I’m really thrilled and delighted to be considered in such exalted company as kaemi (although, since we’re clearly one and the same person, that just goes to show how much I fancy myself).
This is an interesting question for me, as the vast majority of my text game exposure comes through beta-testing (almost exclusively parser games). That’s because I’m actually terrible as a regular text game player: hasty, impatient, liable to miss small but crucial details, rubbish at lateral thinking, easily distracted and likely to leave things half-completed (to quote directly from my résumé). Testing gives me that extra incentive to stick with a game, explore all the nooks and crannies, and see it through to the end – and I’ve experienced some great parser games that I’d probably never have got through otherwise, through testing. Authors that immediately spring to mind are @jnelson, @rdevelyn (the author of Arborea in the last IFComp), @Jim_Aikin, @kamineko (game unreleased, but on its way!) and there are loads of others whose games I’ve experienced and admired over the past few years.
In the hypothetical scenario that I had to, on pain of death, choose a text game to play without actually testing it (improbable, but then who knows, in this crazy world?) I’d look out for games with a retro vibe by @J_J_Guest (because I love everything he’s done), @warrigal (because Garry has never written a game that is less than solidly implemented and entertaining) and @dee_cooke (because similarly, she’s never written a duff game and she writes almost all of them in Adventuron).
I’ll also look out for authors that I know have got something in the works that hasn’t appeared yet (I’ll be all over @inventor200’s TADS game – testing, naturally - when it’s ready) or potential authors who haven’t actually published a game yet but who I strongly suspect are tinkering away at something game-like, in a secret underground laboratory somewhere (looking unflinchingly at you, @rovarsson; if the assumption is unwarranted then you’ll just have to humour me by writing a game right now, please).
I’m aware that there are loads of great choice-based authors whose work I haven’t ever looked at, because I’ve never really got to grips with playing choice games. But I did play Abigail Corfman’s The Absence of Miriam Lane in last IFComp (thought it was fantastic) and also @malacostraca’s and Kirk Damato’s Ectocomp-winning The Good Ghost (also wonderful), so I’d definitely look at more of their stuff. Kit Riemer and Autumn Chen are couple of choice authors whose work, I know, I should definitely look at one day.
