[Kenoi]

If text adventures do survive, which type in your opinion should in the first place?

IF - Interactive Fiction (where you input certain phrases to do actions in the game)

CYOA - Choose Your Own Adventure (where you choose possible paths in the game's story)

[stepurhan]

I'd always prefer IF over CYOA because it's possible to do a CYOA without necessarily thinking about it. If, at every decision point you're given a list of options then you it's possible to just click options at random and (with luck) achieve victory. With IF you have to think about what you want to do, making you take a more active role. The big drawback for IF (from a programmng point of view) is writing a flexible enough parser to cope with most things players will try to enter. Nothing is more frustrating than constantly being told the game doesn't understand common words.

The adventure games at Rinkworks probably provide the most open-ended CYOA approach. You can move about pretty freely and actions you take in one area can open up new options somewhere else so you don't end up just clicking through a pre-assigned story. However, there are still several puzzles where clicking on each option until you find one that works is a possible solution.