Some readers may remember how the first GIFE was never intended to be. If you look at it, the first chapter is complete craziness, and that�s all for a reason. When I originally posted �THE GREATEST IF EVER�, we had just moved to what was, at that time, the new forums. New design and inner workingness and stuff. It wasn�t open to the public though, but everyone who knew the url could go around and post at will. A lot of topics were made just messing around, and it was pretty fun. I come to the IF board, and, seeing it completely empty, put up a wacky, nonsense post that mocks the crappy fanfics and IF�s made all the time, with the extremely overpowered AC and complete randomness, for good measure. If anyone here is really old and remembers �Yet Another Interactive Story� (from back when there was no �EB Related rule on the IF boards), I thought of that when making it.

Well, I�m rambling here, so I�ll get to the point. I made the post expecting Xodnizel to prune the boards when he opened the forums publicly and then have the IF boards become taken over with the commonplace IF�s and about 500 War With Satoshi IF�s which I see all the time but don�t know and don�t care to know what they are. Well, Xod didn�t bother to prune the boards, so the craziness continued publicly. Then SimonBob made an awesome post and a story congealed, with some truly awesome writers like PSI322, Mr. Accident, and the previously mentioned SimonBob. It was a great IF, it was fun to write, and also fun to read. It is really one of my favorite fanfics on the site.

Now, on to GIFE II. Interesting story with this one. There were new forums (the fudforums) which came around but never (and still haven�t) officially opened yet. Since the old GIFE had started with the old forum, I figured I would start a new GIFE with a new forum. I didn�t know if it would work though, and I didn�t know if a story would magically congeal this time. A little nervous, I made the post.

Well, unlike last time, it didn�t stay. Xod pruned the boards shortly after they opened, and GIFE II went along with it. I shrugged, figured maybe it was best kept as a one time thing, and felt that it would be far too redundant to post it up again.

Thankfully, Falcon decided to repost it himself. Posting it as �GIFE II: GREATER THAN THE GREATEST IF EVER�, he put it up and it chugged along on the fudforums. A story congealed, characters were made, and it was fun. GIFE had been reborn.

So enough with the rambling, on with the commentary awesomeness.


Fantastic Beginning

Here you got the crazy beginnings of GIFE. I think after the story actually becomes a story we get some random idiots who only read the first 3 posts going all stupid and acting completely lame posting �AND THEN THE DOG ATE CHINA� or something, but that might have just been on the first one. Right here some people tried to be cool and say �THE END� so that the story would stop. Pfft, as if they could stop a GIFE. Their pithy attempts at stopping it were akin to a person trying to stop a speeding train by laying town in front of it. They�re completely destroyed and the train now has a new coat of BLOOD. I don�t know where I was going with that, but it sounded cool, didn�t it?

Maybe not. But here�s the beginning. You�ll note that Fourside gets destroyed here. If you didn�t notice while reading the story, that becomes a running gag as it�s quickly destroyed and replaced just as quickly by the hard-working and very tortured carpenters and whatnot of Eagleland. Reading Falcon�s commentary, I guess it was destroyed in the gaiden series a lot too. One would think I would know this stuff, being a main writer in those, but I don�t remember them all too well. I was never a big fan of them.

I�d kind of like to have the original forum pages so I could check who wrote what, but I didn�t bother to save much, and I doubt that any of it would add too much to the story. I remember one of my posts was with a crazy truck and a convenience store owner. I thought it was pretty funny to have someone run out of their store in a fury about a truck hitting it to suddenly avoid death by mantiger. Would that be a blessing or a curse? You decide!

This chapter sucks though. It all gets better from here.


Wide-Scale Rampaging

Here we go. The characters come along and GIFE begins to form. SimonBob/Silver Tyrano starts out with a pretty awesome post with Silver Tyrano continuing to destroy Fourside. And crazy guitar and drum solos ensue.

Here comes my main character, Hobo Mike. I gotta admit, he didn�t really add much to the story, but oh well. I�m sure many wonder where he came from, and the fact is, I got the idea from my friend. My friend (whose name is Mike, although we call him Iggy), dressed up as a hobo for school on Halloween. I got to say, his costume was quite the awesome, with the hobo stubble, cheap whisky smell, torn clothes/bag, and of course the box. Many of the random alcohol comments I have Hobo Mike shout are based off of Iggy�s costume. So rock on, Iggy. You rock.

