Entry with the Entrant’s own name, and therefore qualifies as grounds for disqualification. The language under discussion advises Entrants who believe themselves to possess identifiably distinct writing styles to make good faith efforts to suppress or camouflage said styles. Entrants whose writing styles are not distinct enough to facilitate positive identification can stop worrying about this language.

@Sequitur

More to the point if I write a story about, I don’t know, plush dolls that are also feathered dinosaurs which is actually a thinly-veiled allegory for the struggle of the post-proletarian working classes in late capitalism, will I be disqualified?

Ryan’s answer:

The follow-on question describes a situation in which the Entrant’s anonymity could easily fall into jeopardy, at a risk proportional to the uniqueness of the Entrant’s pet issue. The Entrant should also be apprised of the Judge’s general distaste for thinly-veiled political metaphor.

The Judge would also like me to mention the caveat that he composed these answers on a phone keyboard.

[matt_weiner (matt w)]

What if we compose an entry in someone else’s distinctive style? How will the Judge determine the disqualifications? Would the Judge tell the Stewards, “I wish to disqualify entry X because it is obviously by Y,” and can the Stewards then say, “Wrong! You’ve been duped!” Or will this be disqualified anyway, on the grounds of annoying the Judge?

[Emerald (Emily Boegheim)]

@matt w

What if we compose an entry in someone else’s distinctive style? How will the Judge determine the disqualifications? Would the Judge tell the Stewards, “I wish to disqualify entry X because it is obviously by Y,” and can the Stewards then say, “Wrong! You’ve been duped!” Or will this be disqualified anyway, on the grounds of annoying the Judge?

From the Judge:

In the situation described, by informing the Judge that the author of an Entry is not a certain person, the Stewards would be compromising the anonymity of the Exposition, an action which is forbidden to them. The stewards are required to convey exactly zero information about the identities of Entrants.

For an Entrant to compose an Entry imitating another Entrant’s or Non-Entrant’s identifiably distinct style for purposes of misleading the Judge would be grounds for disqualification. This conclusion bothered the Judge until he realized that the Entrant or Non-Entrant being imitated would not be affected by this ruling.

For an Entrant to compose an Entry imitating another Entrant’s or a Non-Entrant’s identifiably distinct style for interesting or entertaining purposes would be interesting or entertaining, respectively. However, such a gimmick could easily lead to a perceived compromise of the anonymity of the Exposition, resulting in the disqualification of the Entrant in question. Although in general the Judge approves of Yankovickian style parody, in light of author identity being so fraught an issue in the context of the Exposition, the Judge cannot recommend that venerable technique’s application here.

[tove]

I guess ImitationComp will have to be a separate event.

[verityvirtue]

@tove

I guess ImitationComp will have to be a separate event.

That might be fun, actually.

[GlassRat]

OK a question for the Veeder grapevine:

Must all games be parser-based, as his own games? Or might he be interested in seeing all formats, so long as they otherwise matched the requests for fun, earnestness etc? In other words: Would using a choice-based format actively hurt one’s chances?

[Emerald (Emily Boegheim)]

@GlassRat

OK a question for the Veeder grapevine:

Must all games be parser-based, as his own games? Or might he be interested in seeing all formats, so long as they otherwise matched the requests for fun, earnestness etc? In other words: Would using a choice-based format actively hurt one’s chances?

Ryan says:

The Judge has a more nuanced appreciation of parser games, but Entries in any format are welcome.

[Emerald (Emily Boegheim)]

Hello. This is a message from Ryan, posted via Steward proxy.

I am very pleased by the huge positive response that I assume my Exposition has been receiving. Though my claustration prevents me from sharing directly in your enthusiasm, you may rest assured that I am nearly as excited about this event as all of you are.

This post is just to remind you that the deadline for submissions of intent to enter is January 18th, two weeks from today. The deadline for Entries is six weeks later, the night of the 28th. These two numbers sum to a total of eight weeks.

Besides giving you plenty of time to craft and polish your Entries, this period gives me time to ensure that I have a Plush Doll Pool with prizes for every Entrant. Just as you are undoubtedly waiting to start working on your Entries until the Muse strikes, I often find my own fingers motionless and unsewing for weeks at a time before I come up with a doll worthy of your efforts.

Here are some images of those dolls.

[cvaneseltine]

Is that a plushie stegosaurus on wheels???

[Emerald (Emily Boegheim)]

Hello. This is a message from Ryan, posted via Steward proxy.

There are approximately two days left before the deadline for Intents to Enter. If you are planning to enter my fabulous Exposition, it is overwhelmingly likely that you have already submitted your statement of Intent to the Stewards (jennipolodnaandemily@boeghe.im), but it is my duty as the organizer of this event to issue a last-minute reminder.

I do not predict the necessity of adjudicating possible tardiness of submitted Intents to Enter, but I will say now that your Intent will be considered as having met the deadline if it is received by the Stewards before or while it is still the 18th of January in some time zone on this Earth.

Thank you very much for your interest.

[Afterward (Ryan Veeder)]

Hi. Here are the results. youtu.be/jOjuOk6y0k8

You guys are adorable.

[Peter_Piers]

I suppose it was naïve of me to expect all the games for this Exposition to be subsequently released in a big .zip file by the organiser after the Exposition was done…

[robinjohnson]

It’s up to authors to publish our games. Some have been released already, some are presumably being completed, expanded or polished first, and I think some are going in Spring Thing.

[Peter_Piers]

Ok. Of course, I shouldn’t have expected anything in this Exposition to be ordinary. [emote];)[/emote]

I just hope none of the games get lost in that Limbo that happens after some competitions. Post-comp releases that never see the light of day. When that happens, I like at least having played the comp release.

[HulkHandsome]

You can play my one in your browser now, link on the ifdb page:

ifdb.tads.org/viewgame?id=f1su3oa3uca0wtwg