Anyone want a HUGE collection of IF?

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#1

Hey, y’all. Just wanted to let you know that I’ll be leaving the whole IF scene, for a number of reasons (chief amongst them simply that I seem to have little fun in playing IF anymore. Modern or otherwise. Any accompanying drama is just a side dish).

Now, I still have my collection, which I’ll be deleting. I mean, I’ll archive it on a USB pen, so it won’t be totally gone, but I’ll stop updating it and it won’t be taking up any space in my hard drive.

Anyone here insterested? This collection includes commercial games (so there’s your caveat - look at it like this, I bought the games and now I want to give them away to a friend or two. It’s not that far removed from selling second-hand), as well as graphical games (like Digital: A Love Story. Don’t ask me why, it felt too much like IF NOT to be in there) and not-really-IF (like a certain graphical adventure Brian Moriarty game, and a certain Douglas Adams starship game. I felt they were related to the legacy of Infocom).

It’s over 20gb, too. I’ll be happy to, I don’t know, split it up and send ten WeTransfer e-mails, or find a place to upload it for a very short time.

I’ll be deleting every IF site from my bookmark, except for this one over the next few days. Let me know if you’re interested and we’ll work it out.

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#2

I don’t mean to pry into your reasons, but is there a chance you might find IF more fun if you play the games without the stress of archiving them thoroughly?

#3

Actually, I have more fun in archiving them right now than I have in playing. :slight_smile: That was the realisation that made me go, “hold on, why am I doing this at all?”.

I’m just not as omnivorous as I thought. The last game I really enjoyed was Spider and Web, I played that just a few weeks ago, and I wouldn’t at all mind having that brilliant “ah-HA!” moment (which came super naturally to me!) be what I remember from IF. Certainly modern IF is struggling to give me what I like, and old-school IF is just too unforgiving.

I’m just really uncomfortable with most IF. It’s not worth trying to find the ones I like, anymore. I know that normal people do just that, cherry-picking based on ratings and reviews, but what can I say? I’m a rat-pack personality. :slight_smile: I can’t stand missing out on unpolished but enjoyable gems. I’m happier to just stop.

#4

Oh, another caveat. A HUGE swatch of my collection is still unsorted. There’s a folder that says “Pending Games”, and that’s where you’ll find the zip files, the .tafs, the .exes, the .blorbs, the .ssds, the .c10s, etc. The games are all there, sure - but if you are looking for a game, you’ll have to look in the appropriate folder (Amiga, for example) for the game’s name AND in the Pending Games folder for the filename.

Also, alphabetical order is the one that didn’t give me a headache. I.e., “The Baron” is listed under “T”. Seriously.

#5

what an unexpected development, young grasshopper!

take a vacation and return afresh… :wink:

20GB is way too huge for sharing, unless by torrent… do it. They say torrents make things become popular, so who knows. “You gotta see what I found on torrentz, dude. It’s an incredible new gaming genre”

#6

I don’t know why you’d feel the need to leave the IF scene. I’ve grown bored of it, and downright pissed off with it at times over the years, but at some point I always end up coming back because, y’know, at heart I like IF. You’ll probably feel the same way yourself soon. There’ll come a point when you think “hang on, why did I leave?”

On another note, and just for personal curiosity more than anything, what was that comment on the Int.fiction forum directed at Lucea about? You’ve always struck me as a pretty reasonable guy, Peter, and Lucea has always struck me as the sort who can’t pass a burning building without throwing a few matches inside, but your comment seemed way out of proportion to what she’d posted. I don’t know if there was a hidden meaning to her post which I totally missed, but your reply to it seemed a bit much.

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#7

A torrent might not be a bad idea. Ok, I’ll make one and put it here and keep it alive for a month or so.

Re Lucea, I just got so damn tired. I flipped. Honestly, I’d rather argue against Pudlo and Poster than Lucea. For all their faults, they were mostly rational in their discourse. This comp, this year’s specifically, was very peaceful and constructive except when she decided to pipe up, and I got sick and tired.

I’ve also been flipping a bit too much lately, and I’m also tired of that, and the flipping has been related to IF, and I’d like for it to stop. So I’m stopping it.

EDIT - In truth, a number of things haven’t been going well. I’m systematically dealing with each in turn. And it’s IF’s turn.

None of which is a reflection on you guys, especially the ones here on IntFic, because you are awesome. :slight_smile:

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#8

Ok, I’m creating the torrent now! Will update when it’s done. EDIT - Unsurprisingly, it’s taking a long time. I’ll get back to you in, oh, 10 hours or so? After I wake up, certainly!

Further notes: in the PENDING folder there’s the alphabetical folders and there’s some random-looking files, folders and zips. Those are the recent ones. They weren’t even sorted into “To Be Sorted Later”. They include the Ectocomp zips. The IFComp folder has, AFAIK, the latest updates for every game.

