Gaming Classics: Interactive Fiction
Interactive Fiction games, or IF games, started the genre that we know today as adventure. IF games were originally text based (I say originally because modern ones have some graphic elements), relying on storyline/plot rather than graphics and game play. The best of the best of these text based games was Infocom. They started the who genre with the game series called Zork, which can be downloaded for free from their website. There has been many other companies that have created IF games, even to this day.
I’ve been quite addicted to these games and wanted a way to bring them with me. I happen to own a Black Berry, so I did some research and found this. It’s lacking a few features and the text sometimes gets scrambled, but its well worth trying out.
But definitely check out one of the many original IF games!
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.lonely pixel 
I’ve created a game called the Citadel (http://tinyurl.com/phx-spy-game)in Phoenix, AZ. We have been trying to categorize the Citadel for weeks with our new pr person. We landed on immersive fiction, but then realized that appears to be text based, then immersive fiction game, or an IF Game, but according to this, they’re text based also. We are a live action spy adventure game that is story based – but I don’t think we’re a larp. We are a pay-to-play game for four people that go to roughly 10 different locations in downtown Phoenix and encounter a cast of live actors on their mission. We give them spy gear and they interact with a hybrid of online and live characters. What are we?? Any insight would be appreciated…
I beleive the genre your looking for is Alternate Reality Game, or ARG for short. I never heard of a LARP before though! Very interesting. Is this game still in beta?
No, we just launched. Although we are tightening up the ship with each new run. It took us two years to develop and test. I screwed up the article about us in my previous post by running the closed parenthases into the url. 🙂 We’re at http://tinyurl.com/phx-spy-game
ARG would be cool with me, but since it’s live and there’s a 4 to 6 hour time period instead of possibly months for some ARGs, we were reluctant to associate the Citadel with that. We came up with the term “immersive fiction” on our own and then discovered by googling that it’s already alive and well… kind of like when I “discovered” continental drift in the third grade… hee. Anyway, immersive fiction is a facinating discussion and thanks so much for expanding our understanding on the subject!
Ah! I was wondering your link wasn’t working. But yes, I must admit game genre’s isn’t my specialty. Nonetheless you have an interesting game there. Hopefully the two years spent on your “child” turns out to be well worth your time. =]