What-IF?

by David Ledgard

Historical, Abuses
2000

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1-14 of 14


- Edo, November 10, 2023

>INVENTORY - Paul O'Brian writes about interactive fiction

This file has nothing to offer as IF. Its writing is difficult, sometimes impossible, to understand. It might make an interesting pamphlet, if somebody who is fluent in English gave it a major editorial overhaul. What it's doing in an interactive fiction competition remains an unanswered question.

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- penguincascadia (Puget Sound), March 29, 2022

- Zape, December 21, 2020

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
A series of speculative essays accessed by a menu, April 16, 2016

This game is a series of essays about "What if major historical events had happened differently?"

It is interesting reading but not polished. It is quite descriptive, however.

The interactivity didn't really draw me in, and I don't see myself reading it again. While the essays were fascinating, I felt no emotional connection to the text.

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- Adam Biltcliffe (Cambridge, UK), May 10, 2015

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Not what I need, January 12, 2014
by Simon Deimel (Germany)

This project is not bad in itself, but it does not fit into the category of a game; it is a collection of articles about alternate histories. It may serve educational purposes, yes, it may even be informative. If someone wants to read a number of essays, that is. But I suppose that is not what people search for in Inform projects; they want text based games with interactivity and a positive ending that can be reached. Nothing of it can be found here.

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- lobespear, February 2, 2011

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Not a game but not necessarily a waste, December 3, 2010
by tggdan3 (Michigan)

One of the things I noticed on the inform7's website was its usefulness in classrooms. It seems like the author here was trying to portray history (or possible alternate histories) in a unique way which could better benefit his classroom.

As the other reviews state: this is not a game- there is nothing but a menu of 6 choices, with certain historical events with a "what if someone important had died" question.

As a non-game, it would have been nice if certain meta-commands had been disabled (I'm still as good looking as ever and am carrying nothing). Perhaps a hypertext document would have been better suited than a Z-code project, but it's not fair to just slam it, because that's one of the things that inform 7 is marketed as.

Even still, IFDB might not be the place for it as it isn't a game or story in any real way, and so people looking for such won't find much here.

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- Sylvia Storm, December 3, 2010

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Rather watch grass grow, December 2, 2010
by Aintelligence (Canada)

Ok, this author maybe needs to realize that all of what was described did not happen, and I personally don't want to spend the day reading bogus historical essays.
Oh yeah and this really isn't a game
Why is this on here?

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- Dave Chapeskie (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), June 14, 2008

- Stephen Bond (Leuven, Belgium), October 26, 2007

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Not a game, October 19, 2007
by Tracy Poff (Hamlin, West Virginia, United States)
Related reviews: IF Competition 2000

"What-IF?" isn't a game at all. It's simply a menu-driven collection of essays. I didn't find the essays particularly interesting, either, so this game has no saving grace, as far as I am concerned. This 'game' is just a waste of time; I'd recommend avoiding it.

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