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Oct. 10th, 2002 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
progI showed up at work today because I really can't work so steadily on book like that, not in the middle of the week, or even in the middle of the day. I have mentally partitioned book-work to happen best through furtive spasms of effort in single-digit morning hours. When it works, I carry myself through the early morning, and spend the next day in a drooling stupor, sure, but it's a noble sacrifice, right?
Also, I still haven't gotten any of the other tech reviews. This makes me frown, and anxiety starts to seep back in. Surely, if they're taking so long, it means...?
Also also, I showed up to get my paycheck (too disorganized/harried to sign up for direct depsoit yet), only to find that the new HR system has shifted the checks forward by a week. Meh. (I will note to veteran readers that this does not put drop me into the financial pit that a late check would have only a few months ago. I am very comfortable now. So much so that it's been months since I've paid any attention to how much money I have, as I have enough to pay bills and buy lunch and that's all I have had the mental presence to care about. This is actually kind of bad, I know. I can't care about that right now. Talk to me after la la la.)
I played a little of Zork: Grand Inquistor last night on a whim, months after shoving it away in disgust. As usually happens with such things, I very quickly did the not-very-obvious thing you must do to advance past the prologue, and got into the meat of the game. Hey, it's actually pretty fun! Blessedly, the character who accompanies you and acts as narrator (through voiceover, as well as on-screen subtitles if you've got them turned on) once you go Underground isn't very irritating (going against the grain of circa 1997 computer game live-actors, who fill up the rest of the discs), and is arguably genuinely amusing from time to time, as is the rest of the game's content, once you get into it. I even belly-laughed at a couple of spots.
In related news, I have played five of the IFComp games, and found at least two of them very good. (OK, one of the games I didn't really play; I saw that it was yet another text adventure game about text adventure games, and decided I'd rather abstain my vote on it than slog through it. Yes, it is somewhat hypocritical of me to dislike self-referential IF. Meh.) I shall abide by the no-discussion semi-rule and not reveal which ones they were, but I sustain my high hopes for this year's competition.
I wonder if one of the games I like so far is by a well-known (in IF community circles) author writing under a pseudonym, as known authors almost always do when they enter the comp, to prevent the presence of their name from skewing the player's perception of the work's quality. If so, I can't guess who. (I still feel bad for not guessing Zarf's last two comp entries as Zarf games. In hindsight, they both scream Zarfiness.) (This game is not a Zarf game, anyway. I think.) The other game is by a first-time author writing under her real name (she introduces herself in the game's post-victory AMUSING section), and that's pretty neat; she will surely achieve Emily Short-like levels of crowd anticipation about her next games.