Zarfian

comparative more Zarfian · superlative most Zarfian

1. Of or relating to Andrew Plotkin ("Zarf", born 1970), a writer and critic of interactive fiction.

   Zarfian surrealism without Zarfian skill or subtlety. Beats reader over the head a bit with emotions.

   1998, Jake Wildstrom, “[COMP '98] Reviews (Feel free to hate me for them...)”, in rec.games.int-fiction (Usenet)

   2 more examples

   This "game" is obviously an elaborate Rorschach test administered to the unsuspecting denizens of rec.*.if, whose reactions have no doubt been tabulated and incorporated into some sinister Zarfian plot - to what dark end, I shudder to imagine.

   1997, Kory Heath, “So Far - One Lousy Point”, in rec.games.int-fiction (Usenet)

   The “Zarfian Cruelty Scale” rates games as Merciful, Polite, Tough, Nasty, or Cruel. The scale describes how works of IF become unwinnable, especially how and when the interactor (here a player, and one trying to win) learns this.

   2007, Jeremy Douglass, Command Lines, page 88