Reader Survey Results:
IF Fans Mostly Male and American,
But Play Diverse Bunch of Games

• What is your gender?
  
  
  
  Only 18 of the survey respondents were women. While not much of a statistically significant sample, the women respondents (median age: 29 years old) were somewhat older than the men (median age: 24 years old).

• What country do you live in?
  
  
  
  The U.S. drew the biggest response (137 of those surveyed), followed by the United Kingdom (22); Germany and Canada (6 apiece); and Sweden (5). The following countries drew one or two responses each: Australia; Brazil; Norway; New Zealand; Denmark; Poland; Finland; Singapore; and Austria.

• What is your occupation?
  
  

• On which platform(s) do you play computer games?
  
  

       DOS:             54.8%
       Macintosh OS     38.7%
       Windows          25.8%
       Unix             22.6%
       Others           16.1%

  
  Respondents were encouraged to name as many platforms as applicable, so totals do not add up to 100 percent. The "Other" category includes Acorn, OS/2, and Amiga computers, as well as the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum and the Psion 3a Organizer.

• What is your favorite Infocom game of all time?
  
  

       Ranking     Game        % Responding
       1.          Zork series        26.8%
       2.          Trinity            22.6%
       3.          Planetfall         17.2%
       4.          Wishbringer        12.4%
       5.          Bureaucracy         9.1%
       6.          AMFV                5.9%
       7.          Hitchhiker's        3.7%
  

• What is your favorite non-Infocom adventure of all time?
  
  Readers suggested several dozen games, but there were really only two that drew significant responses -- Adventure/Colossal Cave (28.4%) and Curses (12.9%). Christminster was a distant third (2.6%).

• What would you say was the worst text adventure game you ever played?
  
  This question also drew dozens of responses--most with quite elaborate explanations why! Although they weren't picked in any significant percentages, the top three frequently named "worst" games were: Space Aliens Laughed at My Cardigan; The Babysitter; and Detective.

• What text adventure games are you currently playing?
  
  

       Ranking     Game               % Responding
       1.          competition games          29.6%
       2.          Christminster              19.3%
       3.          Curses                     17.2%
       4.          Theatre                    10.2%
  

  
  Another frequent response was "None." (13.4%)

• What computer game(s) aside from text adventures are you currently playing?
  
  

       Ranking     Game               % Responding
       1.          Myst                      13.9%
       2.          Kyrandia                   9.1%
       3.          Return to Zork             7.0%
       4.          DOOM                       6.4%
  

  
  Actually, the most frequent response in this category was "None right now" (20.4%)

• Assorted additional comments
  
  "By the by -- one of the features I rather like in magazines is the 'Where are they now?', which report on what actually happened to ol' whatshisname. Does anyone have any info on Messrs Crowther and/or Woods? Two names destined for the Hall of Fame, eh? For that matter, do we have any information on Dave Lebling, Steve Meretzky or Marc Blanc? It's not a big deal -- and I'm not one for gossip columns -- but I thought it might be of interest."
  
  "I would like to see someone collect a list of helpful people who are happy to be e-mailed for clues on various games. This would be great for stuck players, it would keep boring traffic out of rec.games.if. I've also noticed that rec.games.if doesn't seem very good for hints. Lots of people ask for hints and don't get answers. Well not via news anyway."
  
  "I really like your magazine. Perhaps articles about the history of IF would be interesting. I would also appreciate articles on IF on other Systems, especially on old 8-bitters. Are there any new programs coming out? "
  
  "The computer technology keeps pulling me away from text adventures. This presents a dilemma for me that remains unresolved. I love and cherish my old memories of Adventure, Scott Adams' games, and Infocom but Myst, Under A Killing Moon, and Phantasmagoria are so powerful in their own ways. I don't compare the two. But the latter takes up most of my time."

September/October Top 10 Picks for IF on the World Wide Web

Adventure Game History List (Hans Persson)
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~unicorn/adv/agh-index.html

Adventure Zine
http://www.gameworld.com/

L -- A Mathemagical Adventure
http://acorn.educ.nottingham.ac.uk/ShellCent/ITech/lt.html

The Doomsday Brunette
http://zeb.nysaes.cornell.edu/CGI/ddb/demo.cgi

Adventure Game Companies
http://www.lysator.liu.se/~unicorn/adv/agh-index.html

maddog's Studio
http://www.maddog.com/

MUD Area building software and links
http://www.goodnet.com/~esnible/mudinfo.htm

Return to Zork -- Complete Walkthrough
http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain/walkthru/rtz.html

The search for some hypertext fiction
http://is.rice.edu/~riddle/hyperfiction.html

Text in CyberSpace
http://lydia.bradley.edu/las/soc/syl/391/papers/text_cyb.html

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