don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story

[Aimless]

It's a game, or visual novel if you're feeling argumentative. The download is small, free and will run on pretty much anything: Windows, Mac and Linux.

 

You should play it because I think it will appeal to a lot of users here. It only takes a few hours to complete and you've nothing to lose by giving it a fraction of that. You don't need to appreciate the intricacies of its structure and themes to have an engaging experience.

 

I could go into more detail but I'm honestly not sure what it would add bar words to this post¹. Go in blind, put your preconceptions on hold for a bit and see if it grabs you.

 

 

¹If you're desperate there's a blurb on the official site.

[Dyson]

Downloading now. Let's have a looksee.

[Beast]

I've downloaded and played a bit of it. It's not bad so far, what do you do on it exactly? Solve puzzles or something?

[Sméagol]

Nice story. Typical Japanese visual novel, except for the constant messages.. Which tie in to the story. Nice touch, although they can be annoying and distracting / confusing sometimes. I quickly tried finding a walkthrough to see what the different endings are, but I can't find one (quickly). It seems there are no great differences to the story itself, but you can stop some of the relationships (which I didn't do). Also, there does seem to be a way to acces those pictures . Oh well, can't be bothered now . I agree with some reactions I read on the internet, that the ending seems a bit forced, nevertheless, I agree with its message.

[Aimless]

I've downloaded and played a bit of it. It's not bad so far, what do you do on it exactly? Solve puzzles or something?

Nothing that in-depth. It's essentially a short story that you read at your own pace. The level of interactivity is fairly mild albeit integral to what's being said; actual player agency is fairly illusory, but it's important for putting the reader in the right mindset.

 

[Talking about messages] Nice touch, although they can be annoying and distracting / confusing sometimes.

Rather the point, no? I'd say your compulsion to check them as they appear — even when it's inconvenient — is very much intended.

[Dyson]

Gahh this is so addictive. I've been playing it for a couple of hours now. How engaging.

[Sméagol]

[..]

Rather the point, no? I'd say your compulsion to check them as they appear — even when it's inconvenient — is very much intended.

But not everyone is that compelled.. I said I agreed with the game's message, i.e. less privacy is better (well not exactly, but you know..), but that doesn't mean I personally want to know everything about everyone (quite the opposite). All their (love) problems.. I felt it was none of my business. If given the choice, I probably wouldn't have read many of their posts. But you don't have a choice. I thought it was interesting as it ties in directly with the story, but I think it would have a far greater impact if you were given a choice, and the ending would reflect exactly how much snooping you've done, on the other hand, that would probably go directly against the message it's trying to make. But the game isn't that deep .

[jayseven]

Digital fiction? Theory for the genre is still at the "how do we define this fucker?" stage, but generally the idea is that different people enjoy a different experience, and that the meaning is largely placed in the 'audience.'

 

(Not tried this yet, downloading now )

[Aimless]

But not everyone is that compelled..

Perhaps I misunderstood, then. You said the messages could be "annoying and distracting / confusing " which to me suggests that you did care about them; if you were indifferent to the updates they wouldn't annoy you. In either case my primary angle was that their intrusive nature is entirely intentional, a futuristic extreme of the current climate of Facebook and Twitter addiction.

 

I agree that having a real choice as to how much you pried would have been welcome, but doing so would have made it a very different game. As such I'll take it for what it is: an interesting, entertaining tale that had me re-evaluate — albeit not actually change — my views on privacy in a digital world.

 

Incidentally I consider the writer's previous game, Digital: A Love Story, to be a better all round title. I imagine most users here would have a significantly harder time relating to its late '80s BBS trappings, however.

[EddieColeslaw]

Digital fiction? Theory for the genre is still at the "how do we define this fucker?" stage, but generally the idea is that different people enjoy a different experience, and that the meaning is largely placed in the 'audience.'

 

(Not tried this yet, downloading now )

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_novel

 

(Not being cheeky btw)

 

Thanks for sharing, I'm going to download this after I get some more work done...I've never played a pure visual novel before.

[jayseven]

No cheek noticed I was presuming like a biatch.

 

(giving it a go later as The Boat that Guy Built is on :P)

[Sméagol]

Perhaps I misunderstood, then. You said the messages could be "annoying and distracting / confusing " which to me suggests that you did care about them; if you were indifferent to the updates they wouldn't annoy you. In either case my primary angle was that their intrusive nature is entirely intentional, a futuristic extreme of the current climate of Facebook and Twitter addiction.

