LEVEL UP LIFE

A number of applications attempting to gamify a certain area of life have appeared in the past decade or so, mostly in areas like fitness or work or organisation , and mostly in isolation. I've always admired the fact that applications came dangerously close to being games at times, while still managing to persuade the "serious" users they were running an application en route to self-betterment,. But what if we actually wanted to gamify any and all aspects or tasks of everyday life and  have them presented as itemised characteristics? The textual adventure, the role-play ,the pixelated graphic design of LEVEL UP LIFE all appeal to the intended age group - a struggling 30-to-40 year olds , slackers by design. And its not just about the cute exterior- the game will help you with your goals just as any self-help book or time management course would. You choose 13 areas building your culture, talent, power talent, charisma through daily, weekly, monthly or unique tasks.

If you appreciate blurring the lines between an application and a game  LEVEL UP LIFE might just  be the right title for you.

ALTER EGO

The oldest bildungsroman in gaming I can think of was a welcome relief from genre's dominant fantasy subject matter during the 80s. ALTER EGO was  made by a psychology professor and sometimes the playing resembles answering an extensive questionnaire about your life and its travails while living a part you're assigned. On the other hand, introspection isn't bad.  You walk through  life replete with choices you make as a male or female (though including other genders would have been great) of many dispositions and a number of moods. You can give truthful answers or not, be benevolent or malevolent, and each answer determines the way your afterlife plays out. Sets of questions are grouped under icons on the screen that cover an area of life -emotional, social, defining moments and rights of passage, intellectual life and the accruement of knowledge etc and there are thousands upon thousands of questions appearing randomly. Your aim is to develop into a functional human being without dying in the process. Deliberately making wrong decisions  will also enable you  to have a differennt kind of fun and see how you can end your life in the game - and again, there are dozens of ways to do it.
The replay value and the fact that Alter Ego was one of the very few games in my c64 collection  with a "save game" option made playing this game a truly unique experienc. It could have done with some music and maybe some funny fx to spice it up, but  nevetheless it's ace.

SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS

What a befitting title for this ingenious piece of gaming software. Whether you consider this to be a proper game or not, the idea behind it is absolutely unique,  no doubt about it. And the gameplay is very much true to life, as the trolling and fighting for and against social justice takes place in virtual space, just  as God intended. Progressivists troll, regressivists troll , trolls troll for the fun of it, and everyone looks exactly the same as everyone else , all in a world where it's ok and not ok to have an opinion on anyone and anything and run people down by use of cars if they disagree with the car owner. In a world where fascism is sold as freedom of speech  and the double standards are employed throughout the globe by big players, it is hard even for a politically-minded individual to keep track of what might be going on in this confusing new world.The aptly used pejorative term stresses this feeling  and gives the player a hint of what to expect from the game itself. The game does what it says on the tin, you engage in outwitting trolls until they go online and another troll takes their place, recreating and reliving "real-life"online experiences that are immediately identifiable. Expecting anything else from this game would mean steering away from its intent and purpose, if there be one.

The question is -why would anyone go through such lengths at recreating unpleasant trials and tribulations that everyone of us has experienced online? Is it meant to make us realize  people can't change and that  trying to prove otherwise is a complete waste of time? Does it make us rethink the agressive posture we sometimes assume when talking to a complete stranger or casual acquaintance we're never likely to meet offline anyway? I guess it's about preserving your sanity and reputation , online and offline.

BLUE WHALE

After reading the Big Whale Suicide game hysteria elegantly debunked in my favourite local computer magazine (Svet Kompjutera,July2017, p.43)  I started thinking about art in gaming and art in general and how it exists even if its sole existence is based on documentation and not on its actual physical presence/ form.
Social media games have been extremely popular since their very inception and a number of unique ideas have sprouted to this very day, but the fact that media constructed a game  around a forum meme tricking global post-truth population into thinking it existed is nothing short of revolutionary.
I always speak of the necessity of coming up with new genres in gaming- well, here's one! It's refined, it borders on art and its practices, it spurs bigotry, paranoia, xenophobia, anti-millennial hysteria,confirms new media uses and practices...
The supposed author of the meme-game wrote a new page in gaming without knowing it.