Zarfian

Zarf +‎ -ian

Zarfian (comparative more Zarfian, superlative most Zarfian)

1. Of or relating to Andrew Plotkin ("Zarf", born 1970), a writer and critic of interactive fiction.
   • 1997, Kory Heath, “So Far - One Lousy Point”, in rec.games.int-fiction (Usenet):

     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.

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

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

   • 2007, Jeremy Douglass, Command Lines, page 88:

     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.

• azafrin, zafrani