Now, here comes� DARK FIGURE. Dun dun dunnnn... I have to say that I originally didn�t plan to have Dark Figure in this story, or even have it related to the original story of GIFE at all, but SimonBob made it happen, and that�s a good thing because it worked out pretty well.

My next post felt rather forced, but I knew I had to put something in there with Hobo Mike. I�m not sure if any of the Chosen Four had come into the story before this point, but I think my post with Paula freezing Hobo Mike was the first time we got them into the story. Yay for very loose EB-relatedness! And Hobo Mike is encased in a block of ice. Everything is as it should be, and order is restored.

Yaaaay.


Foreshadowing Consequences

SimonBob makes another cool post with Dark Figure. I found the moonlight sonata part just so perfectly fitting for Dark Figure, although I don�t know why. Well, congrats to SimonBob. He thinks up better stuff for my character than what I can think up. Then Silver Tyrano becomes a mouse� yay!

Dash comes along and... that�s about it. I guess nothing happened with Mani Mani, but comedic havoc did ensue.

Now I see an opportunity to get Hobo Mike actually into the story. Dark Figure uses some mind control powers to take over Hobo Mike�s mind and then Hobo Mike now becomes infused with SUPER HOBO POWERS! He can now punch people through walls and the city of Fourside is destroyed once more.

Yaaaay.

Mr. Accident comes back for GIFE II, which is awesome because he�s a great writer. His post was mighty long too, and it did a very good job at talking about how Dark Figure managed to come back into being after the first GIFE. Who would have known that all that stuff would come full circle with Raltise?

About this time, everyone left to Winters. Old man Jenkins does a pretty good job at being a crazy old-man.

Falc brings back Raltise here. I got to say that when I first saw this, I was kind of :/ at first because Raltise stole every gaiden he was in, and I was rather sick of him. However, I guess he worked out ok. Dark Figure didn�t stand up well enough on his own either as an enemy, I guess, since his stuff had been over and done with in the first GIFE.


Forceful Assaults

Here we have Paula coming back into the story. Interesting stuff here about Paula, who becomes quite psychotic. Simonbob�s writing is awesome some more, and the scene continues as Luna makes her one and only post. This line in particular tickled me for some reason.

The table overturned, cream and cancerous sugar packets flying through the air, and mixing, miraculously, with the coffee.

Luna�s stuff after that didn�t go anywhere, since she forgot about the IF or something.

Hobo Mike comes along here and kidnaps Enrich Flavor. I�ve noticed that Enrich Flavor seems to be the ultimate throwaway character in IF�s (or the ones I�ve been in, at least), and I used him as such here. You probably don�t know what I mean, but I�ve always noticed that, if you�re looking for a random character to do something with, Enrich Flavor seems to be a common choice because he�s a character who has a name and is there but doesn�t have any other backstory or whatever which might get in the way. That probably didn�t make much sense, but� oh well.

Mr. Accident makes a super ginormous awesome post with Joe, Dark Figure, and ninjas here. Quite the awesome indeed.


Dalammese Winter

I�m not quite sure what happened here, with Dalaam crashing into Winters and whatnot. I guess Falc said it was an allusion to something which happened in the insane times of the IF, but I really don�t remember it at all� although I can�t really say I read that part all too extensively. Well, now you got the drunk Dr. Andonuts and Poo here having a great time. And speaking of destroyed towns, I guess Twoson was also dead as well. SimonBob gives the story of Fortinbras Tyrano, which is a rather interesting one, although it does kind of seem weird to have Twoson completely destroyed.

Cameraman comes around and magically sobers up Poo and Dr. Andonuts, which does the whole translator device thingy. Too bad that camera flash doesn�t work on Hobo Mike.

Then we take the first step into the Council of Elders bit. I gotta say, this is a really weird way the story went from here on, because suddenly we�ve got Ness�s brain in outer space with Joe dead. I really think I had to read over this part several times before I understood the least bit of it.

Here comes my post with Hobo Mike again! He kidnapped Enrich Flavor and is now driving the helicopter to somewhere. Dark Figure�s lair, maybe. He never reaches it anyways, though, because I wanted to get him back into the story with the other characters. So I try and bring him back into the story by making the helicopter crash into winters� but by the time Hobo Mike got to winters, everyone else took off to Fourside. Way to miss the story, Hobo Mike. Oh well, at least I got this line out of it, which I liked a lot.

