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It occurs to me, after looking at the tags, that I should have perhaps introduced myself first. So, here goes.
My name's Jacqueline. I live in Alaska. I try to spend a good deal of time outside, but I live in a rain forest with long dark winters, so I get a fair amount of indoor time, and gaming is a big part of that.
I'm a huge fan of interactive fiction, and I'm actually pretty active in the IF community. I run a weekly online IF gaming group (ClubFloyd), and each summer I run a programming competition mostly targeted at new authors/programmers (IntroComp). I like to write reviews of interactive fiction, graphic adventure, and sometimes videogames, though in writing this it occurs to me that there are a bunch of reviews piled up over at my LiveJournal account that I really need to port over to my website. Oh well, winter's coming, and there'll be time enough for that.
Maybe it's because I live in a really remote place (most of what I play is acquired by download), but I don't always run out to get the next cool thing. A lot of the stuff I love to play has been around awhile, and doesn't get old. Right now I'm rotating between Warband, American McGee's Alice, Planescape, and the occasional Civ 4, Tropico or Zangband game. I'm not, like, morally opposed to consoles, it's just that I already can't find enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do, and buying a console seems like a guaranteed way to lose yet more of my life.
On the table these days I seem to be quite fond of Arkham Horror, Tobago, Illuminati, Race for the Galaxy, Dominion, and Gloom.
I keep trying to get more into RPG stuff... my husband tried crafting something for me from scratch that he thought I'd love (and I do!), but for some reason we don't play it very often. He is of the opinion that most of the fun of RPGs is it being done with other people, but we live in a really small town (less than 1000 people), so that pretty much leaves online role playing. I have a group of friends that get together online and play a lot, so maybe I should ask if they'd take a newbie under their wing. Something to think about.
Anyway, that's me, gaming-wise. Glad to see this community exists. I was at PAX East this spring, and it seems to me there's more girls out there than people seem to think.
Looking very forward to watching this community!
My name's Jacqueline. I live in Alaska. I try to spend a good deal of time outside, but I live in a rain forest with long dark winters, so I get a fair amount of indoor time, and gaming is a big part of that.
I'm a huge fan of interactive fiction, and I'm actually pretty active in the IF community. I run a weekly online IF gaming group (ClubFloyd), and each summer I run a programming competition mostly targeted at new authors/programmers (IntroComp). I like to write reviews of interactive fiction, graphic adventure, and sometimes videogames, though in writing this it occurs to me that there are a bunch of reviews piled up over at my LiveJournal account that I really need to port over to my website. Oh well, winter's coming, and there'll be time enough for that.
Maybe it's because I live in a really remote place (most of what I play is acquired by download), but I don't always run out to get the next cool thing. A lot of the stuff I love to play has been around awhile, and doesn't get old. Right now I'm rotating between Warband, American McGee's Alice, Planescape, and the occasional Civ 4, Tropico or Zangband game. I'm not, like, morally opposed to consoles, it's just that I already can't find enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do, and buying a console seems like a guaranteed way to lose yet more of my life.
On the table these days I seem to be quite fond of Arkham Horror, Tobago, Illuminati, Race for the Galaxy, Dominion, and Gloom.
I keep trying to get more into RPG stuff... my husband tried crafting something for me from scratch that he thought I'd love (and I do!), but for some reason we don't play it very often. He is of the opinion that most of the fun of RPGs is it being done with other people, but we live in a really small town (less than 1000 people), so that pretty much leaves online role playing. I have a group of friends that get together online and play a lot, so maybe I should ask if they'd take a newbie under their wing. Something to think about.
Anyway, that's me, gaming-wise. Glad to see this community exists. I was at PAX East this spring, and it seems to me there's more girls out there than people seem to think.
Looking very forward to watching this community!
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(Also, I was at PAX East, too! We ladies were legion.)
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Very cool! Though you need not wade through my reviews. That's a bit of work. What genres do you like? What are you hoping for in an IF game? Reply with that and I'll give you my recommendations.
And at PAX East there were a bunch of IF things going on. Same with PAX Prime (happening right now in Seattle). The IF folks are already planning for what we'll do in Boston next year. If you're interested in more info, let me know. We usually have a suite somewhere where we have extra off-site panels (though we had a few official ones as well).
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Last year was my first PAX of any kind and totally a last-minute impulse trip, so I hit panels largely at random (and heard about Get Lamp only after the screening, alas). I'm planning to go to East again next year, and I'd love to stop by the IF suite!
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Galatea by Emily Short is well known for being a landmark game for a very developed NPC with good conversation. In fact, the game is *all about* conversation. Short to play, lots of endings if you replay.
Another landmark conversation game of Emily's is Alabaster. It's notable because, in beta testing, testers had the ability to tell the game what they wanted to talk about. If it wasn't already implemented, the game would ask what the player *thought* the response should be, then generated the actual code that Emily needed to integrate the new response. So the conversation is really deeply implemented. Again, multiple endings. More plot than Galatea.
But my favorite games of Emily's remain Metamorphoses (one of her first games, beautiful, but somewhat heavy-tricky-puzzly) and Floatpoint, which won the 2006 comp (it's also tricksy, but I'm fond of it for a number of reasons... its beauty, its plot, its depth... and the fact that the glacier at the start of the game was inspired by a glacier near my home).
Best recent amazing game is the landmark work Blue Lacuna, by Aaron Reed. One of the largest pieces of IF to date, but don't let that scare you. It's immersive and easy to get into and very, very well done. It just got accepted into IndiCade (sort of the Sundance of indie games) and there's a cool video of Aaron's Artist Statement about the game that's worth watching before you play (with no huge spoilers) at this link.
One of the most beautiful games I've played recently is Hoist Sail for the Heliopause and Home. It's scifi, which I'm normally not that into, but *so* pretty. Kind of puzzly, as most of Andrew Plotkin's games are, but you're into that, so...
Violet by Jeremy Freese won the comp a couple years back. Great use of voice. There are no NPCs, but the narrator itself is an NPC of sorts. Puzzly, but pleasantly so. It's about a man who needs to write his thesis, but is a horrible procrastinator, and you have to eliminate all the distractions to get him to write. Very amusingly done.
Mike Gentry's Anchorhead is twelve years old now, but still awesome. Feels like a real place. Horror that works.
Jason Devlin's Vespers is dark and well-crafted. You are a monk. Five days ago you shut the monastery gates to keep out the plague, but now most of the monks have died anyway. You do not have the plague yet. There are multiple endings determined by behaviour throughout the play session.
Lost Pig is something I think nearly everyone has loved. You play an orc. Heavy use of character voice. Fun puzzles. Well implemented NPC.
And those are just my initial thoughts. You might want to bookmark IFDB, as it's a good site for finding recommendations based on preferences.
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Also, Speed IF sounds like an excellent time. I am so getting in on this next year.
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Man, that was released in 2004?! I need to get something new out that's not some quick Speed IF or crazy Whispers project. I have some works in progress, though, so there's hope for me on the horizon.
Glad you already know of a couple of those recs. Hope you enjoy the rest as much. I helped test Lost Pig and will be eternally fond of it. Hope you like it.
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