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IF is no longer discussed solely by the members of ifMud and the r*if newsgroups. People are discovering -- and discussing -- IF in many venues, such as classrooms, literature groups, casual gaming groups, and more. One new development is the formation of IF groups that meet in person; check out the People's Republic of Interactive Fiction in Boston, the Chicago Interactive Fiction Group, the SF Bay Area Interactive Fiction Group, and the Seattle IF Group!

We're seeing more discussion about how to make IF more accessible for new players, and how best to promote IF. For example, Emily Short asks So, Do We Need This Parser Thing, Anyway? Andrew Plotkin and Lea Albaugh offer a handy How to Play Interactive Fiction card under the Creative Commons license. Juhana Leinonen continues to develop Neophyte's IF Trainer project.

Browser-based IF is getting some love too. The success of Jay is Games' Casual Gameplay Design Competition #7 showed how useful the Parchment and Flaxo interpreters were for presenting IF to the gaming public. Expect to see TADS 3 and Glulx games also make their ways onto your browser. For more TADS 3 news, see the TADS 3 System Development blog. For Glulx terps, check out Quixe and ZMPP.

And don't forget about PAX Prime 2010 in September in Seattle!

• One Week (Papillon; 2001; TADS 2).
• The Death of Two Great Minds (Alex Watson; 2001; Z-code).
• Best of Three (Emily Short; 2001; Glulx).
• Four in One (J. Robinson Wheeler; 1998; TADS 2).
• The Frenetic Five vs. the Seven Deadly Dwarves (Neil deMause; 2002; TADS 2).
• Six Stories (Neil K. Guy; 1999; TADS 2).
• 8K Adventure (Paul Allen Panks; 2004; MS-DOS, TADS 2).
• Nine Points (Robert Janelle and Brad O'Donnell; 1996; Z-code).
• Ten Little Indians (Brian Howarth; 1983; various).

Results

• The Hugo "Open House" Competition 2012. 5 games (not ranked).
• Ectocomp 2012. Winner: Ghosterington Night (Wade Clarke; Z-code).
• Herbstlaub 2012. No entries.
• IF Comp 2012. 28 games. Winner: Andromeda Apocalypse (Marco Innocenti; Glulx).
• V5 Intro Comp 2012. 6 entries. Winner: The Blank Wall (Richard Otter; ADRIFT).
• IntroComp 2012. 6 entries. Winner: Resonance (Nereida Scales; ChoiceScript; Web browser).
• The Andromeda Legacy™ Competition. 2 entries. Winner: Andromeda Dreaming (Joey Jones; Glulx).
• Cover Stories. 12 games released on June 11th.
• Ten Room Game Competition. No entries.
• Spring Thing 2012. 4 entries. Winner: The Rocket Man from the Sea (Janos Honkonen; Z-code).
• French Minicomp 2011. Winner: Les aventures de Zeus (Benjamin Roux; Z-code).

Upcoming

• French Minicomp 2012. Submit by December 2012.
• Spring Thing 2013. Intents deadline: March 1, 2013, noon, Eastern US Time.

Also, watch for news about XYZZY Awards 2012.

(more detail at Current events)

• See Craft for how-to articles.
• See Theory for articles on IF concepts.
• See Starters if you're new to IF.
• See Current events to keep up to date on what's happening in the IF world.

You want to help edit the IFWiki? Great!

• Check out the community portal for an overview.
• Visit our list of wanted pages.
• Read the Game reference (style guide) and other style guides.
• Read Help:Editing if you're new to editing wikis like ours.