�My God, sir! I�m beginning to highly doubt your credibility as a helicopter pilot!�


Planning Session

�WHOA DUDE! YOU�VE GOT YOUR HEAD STUCK IN THE WALL!�

Holy crap, that line had me cracking up. Awesome job.

I guess the falcon group (falcon, Silver Tyrano, Old Man Jenkins, and whoever else(?)) talked with Hobo Mike/Michael Washington a little bit. I guess the joke was that he was a refined person normally but once he touched alcohol he became hobo mike with super hobo powers. Well, I guess it wasn�t that great. Joe showed up here too, bringing him back into the storyline.

Dark Figure has another very Dark Figuresque moment when he nearly chokes on a piece of his toast, toasted by his toaster/device for communicating with his secretary, Betty.

Then the Falcon group and Joe takes off to Fourside, and Hobo Mike/Michael Washington is just left wandering around in Winters. :(


Total Turnaround

Raltise goes to Sears! Yaaaay.

In this part, Raltise and Dark Figure plan to have vengeance on the writers. Who would have thought that it would have turned out as it did?

Giampy wanders in here, and stuff happens. I didn�t quite catch on to the ending thing, but like I said earlier, I missed a lot of stuff in the beginning. Dolewasher also comes in from an another dimension or something. Yay.

The Falcon group doesn�t arrive in Fourside, but instead at Dark Figure�s evil lair. Then the Ninja stuff begins. Silver Tyrano becomes a Tyrano once more, with a great one-liner:

�Well, well, well. Ninjas.� Silver Tyrano smiled terribly at the shocked martial artists. �It�ll be my pleasure to eat you, since you�re so totally sweet��

Then comes the Ninja thingy and Mooby�s. I didn�t get the reference to Dogma back then, so I guess I let it pass over my head. Didn�t matter, my character was still stuck in Winters. Well, they had their Ninja-leader face off, the world is engulfed in a nuclear explosion, and Fourside is destroyed again. Yaaaay.


Dirty Insinuations

Yay, back to Hobo Mike. Since everyone abandoned him in Winters, he needed some kind of Deus Ex Machina to get him back to the real world. But how?

Well, this is GIFE! That kind of stuff comes in the handy form of plotholes! And a particularly personable plothole came around to give Hobo Mike a lift. I didn�t originally intend for him to become another character, but I guess he was so personable that the other authors couldn�t help. I also didn�t quite see him as a Pancho, but I guess Pancho fits with the alliteration. Pancho the Personable Plothole, of course.

Oh, and Fourside is destroyed again as Mike crashes down into it. Now once again Hobo Mike, with super hobo powers from his trip through the plothole, he destroys Fourside one more time.

Too bad everyone left Fourside.

Now JP goes off in his crazy home-dimension story bit. I guess it really did a great job of telling how far the story was really going to go in breaking the fourth wall. It really went much, much further, though.

Somehow I find the dragon-infested lands of Canada to seem quite awesome.


Improbable Meeting

Falcon sets up the whole council of elders thing, and the entire chapter, apparently. Yay. The fourth wall is far past broken here, but the funny part is, this isn�t even as far as it goes. I had all kinds of ideas as to what we could do to break the fourth wall even further, but not much of it actually got off of the ground. Still, I think it all came about well enough.

Since I didn�t write much on this, I guess I don�t have that much to say about it. Reading Falc�s commentary, I see they have a dispute as to what Dark Figure looks like. Well, I don�t quite agree with either of them, but I don�t really have a solid view of what he looks like either. If I could draw, I�d draw a picture, but I�m absolutely awful at that. I think I�d side more with Simonbob�s viewpoint, although I don�t think I�d give him a helmet. Definitely not a black shadow with floating eyes and mouth, though.


Atypical Battle

I think this chapter went pretty awesomely. However, I really think the subtitle for it should have been �Breaking the fourth wall to an entirely new dimension� instead of �In which Good and Evil have the most confusing fight ever.� Because come on, we took the fourth wall further than one could imagine with the Dark Figure forum account.

It starts out with more Chamber of Elders stuff, then continues with a FLYING DUTCHMAN. Then all craziness breaks out with the inverted council of elders. I liked the plot twist.

Hobo Mike and his Hobo Bike gets mentioned here for a short bit. Poor Hobo Mike, drunkenly missing the entire story. Well, now that Author Skulryk and Evil Author Skulryk are around, I guess it�s not so bad.

