Public Test 1

This is a short text adventure reminiscent of something from Infocom in the 1980s or 1990s. It's very linear and very railroady. There are two possible endings, one of which people seem to strongly prefer over the other. In private tests, most people spent between 5 and 15 minutes on it.

The test has two goals:

• To see what happens to the database and web app when more than one user touches it at a time.
• To find out what people actually say when prompted to interact with the computer like they would with a human game master.

What do I do?

Read the prompts and tell the system what you want to do.

Instead of a traditional text adventure parser, this test features a statistical English language parser. For example, you don't need to say, "GET SWORD." You can say, "I want to get that sword" or "I pick up the sword." For a summary of commands, say, "I need some help."

Try to play it like it's a classic text adventure, but talk to it like you'd talk to a human game master. The more natural your input, the more helpful it is for the test. If you try to do a reasonable thing and phrase your action reasonably, and it doesn't work, congratulations! That's exactly what the test is trying to find.

What data are you collecting?

All user input is logged since understanding what people want to say is a big part of the test. That data is tied to a single randomly generated cookie value. Data about stuff like what browsers people use and mobile or desktop are also collected in aggregate. No personal information about you is collected by this test.

If you want email updates (and I hope you do!), you can provide your email address in the survey. But that's collected completely separately and won't be associated with your use of the test (if any).

The test does not contain any explicit or sexual content, nor does it solicit any of that sort of information or behavior from you.