You’ll see some .lnk files, some shortcuts, to commercial games, like Text Muphy. Ignore them. Those games aren’t included, obviously. I jut put the shortcuts there as a reminder to play those games as well.

#9

You’ll be missed, as a vital voice of common sense who has held the line and prevented the lunatics from overrunning every single square foot of the asylum for many years now.

Based on what’s written here, though, I can understand where you’re coming from. For several years now I’ve only been active at all in following IF around the annual comp time. The rest of the year I’m occuppied with other hobbies that I find more compelling.

Best wishes in all your endeavors.

#10

Well, I’d like to see you back, if you change your mind. Even if you haven’t posted a lot here, your posts have had a lot of value per word. My life is the better for what you’ve shared, and I’m glad I shook of fears of what intfiction.org might think in order to spend time here. I hope you stay in touch.

I got my first ever warning from a moderator in the Lucea thread, and I intend to make it my last. But I’m not sorry I spoke up. I’m glad it wasn’t just me that was uneasy. I give myself one of those per month, maybe two.

Poster was okay on intfiction.org. This was before the CoC, too. Search Poster’s posts and there’s a lot of good information. Pudlo…well, there was an obviousness about Pudlo. Maybe if there were 2+ Pudlos it would get old, but just saying “Jacek Pudlo” in my mind makes me smile.

Jacek = oh geez, slight smile
Lucea = oh geez, don’t visit intfiction for a day

(And yes, this may contradict my attempt at “can’t we all get along” in the feedback thread, but I think there are a lot of people who’ve left just because they probably have somewhere else healthier, and it’s not due to where they are on the political spectrum. I didn’t notice this thread of Wade Clarke’s until he pointed me to it.)

Unfortunately it seems that the people who most enforce the rules are the people who are active on other sites eg Choice of Games or Euphoria. I am upset to read people saying “well intfiction.irg/intfic.com is sort of dead anyway” and then they drop in with an opinion why it’s dead or why there isn’t enough moderation.

And I think that’s a big fault. What if the website said, in big letters, “We’d like to have you along. Here are a few common sense things. Here are things we don’t find negotiable. Here are things we do?”

In my brief talks with Merk I got that “I’d like people around” vibe. With the CoC, I don’t.

Edited 14hrs later to add in response to an intfiction.org post: Pudlo’s sockpuppeting is really bad news. I saw only the endgame, the fake contarianism with no allies to support him. But, well, it’s about the now. And Pudlo will always be a figure to laugh at (/me goes to re-watch Star Trek episode Day of the Dove). Also I know it to be a pseudonym and it is a funny sound.

Maybe it’s not fair I get to laugh at Pudlo from my experiences and others don’t or can’t. But laughing at his last few trollings helped me deal with past trollings. Hopefully those hurt by him will find others whom they can look at, laugh, say “TROLL FAIL” and heal Pudlo’s abusive nonsense.

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#11

We’d like to have you along. Here are a few common sense things. Here are things we don’t find negotiable. Here are things we do?

I’d prefer those sorts of guidelines too. But I don’t know how much it would help.

#12

Re drama in community, I would rather not focus on that too much. Personally, there’s always been drama, but the fun of playing has always outweighed that.

The balance has tipped, and I can’t - and won’t - blame that on the drama. I would not like to leave the impression that that is the reason I’m going. Heck, I’m only staying around here long enough to get the collection shared, because there’s no drama like parting drama. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thank you all for the kind words, and Andrew, don’t think I haven’t noticed your post over there. It meant the world to me. Thank you.

I was having the silliest difficulties in finding ways to upload the torrent files, when I remembered… I still have MegaUpload active!

https://mega.nz/#!a5dSQZwR!7FHDHwZEUS3DMoE9siPV80CJu3_Ufy82B4QNtChZQBw

There you go! I’ll be checking this thread on and off just to make sure everything goes smoothly, and keeping my computer and client on and running most of the time, so knock yourselves out.

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#13

Hey, Lucea, glad to see you’re reading this thread (I was curious to see developments, as apparently were you), although you despise this place, and that the game of telephone you have so much contempt for is still going on. I actually do have some final words for you.

Your inability to see why what you just did is inflammatory and unpleasant - quoting Andrew in a different place than where he spoke, akin to overhearing a coworker venting at a pub among trusted friends and going on to his working place and saying “Did you know X said Y? What an unpleasant fellow! I bet none of you knew that!” - is… pretty much at the heart of everything that happened this IFComp, and why Pudlo was preferable to you.

Feel free to quote me as usual. Have a swell, stress-free life. If you can. I’m glad I was able to provide you with some entertainment in my last thread - never a dull moment, huh?

#14

OH oh oh! Two other important things:

  1. There are no QUEST games in my collection. I gave up on them; the QUEST released games page has an unusual sorting method that was frustrating to try and make sense of, so I gave up entirely.

