Announce: IF Game of the Week

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Hi all,

Many IF games which are released and announced here don't get discussed
much, especially if they're not part of the IF Comp. One possible
reason is that people play the game at different times, or that people
don't think anyone else would be interested to hear what they thought
about a particular game. Let's try to change this.

I will start by suggesting a few games about which there is probably a
lot more to say than what has already been said around here. I hope
anyone interested will feel free to suggest games too. I'll put up
suggestions of one game to discuss each week, and hope this will mean
more lively discussion and more feedback to authors, as well as more
reviews for everyone to enjoy. Suggestions will appear at this address:

http://week.ramsberg.net

If this works out well, it could go on idefinitely. If no one is
interested, it'll probably last a month or two.

Best regards,

Fredrik

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Eric Eve wrote:
> But I would just like to make a practical suggestion for anyone who
> wants to download "All Hope Abandon" via your site. If you click on
> the "Announcement" link rather than the "Download" link, you can
> then download the game via the link given in my announcement. This
> link leads to a zipped version of the file, so you'd only have to
> download 545K instead of 1.4 MB for the unzipped version from the
> archive (which may be particularly welcome for people with slow
> internet connections). Also, this zip file contains an updated
> version of the game which fixes a few bugs that came to light on
> another thread.

The bug fixes makes the decision easy: I've changed the download
link on the site to point to Eric's suggested file.

/Fredrik

 

[pj]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Fredrik Ramsberg wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Many IF games which are released and announced here don't get
discussed
> much, especially if they're not part of the IF Comp. One possible
> reason is that people play the game at different times, or that
people
> don't think anyone else would be interested to hear what they thought
> about a particular game. Let's try to change this.
>
> I will start by suggesting a few games about which there is probably
a
> lot more to say than what has already been said around here. I hope
> anyone interested will feel free to suggest games too. I'll put up
> suggestions of one game to discuss each week, and hope this will mean
> more lively discussion and more feedback to authors, as well as more
> reviews for everyone to enjoy. Suggestions will appear at this
address:
>
> http://week.ramsberg.net
>
> If this works out well, it could go on idefinitely. If no one is
> interested, it'll probably last a month or two.


Good idea, Fredrik, and a very practical follow-up to the previous
thread about our Comp fixation. I would suggest that you (or some
designee) are going to have to prime the pump by starting a thread here
about each game after the "playing week" is up or whatever to get the
discussion going. If the discussion is good, that will encourage
others to play the next game each week, and maybe you'll get a
self-sustaining "virtuous cycle" going outside of the usual Comp
fixation. It can't hurt to try.

PJ

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

"Fredrik Ramsberg" <f.r@mail.com> wrote in message
news:1116111872.259833.286440@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> I will start by suggesting a few games about which there is
> probably a
> lot more to say than what has already been said around here. I
> hope
> anyone interested will feel free to suggest games too. I'll put up
> suggestions of one game to discuss each week, and hope this will
> mean
> more lively discussion and more feedback to authors, as well as
> more
> reviews for everyone to enjoy. Suggestions will appear at this
> address:
>
> http://week.ramsberg.net
>
> If this works out well, it could go on idefinitely. If no one is
> interested, it'll probably last a month or two.

Well, since you've very kindly included my recent release in your
first list, I would say I think this is a great idea, wouldn't I!

But I would just like to make a practical suggestion for anyone who
wants to download "All Hope Abandon" via your site. If you click on
the "Announcement" link rather than the "Download" link, you can
then download the game via the link given in my announcement. This
link leads to a zipped version of the file, so you'd only have to
download 545K instead of 1.4 MB for the unzipped version from the
archive (which may be particularly welcome for people with slow
internet connections). Also, this zip file contains an updated
version of the game which fixes a few bugs that came to light on
another thread.

And now I must take a look at The Fire Tower...

-- Eric

 

[Poster]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Fredrik Ramsberg wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Many IF games which are released and announced here don't get discussed
> much, especially if they're not part of the IF Comp. One possible
> reason is that people play the game at different times, or that people
> don't think anyone else would be interested to hear what they thought
> about a particular game. Let's try to change this.

