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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: I've missed this place
Message-ID: <GEHK6B.MIA@world.std.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2001 01:58:58 GMT
References: <bWaS6.20134$zl5.5666728@typhoon.ne.mediaone.net> <lrXS6.21917$zl5.6843717@typhoon.ne.mediaone.net> <9fj52g$c98$1@cascadia.drizzle.com> <9fjbhn$pop$1@usenet.otenet.gr>
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(Crossposting from r.a.i-f, with followups set to r.g.i-f.)

Aris Katsaris <katsaris@otenet.gr> wrote:
>Adam Cadre <grignr@cascadia.drizzle.com> wrote in message
>> Russ Bryan wrote:
>> >If someone would care to provide a short list of interactive works that I
>> >should explore to learn what is in vogue, I would appreciate it.
>>
>> Photopia has already been mentioned.  That's by me. [snip]
>> Galatea by Emily Short is a must. [snip]
>> Then you've got Shade by Andrew Plotkin. [snip]
>> At the extreme of puzzlelessness among high-quality works is Stephen
>> Bond's Rameses. [snip]
>
>Besides those, I'd also recommend "Metamorphoses" by Emily Short
>and the more 'experimental':
>Shrapnel by Adam Cadre and Failsafe by Jon Ingold

For a while I've wanted to make a list of the games that sort of
show where the current boundaries of IF are--that is, games that
sort of push at the fringes of the rules of the medium, and are
also generally accepted as "good" works.  The above offers enough
of a start for me to throw one together off the top of my head:

  Photopia
  Rameses (puzzlelessness; the interaction of player and player character)
  FailSafe (the interaction of player and player character)
  Galatea ("traditional" NPC conversation taken to the limit)
  Aisle (the one-turn game; the nature of replaying, of 'ending')

I'd also consider "For a Change", for the degree to which the world
can make sense without making sense and still work as a game; I don't
really feel that tentative about including it but I feel tentative
about explaining why I think it goes on such a list.

I'm sure there are others, but I can't come up with more offhand.
