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Play The Killer, Then Ask Yourself, 'What Kind of Person Am I?'

Jordan Magnuson is travelling the world, crafting experiences based on what he finds.

No Caption Provided

Boom.

Does a game have to be fun? What constitutes a game, anyway? And what's a nongame?

These questions are more weighed after finishing Jordan Magnuson's The Killer (play it here). About a minute in, I died. A mine had killed me, something I had no control over. It's one of three endings to The Killer, an interactive...experience? The pixel artwork will remind you of a video game, and you are a controlling a character from left to right, but it's...well...

The Killer isn't about defeating an alien menace or terrorists or resurrected Nazi zombies. Set in Cambodia, The Killer involves a lot of walking. I'd recommend you just go play it, actually. I'll wait.

Done?

Powerful, right?

A photo snapped by Magnuson and his wife, while travelling through Cambodia this year.
A photo snapped by Magnuson and his wife, while travelling through Cambodia this year.

"I was lying in bed one night listening to Jonsi's 'Tornado' when the idea for The Killer came to me," explained Magnuson, writing to me over email as he makes his way through Europe. "I was traveling in Cambodia at the time, reading about the Khmer Rouge, and I had just been to visit Toul Sleng: a prison camp in Phnom Penh where 10,000 people were killed between 1977 and 1979. As I listened to Jonsi's lyrics, and those haunting vocals, I imagined myself marching someone to the field where I would shoot them, or bludgeon their head in (as was more typical). Imagined getting to the field, and having that simple choice to make, of whether to carry out my purpose...or not. Once anything is in my head that way, it's only half a step to my imagining it as some kind of computer game, or notgame."

Magnuson has no problem with the term "notgame." When you say "game," that saddles certain expectations. Games have an ever-expanding history, compounded by a struggle with the very term of "video game," and having definitions is problematic.

I touched on this idea when writing about L.A. Noire a few weeks back, asking for game experiences that better reflected the broader range of human emotion. As someone who is paid to play and write about video games, however, I often wonder whether my colleagues and I are the only ones who'd like to see more of this. When you're exposed to a random violent military shooter number for the thousandth time (like this year's E3), you crave more. For the vast majority of players who use video games as escapism, the exhilaration of the power fantasy may be enough. Even if that's true, why limit the medium?

But I digress. Magnuson puts it much better, anyway.

"The Killer, as far as I see it, is something like a short interactive poem, and it doesn't intend to be anything more," he said. "I call it a notgame to try and spark a little bit of realization that not everything interactive has to be a game, and also to try and prepare the player for encountering something that won't be fun."

The Killer is a spiritual successor to Walk or Die, another Magnuson experiment.
The Killer is a spiritual successor to Walk or Die, another Magnuson experiment.

It's best to know as little about The Killer before playing it. The surprise, especially if you encounter the random element that is the mine, has an exponentially greater impact. And the point of game vs. nongame may be moot, as The Killer is simply using the interactive possibilities of software to make a point, and having barrels of fun while making a point is not required.

"In some ways it's an experience to be 'endured' rather than 'enjoyed,'" admitted Magnsun, "which some people may find odd or objectionable, as the idea of 'interactive experience' outside of the realm of software tools has become conflated with entertainment for most of us."

One of the most recent snaps of Magnuson on his GameTrekking trip, this time in England.
One of the most recent snaps of Magnuson on his GameTrekking trip, this time in England.

There are three ways The Killer may end: encountering a mine, choosing to kill the person or firing into the sky, not killing them. The epilogue, explaining how the game was inspired by the horrors faced by the Cambodian people past and present, is the same no matter what.

Magnuson has made nongames in the past (play them all here), but The Killer's one part of a more ambitious, world-spanning project called Gametrekking, whose mission statement is to make games influenced by seeing the world. The Killer is just one example. Following the same path as so many others these days with a concept they're hoping people will love, he funded the idea through Kickstarter. He's been "trekking" for months now, moving through Taiwan, Vietnam, and others.

As mentioned, The Killer was inspired by Magnuson's stay in Cambodia.

"GameTrekking project is not about attempting some objective presentation of Cambodia, or any other place that I've been to," he said, "but rather about my trying to express something of my own particular encounters with places as I travel in the twenty-first century. [...] It was because of this project that I was studying the Khmer Rouge, and it was because I was in Cambodia that I saw how much its past history is still affecting the country today. I strongly doubt that I ever would have had the particular idea that turned into The Killer if I had not been able to actually visit Toul Sleng and the Cheong Ek killing fields."

