I haven't even been on this site very long and I've already seen several people trying to play games and leaving confused or incredulous remarks because they literally have no idea what IF is and not even the foggiest idea of how to play. It's so far outside their experience that even with the 'type here' prompt, typing commands (even 'help') is something that would never occur to them, and invariably they blame the game itself.

Is there any way we could get an explanation of the basics somewhere on the main site that we can link these people too? Something added to the Help section maybe?

Great idea - if anybody wants to write one, I'm happy to link to it.

I know Andrew Plotkin has this card http://pr-if.org/doc/play-if-card/play-if-card.pdf but it would be good to have something more relevant to the games on this site - something to explain the differences between hyperlink and parser-based games, and maybe mentioning the verb menus that some Quest games use.

I thought about doing a tutorial game, like a For Dummies thing. Never got round to it though.

Well I'm not sure how usable any of this is, but here's a rough draft I hacked out:

*******

Help! How do I play?

There are two different kinds of text adventures hosted here on the site: gamebooks and interactive fiction.

Gamebooks can be written in many styles but most of them can be thought of like the choose-you-own-adventure books you might have enjoyed as a child. You begin reading a story and are asked to make decisions that allow you to follow it along branching paths, with different choices leading to different outcomes.

Interactive fiction puts you in charge of a character you control using typed commands to explore their simulated world. You can look at your surroundings or specific objects there, move from room to room using compass directions like north, south, east, and west, take or get items which will then be placed in your inventory. (For convenience you may use abbreviations such as l or x for 'l'ook or e'x'amine, n, s, e, w to travel, or 'i' to examine the items in your inventory.)

In most games you solve puzzles or progress through the plot by using actions or 'verbs' to interact with your surroundings. You might use one object on another, push a button or pull a lever, unlock a door with a key, speak to a knight or kill a troll with a sword. Every game is different and limited only by the imagination of the author and player.

*******

If anyone wants to expand on anything go right ahead. The gamebook section in particular is pretty sparse, but I wasn't sure how much detailed explanation 'click the links' really needed...

^^ That's very good, Marzipan.

Thanks.

I hope we can get it or something like it posted too, because hoo boy, we just got another one:

Comment by Sioraf as Na Cillini
29 Dec 2014
Nope, it's this one alright. Sorry again.

Comment by Sioraf as Na Cillini
29 Dec 2014

Sorry, wrong game. I was thinking of Vespers.

Comment by Sioraf as Na Cillini
29 Dec 2014

What a lame game. There's some text at the start but then it's just "I beg your pardon?" over and over again.

Comment by Sioraf as Na Cillini
29 Dec 2014
This game doesn't seem to even work.

At least he had the decency to use comments instead of ratings, but that's four comments in a row basically saying 'I do not understand what IF is and cannot bother looking it up, ergo: eff this game'

(Vespers is also a well-known IF game that he apparently had the same problem with.)

I think the protocol for if you want the site updating is to create the page and then submit a pull request in GitHib.

But I don't know what any of that means!

Me neither.

Basically, you create the html page with the tutorial on it. Then you submit it to Quest's Github as a pull request. I have no idea how that's done, otherwise I'd explain. Alternatively create the page and email it to Alex. Maybe we need a thread explaining how to use Github?