[snip]

> If this works out well, it could go on idefinitely. If no one is
> interested, it'll probably last a month or two.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Fredrik
>

This is an *awesome* idea and long overdue, if you ask me.

--Poster


"I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the
propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth.
Communism is the goal." -- Roger Baldwin, founder of the ACLU.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Poster wrote:
> Fredrik Ramsberg wrote:
> > If this works out well, it could go on idefinitely. If no one is
> > interested, it'll probably last a month or two.
>
> This is an *awesome* idea and long overdue, if you ask me.

It was tried once before, actually, and called IF Book Club. It was
greeted with initial enthusiasm that rather quickly waned. I am
self-conscious about mentioning it, both because I don't want
to dampen enthusiasm for this incarnation, and also because
there's a sentiment lately that one of the problems with the IF
community renewing itself and staying healthy is that old-timers
greet every proposal with "Well, we already tried that." (It is
always true that it was tried, but "we already tried that" isn't
necessarily a good enough reason not to try again.)


--
J. Robinson Wheeler Games: http://raddial.com/
JRW Digital Media Movie: http://thekroneexperiment.com/

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

J. Robinson Wheeler wrote:
> Poster wrote:
> > Fredrik Ramsberg wrote:
> > > If this works out well, it could go on idefinitely. If no one is
> > > interested, it'll probably last a month or two.
> >
> > This is an *awesome* idea and long overdue, if you ask me.
>
> It was tried once before, actually, and called IF Book Club. It was
> greeted with initial enthusiasm that rather quickly waned. I am
> self-conscious about mentioning it, both because I don't want
> to dampen enthusiasm for this incarnation, and also because
> there's a sentiment lately that one of the problems with the IF
> community renewing itself and staying healthy is that old-timers
> greet every proposal with "Well, we already tried that." (It is
> always true that it was tried, but "we already tried that" isn't
> necessarily a good enough reason not to try again.)

Hmmm... I believe you have the best intentions, but you're still (in
this post) an old-timer saying "We already tried that."

I already knew about the IF Book Club, but Googled for it just now to
refresh my memory. The Book Club started a few years ago. Some people
have moved on from r.g.i-f, others have appeared, and this means the
things that work today are not necessarily the same that worked then.
The book club focused entirely on games too big for the comp, and from
their information one *could* get the impression that one would need a
month to really get into one of these games (I'm not saying they said
that, but that one could get the impression). Maybe it seemed too
demanding?

If we can spark some discussion for even a single game, this idea was
worth the little effort it took. If we can spark discussion for 100
games, even better.

My counter tells me roughly 100 people have liked the idea enough to
actually visit the web page in the first 22 hours. Since you could
probably have a good impression of The Fire Tower with just an hour of
playing time, I have good hope that enough people will join in to get
this going.

People here evidently like playing IF, and since they're here, I assume
a bunch of them also like to discuss IF. This initiative really comes
with no obligations, just an idea each week for a game to play if you
enjoy discussing IF games.

/Fredrik

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Hello Fredrik,

> This initiative really comes with no obligations, just an idea
> each week for a game to play if you enjoy discussing IF games.

It's a great idea.
Rob

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Now, I'd like to figure out if there will be enough interested people
around here during summer. So, if you think you'll join in the
discussions within the next three months or so, please take a
one-minute survey:

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?id=95747

(It's also available on the webpage http://week.ramsberg.net of course)

/Fredrik

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)

Fredrik Ramsberg wrote:
> Now, I'd like to figure out if there will be enough interested people
> around here during summer. So, if you think you'll join in the
> discussions within the next three months or so, please take a
> one-minute survey:

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who took the survey! The outcome
of the survey is reflected in the complete summer schedule on the web
site:

http://week.ramsberg.net

Please note: This is a redirection URL, but it is nevertheless the URL
to use. The site is currently located at microheaven.com, but that may
change in the near future.

/Fredrik