Shared Worlds

Perhaps the situation as it stands is attributable to the enormous complexity involved in coding even a moderate-sized game with traditional IF languages. A library that took the form of a world map for some mythical kingdom (say), complete with creature-types, fully implemented vehicles or a magic or technology system would be frightening to code, but even more terrifying to embed in a fully functional game. Perhaps this is where the future of simpler IF design systems lies however - in a language like ALAN, AGT or even HUGO such libraries would at least be relatively simple to cook up and modify. In GUI-based systems like ADRIFT and QUEST, one could even cook up interesting 'templates,' as it were, of fictional worlds with just enough details left out to allow for customizability.

Perhaps what is most surprising about the absence of such tools in the IF world is the fact that the community itself inhabits a sort of 'shared-world' on the internet, one filled with creatures (i.e. web aliases) strange locales (e.g. IFMud) and mysterious figures (e.g. 'Papillon', Ryebread Celsius). It would take a Tolkien, a Heinlein or a Rand Miller to dream up such a world; one can only wonder at why there aren't more aspiring Tolkeins, Heinleins and Millers amongst its denizens.

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