Random thought: "Well, that was a waste of the paper I was using to create a map."
This is an (incredibly short) game about the frustrations of being newly jobless. Being jobless sucks. But what sucks even more is how patronizing everyone else is around you: suddenly they are all experts on what you need to do to fix yourself. There's not a lot of empathy or emotional support - just a lot of, "This is your problem you'd better fix right away because the clock is ticking, and did you know that being a negative nelly means you're only digging yourself deeper? So chipper up!" And indeed that's what most of these so-called motivational speakers do. They just blame you for not putting on the right show, instead of acknowledging the very real difficulty, or offering personal jobsearching services. That kind of atmosphere is annoyingly unhelpful and condescending.
Tapping into that emotion could really have made for an interesting IF game. Of course, it would have been very technically challenging to access the shame, despair and frustration felt by someone jobless without coming across as alienatingly bitter.
This game came across as alienatingly bitter, as a personal project to vent about a personal struggle, but without engaging the audience. It felt a bit like watching a scene from The Room or reading a Livejournal post: short, not much substance, and with the focus centered around the person creating the project. And that's fine to create, I hope it was a good venting exercise. But for the rest of us, it just comes across as puzzling at best, annoying at worst.
2/10
I think you've managed to miss basically everything except the intro section to the game.
ReplyDelete(No shame in that! If the author didn't manage to shepherd you in the right direction, it's his failing as much as yours. And it seems as though there's always one or two games in a comp where I entirely miss the point. But, yeah, the game is considerably larger than what you've seen.)
It seems after reading other reviews you are right, there does seem to be more to the game (especially since the notepad seemed strangely over-implemented). But in that first room I went to check with a "hint", which berated me with a bunch of weird dialogue about the spoiler fairy, and then finally spit out the line, "Look around. There's only one place you can go." which said to me that there was only the one place to go, and that was the game.
ReplyDeleteBefore diving into the competition, I considered what I would do if I ever got stuck on a game: I could easily ask for outside help - but then that didn't feel like I was judging the game on its own merits, but on how well it plays when you have outside interference. Or if I may rephrase, it feels like a forum is one big Feelie, and we're not supposed to be considering the Feelies when we judge the game, so I don't look at any of 'em until after playing and judging the game. Harsh maybe, but the score and the review stands.
Yeah, I definitely try to play games uncontaminated, as it were (though, more and more, this is feeling sort of like an artificial constraint, not representative of how we consume stories in the wild, so to speak). And, yeah, if a game waffles on its hints in a way that leaves you still stuck, it deserves whatever it gets.
Delete(Though, argh, taking this to its logical conclusion gets you to the grotesquely overhinted casual-game world, and a room full of gloomy IF authors contemplating the ruin of all that is good in this world.)
Personally, I don't like word puzzles such as anagrams. That being said, the concept of rearranging the letters in an object's name to transform it into a new object is actually an interesting, novel premise behind the magic sytem of fantasy world. Yet, it would seem that you didn't even try it, right? I didn't finish the game because I don't like anagrams, but I did explore the magic system of the game and found it fascinating. Also, because a location in an adventure game has only one exit, why would any gamer, even a beginner, assume that the game ends with that room? And finally, agreed, I go to the hint when I'm seeking to end my frustration, not to introduce more frustration.
ReplyDeleteBefore I even address the topic, let's chillax that tone a bit, eh? There's no reason to get angry at someone for not playing the same way you did. I know this is "The Internet" where you are supposed to flame, but the point of I.F. (and this blog) is to have meaningful discussions, not to hurl negatives at each other.
DeleteThat said, I've seen joke entries in the past. Perhaps you remember this gem? http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/The_Absolute_Worst_IF_Game_in_History Where there's nothing to actually do. Just because it was entered as a game, doesn't mean it was a real entry, and since I go into all games blind to judge them solely on their standalone merits, you can read in the above comments why this mistake was made.
Lynnea-- I didn't intend to flame, nor was I angry. Sorry I gave that impression. Problem with texting as a form of communication that it is very easy to be misunderstood because there is no way to express facial expression, tone of voice, or use hand gestures. Please, reread my post in that light. If you do, I don't think you see me hurling negatives. Instead, you will see me trying to begin a dialog by tossing a few discussion points your way.
ReplyDeleteThat said, your point about joke entries is valid, though I've never encountered any personally. Guess I need to get out of the house more.
And, while your comment on the hint you received was valid, IMHO, and touched on a pet peeve of mine, but I would have liked to hear more about what you thought would have been better.
And, though you didn't mention it in your review, I'd like to hear your opinion about what makes an effecitve prologue in an IF game. I think Shuffling could have been done better in this regard.
Discussing what would make a good intro in general might be outside of the scope of my legal approval (since I only have permission to perform reviews of the Competition games and not games in general, and I'd prefer to be safe), but I will say this with regards to this specific game: there's no reason not to allow the player to >GO EAST, and then start the game from there. Have a scene where the player jots down some notes, gets bored, scribbles on the notepad, and plays with the words a little bit, while the lecture drowns on in the background. Something to hint to the player, "Hey, you should play with that heavily-implemented notepad sitting in your inventory".
DeleteAgreed.
ReplyDeleteToo bad you have to limit yourself while speaking publicly. As someone, somewhere said: You have to hook the reader in the first paragraph or they won't read the rest of the book. Or was it the first five pages? I forget. Anyway, I am agonizing over the prologue/opening scene issue in my current IF project, having made three complete revisions so far. I am seeking crumbs of wisdom wherever I find them falling off a table.