Now the Dark Figure account comes along. I had a great idea to incorporate it into the story, so I regged an account really quickly and shared the password with Falcon and SimonBob. I really hoped that a lot more awesomeness would come of it, but it really didn�t go anywhere. That�s a shame, but oh well. We got it out there, and I liked the idea.


Misplaced Hopes

Well, here we get back to the to the Paula story arc. This part really confused me when I was writing, since we hadn�t covered that in ages, but it really didn�t affect my part of the story so I guess I kind of ignored it.

Avant-noveau Theater. Wow. This part was pretty hilarious. Go randomyness. Someone should make a flash movie of this scene since it�s so random but doesn�t seem like it�d be hard to do. In fact, maybe someone should write the entire GIFE in script form and make it a play. That would be quite the crazy.

I guess not much else happened in this chapter. This sure was something dedicated to randomness.


Fated Duel

Mr. Accident makes another awesome post here. Yaaaay.

Falling from 10,000 feet above Winters. I guess that was a fitting end to the battle, since it didn�t have much consistency besides random battles between (person) and (evil version of person) or something.

I want my own thought dragon. Trez sounds really cool.

I guess the destruction of most of the inverse evil characters was a good idea, because it just made everything so confusing, and you know that everyone�s just gonna post with their own AC�s evil character. So now it�s down to three: myself, Liar, and Falcon.

The whole Pancho-Ness�s Brain thing confused me. I got the Excel Saga gag, but then again, that part in Excel Saga confused me too.

And here we got another one of my favorite bits:

�Evil Author Falcon was the last to step inside. He lingered halfway between plothole and snowdrift for only an instant, taking the occasion to grin menacingly at the baffled group of heroes. He pointed upward. "You might want to cover your heads."

Liar looked upward. "Oh, crap." He said.

Evil Author Falcon laughed before stepping inside the plot hole. The swirling purple rift closed in a deafening crash of thunder, punctuated by the sound of the bodies of six-thousand or so Ninja hitting the ground with a splatter.�

Yaaaay.


Unfortunate Empowerment

You know, I�m not so sure anymore, maybe the subtitle of this part should have been called �Breaking the fourth wall to a whole new dimension.� Well, I think that should have been at least somewhere in the story�

The Fixer Post is good. It helps make stuff not crazy. And Simonbob�s character becomes even more messed up now that he has one more crazy incarnation.

And Hobo Mike, who always managed to avoid the story, is back now!

Falcon and SimonBob start fighting here. I�m not sure if this was intentional or not, but at the same time on the Ninja Club, Falcon had made a post about how him and SimonBob were no longer webbuddies and were now in a spat. I thought that was some pretty awesome referencing. Of course, it may have been unintentional and just referenced to how everyone was mad at Falcon for putting them in a rut.

The whole bit with Dolewasher and red tape is pretty awesome. I love this part:

Liar looked at Giampi quizzically. "Red tape?"

"Of course," replied Giampi. "Politicians have miles of this stuff stored away for whenever they need to delay the legislative process. It works like a charm."

Now the group goes into group therapy. I wish I could have made the group therapy scene seem a little less forced, but I guess it all came out OK. I was just trying to set the stage for the infamous

BUT THEN, DARK FIGURE EDITED THE POST!

I think Giampi said it best in his commentary: �[T]his chapter is proof enough that in Soviet Russia and the IF Forum the interactive fictions write you.�


Secret Box

It didn�t really get represented like this, but for some reason, when I thought of what the secret box, I thought it was an accurate representation of what Xodnizel would be to the IF board. Something that has crazy awesome powers, that can patch almost anything up, and then would proceed to fix the problem or destroy the universe, whichever seems more logical. And come on, it would be perfectly natural for Xodnizel to resolve Simon and Falcon�s spat by turning them into chipmunks.

The thought of a restaurant giving away Dark Figure figures is awesome. It reminds me of spaceballs. I want a Dark Figure figure.

Now we get into one of the wackier elements of GIFE II with the X-Gamestation. I got to say, this was really crazy. The thought of me in a fully thugged out outfit, busting out rhymes and such, makes my brain hurt.


Temporary Setbacks

The first bit of this, with Dark Figure and Raltise confused about the secret box, only confirms my suspicions that the Secret Box is a representation of Xodnizel.

The sea of walnuts bit was fun. I forget who posted with it. Too bad nothing ever happened with those walnuts in the secret box though.

Eew, JP gave me mouth to mouth. :(

The Windows: CC edition seemed kind of weird. I kinda thought we could have done without it.


