Andrew Plotkin

Random image from GDC week:

"The Point Is", a lecture by Brian Moriarty, given at CGDC 1996. The Proceedings had a typographical version which went on for several pages in this Discordian/Brunner-esque style.

(From the MADE game history collection.)

This will always be the best joke.

GDC recap part two: the gloomy future.

Really, what I'm doing is lining up as complete a picture as I can of GDC's overall trajectory. I’m not just here to say "It's doomed." I suspect it's doomed but the details are interesting regardless.

https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/03/gdc-gloom

#GDC

Remember I was talking about the 1989 context of Infocom documentation?

The Video Game History Foundation has just posted some audio recordings from that GDC! Or “CGDC 1989", as it was called then.

https://archive.gamehistory.org/folder/ccdbd662-971d-4296-87a8-7a7e6473b41b

Features the voices of Dani Bunten, Noah Falstein, Doug Sharp, Richard Garriott, Chris Crawford, Cliff Johnson, and others.

Visible Zorker status: Deadline is in progress, though only barely. I've run into a couple of problems -- notably the source code is missing a file!

https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/03/visible-zorker-march

#InteractiveFiction

Gonna catch a couple more GDC talks and then return to the IFTF booth from noon-3pm.

The text/plain segment of GDC's feedback reminder email has been wrong for at least a decade. (Yes, way longer than since 2024.)

Btw, the show floor is shockingly thin. Areas like IGF and alt.ctrl.gdc that used to be laid out with narrow aisles now have huge, generous space allocations.

It’s nice for us but wow.

IFTF is set up at GDC in the Commons area. Next to a sign that confusingly says “Indie Arcade”, but it’s actually the space for nonprofits and indie dev community groups.

There’s our machines demoing Twine!

There’s an odd GDC vibe where they got rid of the Mon/Tues indie pass and said everything is all week now. But they didn’t solidly communicate that the show floor is still Weds-Fri. I’ve seen people walking around asking “where are the booths?”

Also I’m sure this is why talks are packed. More people showed up Monday, less to do.

GDC day 2. Perhaps today I will eat a vegetable!

Okay, Saturday I had dan dan noodle which had some bok choy. And tonight I’m meeting people at Fang which has excellent vegetarian options. But I should really look for a salad for lunch too. Too many bad fries yesterday.

Survived day one (evening one) of GDC tabling. (This was at the Oracle Park event.)

Loud movie was loud. Sex Bob-Omb was not the ideal backdrop to explaining IF to people. But, that’s conferences.

Looking at Infocom's “Learning ZIL" document in context.

https://blog.zarfhome.com/2026/02/1989-in-context

#InteractiveFiction

I played a bunch of the Titanium Court demo last night and I can report that all the narrative gimcrackery was received with great glee -- top-notch stage business -- and all of the actual gameplay was an airless slog and I don't really want to play any more of it.

Sorry! If you enjoy match-3 stuff, you should check it out.

I am nervous about CloudFlare's free-tier bot-blocking service, which is rapidly becoming a requirement to host *any* kind of free forum/wiki/service on the web.

It's great that they offer that. But it's one manager decision away from being a profit center. Cloudflare could enshittify a huge swathe of the web overnight, and somebody with a spreadsheet knows that.

The Activision thing finally landed. Which means MS owns Infocom, via an impressive 40-year chain of buyouts, takeovers, and shakeups.

Now I formally put forth the plea:

Microsoft should put all of Infocom’s IP under a Creative Commons license. Or donate the rights to a nonprofit which can do the same. Let’s bring all these legally-shaky fan sites and collections into the light.

https://blog.zarfhome.com/2023/10/microsoft-consumes-activision

(Yes, I’m part of a nonprofit that could do that.)

Pass it along.

#InteractiveFiction