TWO TWINE GAMES
The first game I chose was 'Choice: Texas', because it was in the Socio-Political Commentary genre and this genre interests me. In the beginning you had to choose between five girls and this choice determines how the story will be. Every girl will end up with the choice of abortion or keeping the child and you have to make those choices for her while you see all those conversations with the people around her. Those conversations can make you choose differently than what you would without those conversations and therefore they definitely influence you.
The second game I chose was 'Explain Menstrual Periods to Me Like IAMA [cis] Male', simply because of the name. It sounds very unusual and it caught my attention. This game is in the Empathy Machines genre. This is more a 'game' that tells you a story (about how annoying menstruation can be) and you click on words to go to the next part, but there is not really a player choice in the game except going to the next part or not. The good thing about the game is that it is interactive and therefore the way the story is told is less boring and the player understands the message it is trying to give.
In the first game, the player was able to make choices that affect the game while getting influenced by the game how you make them. The second game didn't have options that would determine how the game would go. Every player will end up having the same outcome, because every part of the game has only one option to click on to go to the next screen. The goal of both games is explaining a certain situation to create awareness about the problem towards the player. Those are both different genre's and the first game has a more serious message than the second one, but both games are trying to explain a certain situation/problem through an interactive game.
I think the first game is stronger than the second one in making it's argument, this is because the complexity of the first game's problem. You can tell a story about a girl that got influenced by her family and friends by making the decision for abortion/marriage/etc., but you better understand the influence of the family and friends by choosing your own answer after reading their conversations, so you can experience yourself that it is easier to be influenced than you think. The second game simply tries to guide you through a story in a funny way to make you understand the argument.
The two games that I chose to write about are two out of the twelve I've played. I chose those, because those where the ones I was interested enough to actually read and play them. While playing the games, I was observing why certain games caught my interest or not. The first game had a really attractive layout which made it feel like a game instead of a story. It was also very clear where I could choose from and this made my experience of playing more comfortable. Too many choices were too distracting and uncomfortable for me while playing. The second game didn't have too much text and was told in a funny way, those elements made me play the game. This all together inspired me for my own game.
