Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

What?? Fresh Krips? Can it be?

http://trottingkrips.caltrops.com/2021/ ... soft-1985/

Thanks, Flack!
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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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My review this month is of Aayela by Magnus Olsson. Two Krips in one month? It's almost unprecedented!

http://trottingkrips.caltrops.com/2021/ ... sson-1996/

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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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I got my September review posted in the nick of time. I should probably quit deciding to change the game I'm going to review at the very end of the month. (I probably won't.)

http://trottingkrips.caltrops.com/2021/ ... anie-2021/

Incredibly, IF Comp 2021 is starting tomorrow! I say something like this every year, but I'm really planning on starting to play the games early this year and cover more games than ever before. This is the year, I can feel it. Robb, you better start the comp thread bright and early tomorrow because I'm going to have a lot to say this time around. Turn me loose, Robb!

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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Thanks once again for keeping the dream alive. I have not given up on an October Surprise.
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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

Post by Jizaboz »

I want to take part in this.. reviewing game descriptions..
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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

Post by pinback »

That was extremely enjoyable to read, and your final rating was lower than I was expecting given the review that preceded it.
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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

Post by bryanb »

Thanks, Ben! I know there's been some rating deflation going on with my reviews. Maybe some inflation as well if you're saying I rated An Amical Bet too high, but you know I'm a sucker for witty banter...plus, it used the word fastuous! I definitely don't give out as many 10s or 9s as I used to, and part of me seems to want to give every game a 7 for some reason. Maybe I should just embrace it and go with a 7.0-7.99 rating scale from this point forward. In my mind a 7 IS a good game, comfortably above the average, so I hope people don't think that's a bad rating. There was a paragraph I cut out of the last review that criticized the graphics (which were mostly not created by the author) and one of the NPC interactions which I perhaps should have kept. I just didn't like how the paragraph flowed or how I was coming across in it so I sacrificed content for style and ego. Maybe I need to start publishing director's cuts of reviews.

I do want to do a better job of covering games across the whole rating spectrum. That'll be one of my Trotting Krips resolutions for 2022 along with Finish Building the Site for the third straight year.

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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Tweeted out!

I got things in negotiations for getting a previous game on STEAM and I am hard at work for finishing up all the weapons and armor for Cyberganked. I thougth my The Pawn review was a year ago, but it was two years ago. Not acceptable. Targeting mid-month to have a post up. I again apologize, because Flack and Bryan B. are killing it.
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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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Which old game is coming to Steam, Robb? This is big news! And you're doing it just in time for Commercial Text Adventures Month which had to have been totally planned. I plan to provide two updates to the CTAM thread in December since I bought a game for the festivities last year that I completely forgot to talk about. Exciting times lie ahead!

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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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November's review is up. It's of Brave Bear by John Evans!

http://trottingkrips.caltrops.com/2021/ ... vans-2021/

I really want to try to avoid being in the position of having to finish up a review on New Year's Eve, but I believe I've written every single review I put out this year on the last day of the month so the prognosis is grim. Oh well, it's not like I have anything else planned. Let's greet the new year with the Krips!

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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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bryanb wrote: Sat Nov 06, 2021 12:43 pm Which old game is coming to Steam, Robb? This is big news! And you're doing it just in time for Commercial Text Adventures Month which had to have been totally planned. I plan to provide two updates to the CTAM thread in December since I bought a game for the festivities last year that I completely forgot to talk about. Exciting times lie ahead!
Its Jay Schilling's Edge of Chaos - sorry, by the way, I could not find where you asked that question so I couldn't answer after I closed my browser last month!
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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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bryanb wrote: Tue Nov 30, 2021 11:12 pm November's review is up. It's of Brave Bear by John Evans!

http://trottingkrips.caltrops.com/2021/ ... vans-2021/

I really want to try to avoid being in the position of having to finish up a review on New Year's Eve, but I believe I've written every single review I put out this year on the last day of the month so the prognosis is grim. Oh well, it's not like I have anything else planned. Let's greet the new year with the Krips!
Thanks again for a great review! As you might have seen on Wordpress, I have takes on 4 games that I just need to calm my brain down and get writing. I can commit to taking the 12/30 or 12/31 day if you feel that would be helpful. As always, I am jealous and amazed at Flack's ability to just sit down and write. I love writing, I love making jokes on the fly, I love reworking the text, it's just that I have some mental block "allowing" myself to do it lately.
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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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Thanks, Robb! That would definitely be super helpful. I'm still going to try to put out a review myself this month so I can go 12/12 for the year, but the more content the better. Caltrops had three posts in November so RFTK is getting its ass kicked at the moment by its twisted sister. I have noticed your drafts and have been sorely tempted to take a peek at them but I've managed to refrain like the true gentleman I sometimes am.

I have a problem with writer's block too, but I can say the best way I've found to overcome it seems to just be to write through it. If I spend a lot of time thinking about writing, I end up not writing anything at all. If I just set down and decide to write come what may, then I do write. Feeling obligated to write something every month for RFTK this year has been really helpful and honestly made all writing come a little easier for me. I read a great take on writing by Frank Herbert recently that might possibly be correctly attributed and is very apropos to this discussion:
Frankie wrote: A man is a fool not to put everything he has, at any given moment, into what he is creating. You’re there now doing the thing on paper. You’re not killing the goose, you’re just producing an egg. So I don’t worry about inspiration, or anything like that. It’s a matter of just sitting down and working. I have never had the problem of a writing block. I’ve heard about it. I’ve felt reluctant to write on some days, for whole weeks, or sometimes even longer. I’d much rather go fishing, for example, or go sharpen pencils, or go swimming, or what not. But, later, coming back and reading what I have produced, I am unable to detect the difference between what came easily and when I had to sit down and say, “Well, now it’s writing time and now I’ll write.” There’s no difference on paper between the two.
I'm not planning on doing the review every month thing next year mostly because I want to try play some longer games next year that I might not be able to finish and review within a month. However, one thing we could try to do if we're feeling ambitious is plan out a schedule so there's still a new review every month on the site. We'd potentially each need to do 3 reviews in 2022. Would that be asking too much? I definitely don't want RFTK to interfere with Cyberganked's development or Ben's sobriety. If we got a little help from our (other) friends, things could be a bit easier. Hypothetically, Roody and Jizaboz could each review something, Paul could tackle Adventure, LG could critique an RPG of her choosing, Vark could reminisce about The Pawn, and Odyssia could take on Zork. That would mean the rest of us would just need to do 6 reviews between the four of us.

