Digital: A love story & its sequels

So I was browsing around the forums learning what people thought were the best indie games they ever played. Going on an indie gaming spree I managed to try this game out. Its completely free and you can download it from here. What is it exactly? Well its a visual novel of some sort made by some writer called Christine Love. Who dropped out of school being supported financially by the proceeds of her latest project.

So we can assume this game is pretty good right? Well to be honest. It surprised me a lot, it was pretty good. The writing was good but the best part of it was the interface. Having to type in numbers in your modem and hearing the screeching sound of death and then logging/hacking your way into a BBS board then sorting through the trolls and the useful information to solve a mystery.

There really is not much choice in the story you just keep following it. Some parts you have to read posts and emails and think but you can honestly finish it in a couple of hours.

The spiritual sequel to that game is don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story. This was created in a span of a month for a contest. This game you play as a literature teacher in a school set in the future. The students all have handheld computers they can send messages, post stuff, and start topics for. You as the teacher have the ability to read anything they post at any time. The entirety of the game revolves around you invading their privacy and reading everything.

What I find annoying, but at the same time brilliant is the use of slang and internet speak. Bro, lol, and others are used very commonly and while it grates on your nerves it is sort of believable as students barely talk to each other and spend most of their time talking through the computer instead. Their essays which you mark are barely literate and you have to constantly raise the marks so that everyone can pass. It is mandatory that they pass. Its filled with drama, homosexuality, bullying, invasion of privacy, suicide, and other stuff. Even the  "bullies" you have a chance to yell at, you can't help feeling sympathetic for. They are human after all. Everyone of them feels like they could be real people.

The current latest sequel is Analogue: A hate story. The only one that isn't free. Like the other two, it has a lot to do with technology. Set many years into the future on a generation spaceship called the "Mugunghwa" that mysteriously disappeared. It has now reappeared and you are an investigator on the ship looking through the logs and sorting out what happened. The writing in this game is much better than the previous two. For example this is just one of many letters exchanged by the crew.

Oh So-jin

When I first saw you, bringing my husband home in the late hours of the night, I was jealous. All I could think of was my daughter, and the first courtesan he'd had an affair with, nine years ago.

With every brief glimpse of you that I saw as you passed through our home, my heart burned a little, as if you embodied every single fault of my farce of a marriage.

I will never send this letter, because I know how ridiculous it sounds: for weeks, I, a noble wife, could be jealous of a poor courtesan? But you are young and beautiful, full of energy and grace; I am none of these things.

Only after you have been entertaining him for months did I start to realize what I was feeling: true, I was jealous, but not of you, for having my husband. I was jealous of my husband, for having the affections of a girl so pretty as you!

These are such ridiculous thoughts for a woman to have, I know, and even more ridiculous still is the way they have overwhelmed me. I used to dread my husband bringing his courtesans home with him; now I look forward to your nights together.

How could I not, when it means that I am treated to the sight of your bashful face in the morning? When we exchange glances, you hide behind your long hair, with so much cuteness and grace, my eyes can't help but wander, to admire the way it rests on your breasts. to see your clothes draped loosely over your hips; I cannot help myself from admiring your body as you try to hide from me.

It is ridiculous, to be so preoccupied with such thoughts, and perhaps I was better off having not ever realized them. Nevertheless, even though I may be as much of a woman as you are, I find myself longing for the same affections you shower my husband with. There is more to it than that: I would like to truly get to know you better. I like to imagine that we have much in common, aside from the obvious.

When I see you hiding in the corridor on those mornings, I imagine wrapping my own arms around those lovely hips, sharing long conversations about our tribulations in life, discovering just how much alike we are. And perhaps... I like to imagine we could share more than that.

I have been married for ten years to a man who has never paid any attention for nine of them. Perhaps my old age has made me bold, but I want more.

The next time I see you, I promise I will say something. For in all my twenty-six years, I have never felt a longing for anything this intensely. I don't care how wrong it is, as a wife and as a woman; I want you, Hana

And the reply


Hana

To my lovely So-jin,

You made it so easy, you know that?

I've always wanted to be seduced. The more I learned about it, the better I got at it, the more I thought about how lucky men are, that they'll get to be on the receiving end of it. It's always seemed like it would be so much fun.

But that wasn't why I dropped my guard in front of you, by the way. I was actually really wary the whole time you were serving my breakfast; do you know what I first thought? I thought maybe you were trying to poison me!

I mean, not seriously, of course. But it crossed my mind.

So no, I was guarded, until you started talking. You know what it was that got me? "Do tell me, how hard is it, studying to be a courtesan?" I answered modestly, "Oh you know, there's nothing to learn, you just have it or you don't"; the answer that any man would expect. But you?

You wouldn't have any of that. You said, "Please, don't lie. I actually want to know. It takes years, does it not? That must be intense for a girl of your age."

Then you leaned in, I started to blab about how it kind of is pretty intense, and I only realized an hour later that I was staring into your eyes, telling you - proudly, no less - about my whole life story. Our faces were barely a foot apart by the time I noticed what you'd done.

And that was how you caught me totally off guard. I had no idea what to do! Should I touch you? What's the right body language in that situation? Was I interpreting you right, or was it all in my head? Not even the slightest clue! You had me good.

And you played it so well! You know just the right moment to pull back, and tell me to go on my way, but in a way that left me wondering.

So-jin, you made it so easy. Returning home, my heart was so a fluttered, my feelings so confused, and all I could think about was you. You, the bored old wife of my patron, actually managed to seduce me, just like that.

I'd always wanted to know that feeling, and you know? It was everything I dreamed it'd be.


Its a story about two families, the Smith's, and the Kim's. These are the two noble families fighting to put their own family ahead and gain recognition from the Ryu family, the emperor and captain of the ship. However that has changed since many generations on the ship and society has regressed. They have no idea why they are even in space or care. Women are treated as if they don't exist. Their names doesn't matter and they are only referred to as the husband's wife. Some doesn't even have names like "the pale bride." They are raised to serve men, have their own women's quarters where they live and are married off like property at the age of 16. Like the other games and the letter exchanged above, it also have themes of homosexuality. However unlike the other two the story of this one is dark. Its based on the Korean Joseon dynasty which is one of the most brutally opressive ears for women in Korean history. Expect to read about patriarchy, sexual abuse, incest, rape, and more.

Its a fucked up place on the ship and the only thing you have to remember is:


Namjon yeobi.
Men are honoured, women are abased.


The writing is extremely well done and the interface is fun to play with. Typing in commands trying to find passwords and logging into admin and typing decrypt block3 to open new things in the game. Be warned though you might want to throw up from reading this but you will keep reading on because its interesting enough.