The blurb simply says: “The only winning move is not to play.” The game appears to consist solely of a Play button, which, when clicked, brings up the message “You lose.”
Either this is the laziest of all lazy troll entries in the history of the comp…or there’s more here than meets the eye. I’m hoping for the second one, but haven’t found anything yet.
Isn’t there even a photo of Matthew Broderick?
Maybe it’s some kind soul trying to take last place in the competition so no one else has to…
I was thinking maybe you get a win screen if you just wait at the play button for long enough, but nothing after about half an hour…
*no, I’m not sitting and watching it 
As brian says: It’s a tradition of IFComp, that an entry is intentionally aimed to the very last place…
(I actually get the 2nd-to-last place in last year’s Comp…)
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio
I downloaded it to check the source code, and… yeah, there’s nothing. It’s exactly as it appears on the surface. I guess someone really is aiming for last place this year, or I missed something.
Part of me wonders if the game’s related to Dick McButts the sequel (ROD MCSCHLONG GETS PUNCHED IN THE DONG), due to having a similar thumbnail and author pun. Who knows…?
There’s no way that Leah Thargic isn’t a fake name riffing off lethargic. I tried the source code thing too.
One of the first entries I played also. Nice to get the short games out of the way early.
My review here.
I found it pretty relatable honestly
I feel like it’s someone trying to be avant-garde and clever, but it’s really difficult to make such a piece work when it literally encourages you to not interact with it.
Let’s say someone actually obeys. The page loads. Goal understood: Do not play!
Leave the page. “What a strange entry!”
Promptly move on with life.
There’s nothing there if you disobey, and nothing there if you obey. It barely makes contact at all.
If it’s a troll, then I hope the effort level was sufficiently low for them. If it was meant to be a genuine statement, then it unfortunately does not go beyond simply notable.
Not even saying it’s a bad entry, either. Something which is so reluctant to engage with a player barely even registers as anything on a like-dislike scale.
Daniel Stelzer @Draconis posted this suspiciously similar image a few days ago.
It might just be a coincidence, except the seal is on a murder mystery novel, and Daniel’s entry is also a murder mystery, or at least a spin on the genre.
Has anyone played “Miss Gosling’s Last Case” to find out if it’s in some way related? Is Daniel open to commenting?
(As for the game itself … technically, you are interacting with the game’s single link. For it to be properly uninteractive, it should have used a timer or something. Unless that’s part of the point.)
Edit: I see there’s a bigger mystery at play, no idea if this is connected.
I think I figured out how to beat this game: When you click Play, it says “You lose,” but because the game purports to be fiction, that means you win?!?
My own experience with this game was colored by the fact that the sound failed to play when I first tried it on mobile. Which meant that when I got suspicious and looked at the source code, I thought I had found a secret audio file (!!) and immediately rushed to listen to it… and the rest is history.
In my opinion, this simple change in structure and pacing greatly enhanced the experience. I was surprised and disappointed when I opened it up on my laptop and learned that the audio was right there all along!
I guess the only way to win was for it not to play?
Fiction can impart truth. 
Wished there was less stuff. Thought it was too preachy myself.
And no save option.
I liked this, short and meta. It’s cute that there’s no back or restart, so loss is permanent (as much as your browser cache, at least).
Edit: this reminded me of a Spanish game with similar mechanic (FI, submitted to La Última Comp in 2013).
I was able to win at this entry easily. I simply have not opened it to play at all.
I fixed it: Uninteractive Fiction