I was wondering who would make a game like that, and then I saw the author, and immediately started laughing. Having interacted with them on and off for years on IFMud, it is not remotely surprising. Very on brand. I get IFComp punting the game, but thank you for the laugh; I needed that.
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I love how it’s the one and only game on IFDB tagged “illegal”.
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DeCSS was a big cause for copyright-critical folks on places like Slashdot. Spreading the code as an IF piece was a political statement, similar to the Thinkgeek t-shirts with the source code on them.
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…and the Free Speech Flag
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back on topic… I remember the decss incident, and frankly, the lone disqualified game was definitively not interactive, so technically was disqualifiable (exist that word ??) on the technical base of not being an interactive fiction, aside the content.
(of course, the same logic can apply to Hello, cruel world which, AFAICT, isn’t in the archived examples of Inform 5/6 …)
If isn’t clear, my stance is that IF can and should tackle political issues, but keeping in mind the fiction part. (no Italian ever underestimate the role of Manzoni and Verdi in the Risorgimento…), hence my encouragement on answering with satire and/or irony in IF works instead of chagrining in these debates.
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
It started the player in a room with a piece of paper containing the source code. You could pick up the paper and drop it again. Or get some default Inform library responses, I guess?
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VPN. Turned it on to get a game, then turned it off.
(See also the thread Geoblocked games in IFcomp .)
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Image description:
It is a photo of a book page. The text is as follows…
One – Do not obey in advance.
Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
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IFWiki’s policies aren’t going to change. We’re just going to write some stuff down because the lawyer advised us to.
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That’s good to hear! I guess I misunderstood the first comment. Hopefully it’s sustainable but I guess things can change.
I mean, this isn’t obeying in advance, it’s obeying a law that already exists and is already being enforced.
There are arguments to be had about to what extent people should comply with censorship laws that they think are unjust, etc etc, but I can’t really blame the IFTF for consulting a lawyer and taking the route that leads to them not being shut down.
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Is there a way to see whether a particular IF Archive file has been UK-blocked? (I’m not located in the UK.)
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I second dibianca’s question, albeit I think that, as noted by others above, the geoblocking is based on CW, an intelligent reading of these should answer the specific question “is geoblocked for His “gracious” Majesty’s subjects ?”
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
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List of games that are currently geoblocked:
- 3XXX: NAKED HUMAN BOMBS
- Backpackward
- Cart
- A Conversation in a Dark Room
- Crescent Sea Story
- Errand Run
- Fable
- Grove of Bones
- HEN AP PRAT GETS SMACKED IN THE TWAT
- High On Grief
- Horse Whisperer
- The Kidnapping of a Tokyo Game Developer
- Mooncrash!
- The Olive Tree
- Penthesileia
- Pharos Fidelis
- PURE
- Retrograding
- Saltwrack
- Slated For Demolition
- Violent Delight
- WATT
- The Witch Girls
- you are an ancient chinese poet at the neo-orchid pavilion
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(my emphasis, to distinguish from the IF Comp since that’s a live issue)
Right now, I don’t think so, but I think everything in IF Archive paths mentioned in the first post remains blocked, so you can work it out from that.
(You can see what UK users see when we hit a block, though.)
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Oh right - yeah, currently everything on the IF Archive is blocked in the UK.
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Thanks. I’ll be sure to check out these first.
Currently the entire Index: if-archive/games directory is UK-blocked. (Or rather, the game files are. Anybody can read that index URL, but clicking on games may show an error page.) Also a couple of other top-level directories that contain games, like Index: if-archive/collections .
We are still at the stage of tagging files. The tags are not currently publicized, but I want to start making them visible soon – with the understanding that the tags are not yet operational.
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