When I started playing this game, the first choice confused me. Without any prerequisite story, the player is given the choice of holding hands or hugging. I chose to hug, but I'm not sure how this will affect the later plot developments, making me curious about what will happen. As I continued, realizing that this could be the narrator's love story after I found "she" and a "boy" appeared. So my choice would affect their relationship. When I had to select the second option, I chose to rig the order to help them work together instead of not helping the boy. After finding I was making choices for the girl, I would like to take "positive" action to be brave and together. The story continued, and I knew that with my selection, the two of them were interacting more with each other, which made me feel very excited.
After choosing to walk him home, which I think is an excellent choice to make them closer, I know the boy has already had a girlfriend. I became feeling a little frustrated about that. The subsequent development of the story made me think that they were sweet and distant.
After I l knew that they met again, I still chose to be "brave enough" to make this story go on. However, they are still friends in the end. The last sentence, "Let's hear that again, maybe I can learn something here," takes me to the first page again and solves my problems at the beginning—Why do I have to choose "holding hands" or "hugging"?
The importance of choice is particularly consequential in this story. Every passage in this is a choice, where the highlighted words are the choices the player makes in progressing the story in a direction that closes or widens the distance in the relationship between the narrator and a boy they're crushing on. Each passage provides a visceral opportunity to face the force of doubt that tries to convince you that its not worth taking the risk to pursue someone special. Although, as the player you are detached from the consequences of failure, the ambiguity of what the following passage could be if you accidently overstep and show too much interest is enough to feed the nervous demon in the back of your mind. I said 'fuck it', though, when I played through the game the first time and threw the shy choices to the wind because I wanted the narrator to get their chance to be with this boy that made them happy. Though, there are passages with only a single choice, and in contrast to the ones with multiple, these feel completely different. As the player, conversely, you experience the opposite of ambiguity, as most of these single choice passages, you are drifting along through the story with the unsatisfied narrator, each proceeding passage with less to anticipate until you get that choice again. The choices and lack thereof in this story emphasize the doubt and desire that battle in one's mind when contemplating romantic pursuit and the choices themselves directly influence what the player feels they can and can't anticipate for the narrator from their actions.
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Prompt 1: Describe your process of reading.
When I started playing this game, the first choice confused me. Without any prerequisite story, the player is given the choice of holding hands or hugging. I chose to hug, but I'm not sure how this will affect the later plot developments, making me curious about what will happen. As I continued, realizing that this could be the narrator's love story after I found "she" and a "boy" appeared. So my choice would affect their relationship. When I had to select the second option, I chose to rig the order to help them work together instead of not helping the boy. After finding I was making choices for the girl, I would like to take "positive" action to be brave and together. The story continued, and I knew that with my selection, the two of them were interacting more with each other, which made me feel very excited.
After choosing to walk him home, which I think is an excellent choice to make them closer, I know the boy has already had a girlfriend. I became feeling a little frustrated about that. The subsequent development of the story made me think that they were sweet and distant.
After I l knew that they met again, I still chose to be "brave enough" to make this story go on. However, they are still friends in the end. The last sentence, "Let's hear that again, maybe I can learn something here," takes me to the first page again and solves my problems at the beginning—Why do I have to choose "holding hands" or "hugging"?
Prompt 4:
The importance of choice is particularly consequential in this story. Every passage in this is a choice, where the highlighted words are the choices the player makes in progressing the story in a direction that closes or widens the distance in the relationship between the narrator and a boy they're crushing on. Each passage provides a visceral opportunity to face the force of doubt that tries to convince you that its not worth taking the risk to pursue someone special. Although, as the player you are detached from the consequences of failure, the ambiguity of what the following passage could be if you accidently overstep and show too much interest is enough to feed the nervous demon in the back of your mind. I said 'fuck it', though, when I played through the game the first time and threw the shy choices to the wind because I wanted the narrator to get their chance to be with this boy that made them happy. Though, there are passages with only a single choice, and in contrast to the ones with multiple, these feel completely different. As the player, conversely, you experience the opposite of ambiguity, as most of these single choice passages, you are drifting along through the story with the unsatisfied narrator, each proceeding passage with less to anticipate until you get that choice again. The choices and lack thereof in this story emphasize the doubt and desire that battle in one's mind when contemplating romantic pursuit and the choices themselves directly influence what the player feels they can and can't anticipate for the narrator from their actions.