Poor Choices

Jacques comes in here. I gotta say, this part was another really weird part. I remember Jacques from the original GIFE, but he just seemed weird there. I dunno. I guess it all worked out.

Raltise goes back to Sears. That part always seemed kind of funny, and Raltise finally gets some revenge on THE RAKE. The trouser bit always makes me laugh:

�"We went on a trouser hunt!" Evil Skulryk exclaimed. "We got one hundred and twenty three pairs of trousers!" Evil Liar and Evil Author Falcon punctuated this statement with a wicked giggle.�

I don�t know why Raltise had to blow up Sears though. :(

Yargh, did this fic have to tie into the Gaiden series? Bah, I guess it had to come up eventually. Still, I gotta say that it is pretty mind-blowing.

I love the Hobo Bike, it�s so awesome.


Getting Schooled

You know, it seemed like everyone who wasn�t on the hobo bike forgot about going to the lair of darkness and instead decided to go after Silver Tyrano instead.

That�s kind of why I made Silver Tyrano get captured. I guess SB probably had something planned, now that I start reading Falcon�s stuff. Well, I wanted to get the group to do what they were originally supposed to do, which was head over to the evil lair place on Trez. Sorry if I screwed up what you had planned, SB.

I find the thought of a drugged up happy Silver Tyrano quite creepy.

I don�t think I got much of the weapons of oldskool bit, but oh well. It worked out fine.

The lam3r gas was pretty cool, except I didn�t really see where that bit of the story could go, which was probably why it just kind of got swept away later on. Oh well, at least it lead to this great line:

With that introduction over with, Raltise rose and cracked his knuckles. His lips curled into a menacing smile.

"hay guys 8-)"


Forced Entry

Geez, this is taking a long time to write up a commentary for. :(

I think here was the part that Naeroon tried to join in the IF. It didn�t really work though, since you can�t join an IF 3 pages in. His part never took off and most of it ended up getting cut in the end.

I�m guessing that the shouting of �Mellon!� at doors is a reference to something, but I don�t get it. It�s still pretty funny though.

Dark Figure does more stuff that I see as Dark Figuresque by bidding on lawn gnomes, toastmasters, and fondue pots on Ebay. And getting outbid, of course. Yaaay.

It sure is handy that Giampy is nigh-indestructible, isn�t it?


Unfolding Horrors

I don�t really have much to say about this part. I can�t remember if I even wrote anything here. So much stuff goes on though, so it�s kind of sad that I have no comments on it. I guess my commenting power runs out after a while. I guess it sets the stage for what will be epic battles. EPIC!


Hazardous Dukes

I gotta say that the ultimate offing of Bad Simon was rather anticlimactic. I guess it fits though.

A lot of battles and stuff happened in this part, but I don�t really think there�s much I can comment on. Nothing really struck out as commentable to me, even though it�s such a long chapter.

It�s too bad that Dark Figure got all sapped with the sapmotron. But he comes back� MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE! Weehehe.


Ensnared Opportunity

Yay, someone makes a Crystalis reference here, which is awesome because Crystalis is one of the most awesome games ever.

Like Falcon said, I don�t quite get why JP always tries to challenge Raltise.

I think Oktoberfest is quite fitting for the ending battle of GIFE. So completely random. Also, I almost sort of get the reference to Mr. Saturn vs. Hitler. I think it was a game Tomato was working on for the craziness of it.


Almighty Force

I�m surprised that it took this long for Hobo Mike to begin guzzling all the beer in sight. I would have expected it to happen sooner. However, he doesn�t seem to demonstrate very much of his super drunken hobo powers, which is sad. :(

Because I wanted to know what it said. I threw Hot German girl�s stuff into babelfish. Here�s what it gave me:

�"real is immune the blade to its spirit energy," Hot German said. "it diverts it, thus we dark illustration again to animate and this Song play can."�

Well that about sums it up...

I guess Hobo Mike does show some of his super hobo powers by lifting up the super heavy sword. Then he does the only hobo thing to do by promptly dropping it.

Light figure comes about in what I say is a thing of sheer awesomeness. I didn�t see it coming, but I thought it was pretty great.

Christ, how many incarnations does Raltise have? And now he gets these ugly mini clones? Bah.

Then we go into the crazy Star Wars bit. And Dante comes flying in and everything. Woo hoo.

But the ending� anti-climactic indeed. I would have thought that something awesome could have come of it. Bah.


Big Finish

Party!