OK, OK, so maybe Flack and I doing 6 reviews apiece is a more realistic option.

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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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However, one thing we could try to do if we're feeling ambitious is plan out a schedule so there's still a new review every month on the site. We'd potentially each need to do 3 reviews in 2022. Would that be asking too much? I definitely don't want RFTK to interfere with Cyberganked's development or Ben's sobriety. If we got a little help from our (other) friends, things could be a bit easier. Hypothetically, Roody and Jizaboz could each review something, Paul could tackle Adventure, LG could critique an RPG of her choosing, Vark could reminisce about The Pawn, and Odyssia could take on Zork. That would mean the rest of us would just need to do 6 reviews between the four of us.
I don't want the site to go stagnant, I love that it is back and I am so appreciative that you and Flack contributed to that. So no, it's not too much. It means I do less DOOMSCROLLING which is a huge waste of time anyway.

New reviews by me shall be scheduled and I can talk about the right days to release them here. One wrinkle I will add to it is that I know there are retweet bots on Twitter and I want to use them. I am looking at the Amiga version of a particular game for my first/next review - great! I will use that tag and it will at least get more eyeballs on it than the 700 or so eyeballs that the Cryptozookeeper account has attached to it, where I am mentioning the new RFTK reviews. (I didn't want a fifth Twitter account, so I am doing it there.)
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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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OK, based on the initial response I think the review breakdown for next year should go as follows: I will write one review, Robb will write one review, and Paul will write ten reviews. I'm thinking Paul can handle January-September, I'll do October, Robb will do November, and then Paul can finish us off in December. This schedule might seem a little lopsided at first glance, but I'm pretty sure 2022 is going to be the year of mainframe text gaming and I want RFTK to ride the crest of that wave. Let's face it: the Commander is the only person who can take us where we need to go.

But seriously, here's what I think I'll do. If no one has posted any reviews in the first three weeks of a month, I'll try to hold the line by reviewing a short game before month's end. There are also games I've commented on the comp threads that I could probably go back and review pretty easily and quickly so I do have some options. We can still plan out a schedule, but there will be no consequences and only mild recriminations for failure. If it turns out I can't hold the line, that's no big deal either.

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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

Post by bryanb »

The final RFTK review of 2021 (unless Robb or Flack do something crazy!) has now been posted.

http://trottingkrips.caltrops.com/2021/ ... over-2007/

See you in 2022!

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Re: Trotting Krips Resolutions

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It's time to reflect on my 2021 Trotting Krips resolutions and make some new goals for the new year.
bryanb wrote: Sat Dec 26, 2020 8:54 pm As for my 2021 Trotting Krips resolutions, I'm hereby recommitting to Build All the Sections and Review An Infocom Game. As previously mentioned, I also intend to write at least one review per month in 2021.
Build All the Sections: FAIL, 0/1

Review An Infocom Game: FAIL, 0/2

Write At Least One Review Per Month: WIN, 1/3

While 2021 like every other year in Trotting Krips history has to be regarded as a failure when you consider it in totality, I can nonetheless finally look back on a Trotting Krips resolution and say I totally nailed one. True, I did have to stick to reviewing short games and I did post every single review on the last day of each respective month...but I got it done. One review every month, bitches. I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. I love a good triumph and will be praising myself a lot over the coming year(s) for this momentous feat.

On to my 2022 Trotting Krips resolutions. Like Ben, I have some past resolutions that are still sorely in need of...resolution.

#1 Build All the Sections. I really plan to get this done this year even though there's been essentially no progress on this goal since 2019.

#2 Review an Infocom Game. I plan to at least start up one Infocom game every month until I get so wrapped up in one I have to replay it all the way through. If I do finally get this one done, I'll feel content with 2022 even if we don't publish as many reviews as we did in 2021.

#3 Review a Ben game in time for his 20th Benniversary. Ben will have been a Jolt Country user for twenty years on April 27th, 2022 and I plan to celebrate this momentous occasion the only way I know how. I might review A Game of Chance and Patty Flinger sometime in 2022 as well. Project Zero Friends is a GO!

#4 Scour the Archives. I have lots of text adventures on old media and old computers that I want to delve into again. I'm sure I can find some obscure stuff that even Jason Dyer hasn't gotten to yet that sorely deserve the Trotting Krips treatment.

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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

I have a game review that will be ready, it is a little funny in reviewing this that I got punished by the end game in the EXACT same way that I did with The Pawn - I had too many objects in my inventory, needed like 5 turns to get my act together and the game was all NOPEY NOPE and killed me. I don't know how anyone finished an 80s text adventure while accomplishing anything else in their lives.
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Re: Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

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Ok, it's ready. Scheduled for January 15th. I'm continuing the glorious foundation that you and Flack have created. Thanks, fellas.
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