[..]

I care about the characters, and what happens to them. I would have liked it if I had the choice to not read the updates, and have the students come to me when they have a problem, so I won't have to pretend I do not know what's going on. Still, I generally liked reading the updates, i.e. getting the story out of 'm. But there's a lot of fluff. All those short reactions to other posts.. And the 12 chan feature.. That is when it becomes a chore . You want to skim these, but you still have to keep clicking on them, otherwise you'll just have a pile of new messages to read at the end of the day, when the context will be gone as well.

 

Anyway, like you said, that's just the game as it is. And as it is, it's fine . I may try those other games later.

[Shorty]

Started playing. 10 minutes later [my avatar was succumbing to the advances of one of his students]

 

[This game seems pornographic]

Edited April 11, 2011 by Shorty
Hindsight.

[Aimless]

Now that's a choice that definitely isn't illusory.

 

But if you want to play it as a "porn game" I suppose that's your business.

[Shorty]

So you'd happily sit and play this with your grandparents in the room, and pass it off as literature?

[Aimless]

Well, my playthrough didn't feature anything but the most prudish would call pornographic. I don't really see how you can define — or dismiss — something as a porn game if that aspect isn't an objective or requirement: you decided to be a lecherous teacher, I did not.

 

As for my grandparents, I don't think I'd subject them to most games given they tend to involve shooting hundreds of people in the face. I likely wouldn't recommend them any books with strong sexual themes or imagery, either, but something not being family-friendly doesn't strip it of merit.

[Shorty]

Just to clarify, I play these games very badly. Before I pick any option which seems like a big turning point, I save it so I can go back and do both. Before I did that, I was enjoying the game, but then it cut to a fan-art style umm... non-family friendly scene. I just found it a little awkward. Admittedly I then jumped to conclusions about the further content of the game (although was really only joking about the porn thing) but I don't think that was unfounded knowing what these games can be like.

 

When I started playing it, and reading the 12chan things and the facebook style comments, I thought the game was going to be a kind of dry humour self-parody that would probably lead to death or prison the moment I clicked on anything remotely risqué. I guess I was just surprised more than anything.

[Aimless]

I'm not strictly defending that kind of content: as noted I haven't seen it, it might be entirely gratuitous and disappointing. My argument was merely that it isn't the crux of the game as I bypassed it completely.

 

For the record I don't see this as some sort of bold storytelling benchmark. It has some interesting ideas and is competently written — enough to make it stand out from the crowd, somewhat sadly — but there's a lot of things about it I'd have done differently or don't agree with. Even if I'm somewhat stingy with superlatives it struck me as something people might enjoy and ponder on, though, hence the recommendation.

[Dyson]

The same thing happened to me.

 

I was put back a little with that scene but I think it goes on to enforce how "normal" these things feel when people are open and there is no privacy. Or at least, there is little privacy.

 

 

Something I really liked about the game was the exchange between Kendall and Charlotte later on;

 

The way the files she was sending over being password protected was the only time you really had a choice in whether you invaded the privacy of the girls or not, as there was no need to actually view the files and no easy way to obtain the password. It was interesting to note that the option was there and allowed you a bit of flexibility in whether or not you choose to go all out and completely invade privacy, or if there are any prohibitive barriers left at that point.

 

Edited April 11, 2011 by Dyson

[Happenstance]

Despite not really liking the ending all that much I really enjoyed that. Id be interesting in playing/viewing some more if anyone could list some recommendations.

[Magnus]

Despite not really liking the ending all that much I really enjoyed that. Id be interesting in playing/viewing some more if anyone could list some recommendations.

If you have a DS, you should import 999 from the US.

 

Ever 17: The Out of Infinity is also a great visual novel, but it's also really long and requires you to play through it five times to get the true ending (though you can skip through dialogue you've already read when you replay the game). A lot of visual novels are like that (in this case it's worth it in the end, though).

 

Ever 17 requires very little input other than making dialogue choices occasionally, while 999 has puzzle segments and actual gameplay.

[Happenstance]

Hadnt actually occured to me to look for DS ones, thanks.

 

In the mean time, any free recommendations?