Most of the final posts were really cool. Still, I felt mine was really forced, so I can�t stand it. I guess that�s the way with a lot of the stuff I write: I force some stuff out, but it just ends up all crappy. Oh well. Everyone knew Hobo Mike had to get completely drunk with his drunken hobo powers at the party. But I guess he really should have just fallen for the spiked punch mentioned in the post before mine instead of having the on-stage toast.

Everyone else�s posts were pretty cool, so yay. And now, in a very Chrono Trigger-esque ending, it goes kind of open-ended. But should there be a GIFE III? Well, I�ll cover that in my final ranty bit. Which, conveniently, is coming up.

GIFE II was lots of fun. I liked it a lot, and we managed to juggle a lot more AC�s than the original GIFE while keeping it an awesome, light-hearted IF as well. It was fun to write, but at the same time was just as fun to read. It was a fun IF, through and thought.

I wrote in a bunch of the Gaiden IF�s, but I was never too fond of them. Partly because of all the annoying drama behind the scenes and such, partly because I didn�t have all too much fun writing them, and partly because I would never want to read one. However, with this, as which was true with the first GIFE, it was tons of fun to write and lots of fun to read. Which is what should really be the goal of IF�s.

Now I�m sure many people would ask this question: Which is better, GIFE or GIFE II? Well, that�s always a matter of opinion, but I myself really liked the first one better. No offense to any of the writers in GIFE II; it was a great IF as well, and a great experience. Still, the original just seemed cooler for me to write and me to read. GIFE II had some parts that ended up being really long and drawn out and such, and some stuff that just ended up being redundant. Still, GIFE II was an awesome fanfic in itself, and I thoroughly enjoyed the GIFE II experience.

Now, as I had previously addressed: GIFE III? It�s a tough call, and not one I�d make sometime soon. There will definitely not be another GIFE right away. Masterpieces can only come around once so often before they�re just being forced down your throat. I don�t think the writing would be as good, I don�t think the authors would enjoy it as much, and I don�t think it would have the amount of awesomeness to stand up to the legend of GIFE.

And come on, how would we do it? Random AC�s chasing Hobo Mike around in the author�s real home dimension, with all of us at our houses in somewhere or at college? It just seems kind of overdone, to tell you the truth.

But like I said, it�s something that needs to wait a while. A long while. The original GIFE started on the UBB forum when it started up. GIFE II started on the fudforum when the fudforum came around. Maybe if, in a few years, a new forum starts up, a new GIFE can come around. When I first made GIFE II, I hadn�t planned it to be related to the original one, but that just ended up happening. Maybe GIFE III can be unrelated, but it�ll be in the distant future, if ever.

However, is that the end of all awesome stories together? No. The thing I like about GIFE is it has the light-hearted story with good comedy tied in and awesome action to boot. You don�t see that in many stories at all, especially IF�s. If you look at any of the IF�s, they commonly attempt to be very serious using pretty clich� plots. They�re packed with too many AC�s, because every writer has their own AC which follows a strict set of rules� which in turn causes writers to write only for their own AC, which doesn�t really cause any story to form/move, and the stories always just constantly expand. Usually a post will open up a new story arc, and they are always opening, rarely closing. They�re not really fun to write in because people are just pumping up their own character�s stuff in a story that�s never gonna go anywhere. A couple good stories are opened up by good writers, but they really don�t go anywhere since it�s hard to get many good writers together to write something. Usually those stories are mainly serious stories which don�t really take off, because �comedic IF�s� on the IF boards are just things where people think it�s just all insanity so every post is randomness, or something that follows a silly theme like �EB Sleepover party DX�. Very rarely do you get something where it�s a cool story which has hilarious, but also very witty elements. It takes intelligence to write such kinds of good comedic IF�s, and that�s what you get with GIFE. Something truly capable of bearing the name �The Greatest IF Ever�.

Ok, now I was going somewhere with that last rant. While I don�t want to start up another GIFE, I would really like to see more stories on the IF board that are more like GIFE. Not dreadfully serious stories, but not zany stupid stories which no one cares about. Stories that have a cohesive plot, cool characters (not every character being stupid and overpowered that all have ultimate powers and a backstory which is more important than THE WORLD ITSELF), funny writing (serious funny, not �AND THEN A DOG ATE CHINA� funny (not funny)), and something which other people would like to read, then go �yeah that�s awesome.� I want to see more IF�s like this, and I find the GIFE series to be a very good representation of how something like that should be done. Come on. I�d write on that.