-------- EVERYTHINGSTAKEN --------- Comment: Horse Island Chrissy: You know what is really creepy about this game? Clyde: No, what? Chrissy: You avoid people in the same way that you avoid Death in everythingstaken's other games. Clyde: After the first playthrough, I sure do. I love how areas inhabited by people are signified with tree-stumps. Chrissy: This is like life. Clyde: What do you mean? Chrissy: If you get close to civilization you become owned and have to work for the rest of your life. The only other option is to wander around nature. Clyde: It's interesting that the way to end the game is to get captured. It's not like the horses life is over when they get captured. I think using it as the game's game-over makes husbandry seem inevitable. ----------- FIRECATFG ----------- Comment: Just call it what you like by firecat FG Comment: This game is based off the poem just a deep dark thought Clyde: I enjoy seeing a poem getting a literal translation into the language of RPGMaker. Chrissy: What's the difference between a literal translation and a literal representation? Clyde: I am not sure that there is one. Chrissy: This is like watching you do literal interpretive dances to that Brittney Spears song. It is so specific that I can't think about anything but what is being shown. Clyde: This reminds me of those emoji songs you were talking about. It's so literal that it seems like this is the only literal translation possible, But I bet a literal interpretation by ihavefivehat or everythingstaken would be different somehow. Chrissy: I would have preferred not to have heard the poem before I went into the game. Clyde: For me, the poem was a familiar thread to follow while playing the game. Chrissy: I guess you are right, At this point we are so familiar with this poem (because we played the other two games for February 12th first) It gives me the same type of excitement I get from seeing an actor I like from one TV show in another TV show, But at the same time, the familiarity makes everything predictable, Even if you don't REALLY know what they are going to pick to represent a line. Clyde: It's like reading lyrics while listening to the song. Comment: The Plant Chrissy: This is a good example of what I liked about Bioware games when they were still being made by Bioware. Clyde: Moral and ethical gray areas? Chrissy: What would be another way to put it? Clyde: It's nice to have games that force you to make ethical decisions. There is a big difference between reading a sci-fi book about mutually exclusive life-forms and playing a game where you decide which one will thrive at the expense of the other. It makes you consider your moral policies on a larger scale. Comment: Tent Rock Firecat FG paths with vase Clyde:I think the ending is important. Chrissy: Why, which part. It just seems like an excercise in frustration, it's one of those games that are about extreme skill. What is it about the "good job" at the end that you think is important? Clyde: I think this game is about a woman who does this regularly in order to sustain herself. I see her as a native woman who trades pottery for a living. Chrissy: It's like, she just did her job that day? Clyde: Yeah, she doesn't really get any achievement beyond sustaining herself even though the entire thing takes effort, time, attention and she can easily fail. I see the "good job" at the end being a bit glib; her skills and efforts are both impressive, but completely uncermonious or glamorous. I see this as a game about labor that is not valued beyond its immediate results. Chrissy: that's awesome, I like that interpretation. Clyde: It's also interesting to me that she is selling pots in town rather than getting water with one. Sustainability is tied to tourism rather than to wells and agriculture. -------------- IHAVEFIVEHAT ----------------- Comment: DreamHorses Clyde:I see three layers in this game. Clouds, the horse weave, and the dream horses. Chrissy: Four layers, don't forget the backwards music. Clyde: Good point. I'm interested in the use of low opacity in all of these layers. Chrissy: Maybe it's the dream part. Clyde: Do you think low opacity is a way to represent dreaminess? Chrissy: It could be, solid things express things being real. Clyde: The muddledness of the backwards music also gives me a feeling of low opacity layers superimposing. Chrissy: So the music makes you feel like there is another low opacity layer? Clyde: Like there is another group of low opacity layers.