I’m not sure I have enough clues to go on here. But that won’t stop me from trying.
I recently looked at a bunch of my old Usenet posts in rec.arts.int-fiction, using Google Groups. And this thread: https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.int-fiction/c/Nc1uMwdYKko/m/TiHkR7SCyDAJ led to the most hilarious “who’s on first?” situation I have ever been personally part of. (Note: that link doesn’t seem to work reliably. Don’t worry, the relevant parts are summarized below.)
A few different people were trying to mention examples of games where the player commits crimes without being aware of it. But, we were trying to do this without spoiling the games. So there are no titles mentioned (until near the end of the thread, where Joe Mason does clarify which game he actually meant).
What I’m wondering is which game I actually meant. It’s been 22 years, so I don’t remember.
The suggestion had been made that someone should create a game where the player is a murderer, but with amnesia. Joe Mason said that a well-known IF author had written something similar a few years back, but with a lesser crime. He was saying this in 2004.
Another poster (correctly) guessed which game Joe had been referencing, and made the argument that, in that game, the player is actually a murderer, so it isn’t a lesser crime. Spoilers for a game from 2000: 9:05.
And then I came in and said that I thought Joe meant a game involving poetry and phone calls (perhaps cut-scene phone calls).
That’s all I have to go on, except this: reading the thread now, I keep thinking of a specific game that wasn’t the one Joe was thinking of. Spoilers for a game from 1999: Bliss. But that game doesn’t seem to have poetry or phone calls. Joe’s game does involve phone calls, but I don’t believe I was thinking of that game.
Any idea what the heck I was thinking of?
