On April 2, “ClubFloyd,” a group of players of interactive fiction, took on my Book and Volume, which was released on the [auto mata] label in 2005. They played the game on ifMUD and conversed online about it. Reading the discussion was a treat for me. Not because every bit of it was positive – I found out about some bugs. For instance, since the current time is only reported in the status line, it can’t be easily determined when playing the game via a bot on a mud, the way this group was playing. But the feedback from these sessions was very useful, and would have been hard to come by otherwise.
I think some of the ClubFloyd players had fun, although I’m not exactly sure how to interpret statements such as “This game boggles the mind.” In any case, the transcript of ClubFloyd’s play is online.
It boggled the mind in ways that seemed good to me and in ways that seemed bad to me. Moulding my confused thoughts into a more coherent analysis than the one you quote is certainly something I want to do in the future.
I think we all had a lot of fun on the first session, but less when we became stuck in the second session. My overall impression was certainly positive, though; I’m happy I played the game.