The Game of Worlds TOURNAMENT

This was fun, and I foresee this being a great timewaster for a long time to come. The premise is that you're playing in a card game tournament, and the gameplay is a simulation of the card game itself. It's much like a collectible card game, in that you play a card to the table on your turn and that card has an effect on the playing field--that is, the "world" between you and your opponent, and the lifeforms you each control on that world.

I don't know what happens when you win the tournament, having not gotten that far. But the gameplay is, itself, an entertaining diversion. It's the sort of thing that takes a minute to learn and substantially longer to master. One possible bug I noticed was that my opponent would receive a card even if they hadn't played one on their turn; but I wonder if this was intentional. After all, supposedly, as a tournament "wild card", we're disdained by most, so perhaps they're cheating...?

The game comes with the requisite gblorb file, of course, but there's also a web interface that's very, very pretty, with card illustrations for each one you examine. So, top marks for presentation; all it wants now is a point-and-click interface to play your cards, and we're all set.

Except ... going that way does take it out of Interactive Fiction territory, doesn't it? The only thing keeping it in the realm of Interactive Fiction is the parser interface and the simulated tournament hall where this all takes place. I mean, you wouldn't imagine "Hearthstone" to be Interactive Fiction, would you? And yet, I believe this to be the most appropriate direction for the game to go, design-wise.

Breakfast: spiced gingerbread cookies and milk. Delicious, the sort of thing you can grab out of the box and munch on whenever you want (and you do want!) but kind of tenuously "breakfast".