  2. It’s all Windows-optimised. So you’ll find Windows emulators (for Commodore and Spectrum and Apple II), and some setting might be specific to my machine. I’m obviously not too concerned about that, you’re all more tech-savvy than I am and all have your favourite terps anyway, so anything inside the “Tools and Interpreters” folder, while not liable to explode, may not actually work. Still! It’s the games you’re all here for!

#15

See what I miss by not coming around enough. Peter, sorry to see you go and I hope all goes well with you and that someday, perhaps you’ll be back.

I don’t go on the other forum much at all anymore, don’t care for the drama and rarely post anything for fear of breaking something unforseen rule by hurting someone’s feelings. While I strive to be kind to everyone, I don’t live my life walking on eggshells. So unfortunately (or fortunately perhaps), I’ve missed the context of the Lucea references and I don’t think I care to much to go find out. That’s why I love this forum so much, even though people have disagreed at times, we’ve been more free to speak our minds and no one really thinks the less of anyone. If anyone is offended, we seem to brush ourselves off and move on for the love of why we are all here.

Anyway, Peter…we’ll miss you. Be well and know that I for one will always welcome your return!

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#16

I agree that this sort of thing

[quote=“PeterPiers, post:13, topic:331, full:true”]
quoting Andrew in a different place than where he spoke, akin to overhearing a coworker venting at a pub among trusted friends and going on to his working place and saying “Did you know X said Y? What an unpleasant fellow! I bet none of you knew that!”[/quote]

is unpleasant, and I wouldn’t like it if someone did that to me.

But I strongly disagree with the comparison to Pudlo.

And lest anyone see this as an invitation to persuade me otherwise, please don’t. I wouldn’t want other people to have this sort of conversation about me, so I don’t want to have this sort of conversation about others.

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#17

For my part, I said that I prefer to interact with Pudlo or Poster than with her. Andrew seems to feel something similar. There is a difference between that and saying she’s worse than Pudlo, but of course it’s a fine difference. I wouldn’t have expected her to pick up on it, and she hasn’t.

It hasn’t helped that we were talking amongst ourselves, she overheard, and then went off to hyperbolise what she heard. As she did last time. Maybe if she’d joined in… in fact maybe if she’d joined in LAST time… things would have been different. Ah well.

Whew. She’s making it easy for me to leave. :slight_smile: She’s also keeping me more active in this place than I’d intended to be by this stage, though. Note to self: refrain from posting any further.

(since I’m here, though, thanks harpua!)

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#18

Yes, this is what I mean, or I think/hope I meant. I edited my post to reflect this. England has Guy Fawkes day, doesn’t it? He’s much worse than, say, someone who spray paints an old couple’s home. But the spray paint is a current issue.

I’d probably have been chased away by Pudlo in his prime. Perhaps I’m lucky not to be a big name in that regard, or to show up late. One reason I’m able to laugh at him was that I made an entirely ill informed and advised pm to him, thinking he was a pseudonym of an IFComp coauthor, and it wound him up.

Time heals a lot of wounds, too. I was thinking about trolls or power brokers on other forums that annoyed me. I remember in my mid-20s fighting against how an 18 year old person seemed to run a certain subforum, and it was frustrating then. It took a while to sort out a few dynamics, but–it’s served me well, and I have some distance from that.

I don’t particularly feel like making a ranking of past enemies. But remembering their weakest moments and biggest fails helps immensely, so that I’m spending evenings doing what I want instead of wondering if they’ve gotten theirs.

Oh and about quotes. The thing is that in trying (however poorly) for nuance, you can be misquoted. But it’s important to keep trying.

ETA: I also forgot I learned a HECK of a lot from how people took down Pudlo and marginalized him at least in his later years. So my views are also biased from that. And I applied the lessons learned to other communities/forums where I needed to take a deep breath. So regardless of his clearly hurtful intent, what he did, and how other intfiction.org residents worked around it and boxed him in, came at a good time for me.

#19

Well, I see one of the mods outright deleted the thread on Int.fiction. Classic case of overreaction there, like using an absolutely massive hammer to knock in a tiny nail. Chalk one up to the Lucea crowd, I guess, as the forum moves another step closer towards banning every discussion. Sigh.

Another thread’s been started by a mod asking how CoC violations should be handled in future, and there we have Sequitir saying that personal attacks and harmful speech should be a bannable offence. Funnily enough, this is the same Sequitir who earlier branded us all racist, homophobic sexists. Pot, kettle, black…

I despair of that place sometimes.

#20

If someone could give me some feedback when trying to use the torrent, it’d be much appreciated. I’m a bit at sea with seeding torrents, and I was hoping uTorrent would allow me to see whether someone is downloading it, and whether they were finished, but either it doesn’t or - more likely - I don’t know where to look!