I've spoken to Magnuson before, as part of a piece for EGM, not long before he hit the road. He's a man who takes the potential of games very seriously, frustrated by today's most popular games (read: Call of Duty) coming to define the medium for a great many people.

We're in agreement there, even if I understand the precarious balance, as ultimately games need to make money. It comes back to this notion of fun for me, and whether fun is part of the equation that makes up an experience, game--or nongame.

Playing with this notion can lead to extreme reactions, as the comments on The Killer at Newgrounds underscore. Magnuson said most of the ratings are either one or ten, basically a love or hate reaction.

Take this one, for example.

"I came here to play a game, not wasting my time with this sentimental sob story crap," said a user named xzibition8612, not pulling any punches. "Who gives a shit what happens in cambodia? I don't care what happens there as long as they keep making my shoes and sushi. Don't waste everybody's time under the pretense of a game."

It doesn't phase Magnuson, but he worries about what it means.

"I think if we're afraid of 'losing fun,' we're going to severely limit our potential for exploration where this medium is concerned, and that would be a shame," he said. "Games are going to be around forever...I don't think we have to worry that our grandchildren are going to end up in some kind of grayscale world where they're forced to play boring notgames all day long. So my feeling is, let's not worry about it 'working.' Let's experiment, and see what's outside the box. I think there's plenty of room for all varieties of fun and emotion and meaning to exist together, and side by side."

Patrick Klepek on Google+

285 Comments

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mutha3

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Edited By mutha3

Klepek, for the most part, I appreciate your contributions to the site a lot, but--
 
 
this article is one of the most navelgazing things I have ever laid eyes on.

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winsord

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Edited By winsord

Pretty neat experience, especially without having read anything from this article before playing it. You can definitely see the extremities in reactions though; people who get it and are intrigued the whole way through, and the people who are easily bored and distracted who retain nothing from the experience. I ended up turning around and shooting the opposite direction. Even with no attachment to any characters through character development, without it looking realistic; it's a game, a medium in which you almost never actually think with depth about your objectives in goals, instead you just fulfill them without thought and consideration. Though everything says I should have behaved otherwise, I somehow made an emotional connection (a rare thing for me and novels, games, movies, etc.) and found myself unable to take the fake life of the prisoner in front of me; I'd rather take my own.

What does seem weird to me though is that the people who don't get it, almost always seem angry about it (there are exceptions). Some view it as shallow and pretentious sure, but those emotions could very well reflect themselves. A large portion of its effect on you is from what you end up thinking about during the mundane walk. If you simply were bored and really only thought about how you couldn't wait for it to end or started doing something else, then it obviously failed to work for you. I'm not saying it's amazing or a huge step in games, but I do think people are way too quick to pass it off as pretentious. The comments which state that the game is, "boring", "bad" and "too simple" are quite amusing to me though, as it's made very clear that some people certainly aren't grasping the intended effect of this game. If it's different and I don't get it, it must be pretentious!

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LongMasterWolf

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Edited By LongMasterWolf

The Killer is really interesting, I am going to be teaching the Holocaust this semester and I am going to have my students play this game. Or rather notgame.

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Tally_Pants

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Edited By Tally_Pants

that was a eerily emotional experience, simple yet powerful!

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Gustav

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Edited By Gustav

While I love the site, I never thought GB would "be the type/have the guts" to cover this game, AWESOME! 
 
Thanks for a great article and for questioning whether games only could or should be the interactive equivalent of hollywood blockbuster action movies.

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WickedFather

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Edited By WickedFather

I thought I was the man at the front at first and thought sod it, I'm going to dawdle to piss the guy off.  I then stopped with the front guy over flowers and the river, same with the guard wondering if anything would happen.  When we got to the fields I didn't want to shoot the guy so shot at the flowers.  My aim was bad.

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LackingSaint

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Edited By LackingSaint

To be honest, it's this kind of bland, long-winded, hamfisted work that makes people think games can never truly be an emotionally resonant artform. I held the spacebar for 10 minutes before shooting up into the air and getting a paragraph of information about an event the game itself gave no real resonance towards; to me this seems like the equivalent of making a movie that is an hour-and-a-half close up of a flower and then somebody steps on the flower at the end. It's sending a message, but it's sending it in an incredibly banal, uninteresting way. 
 
I really WANTED to enjoy this notgame, i'm all for expanding the medium to be more than lazy Call of Duty clones, but having a product like this, that tries so hard to be subversive, just doesn't feel right.

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supercubedude

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Edited By supercubedude

When's "The Killer DX" due out?

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Lunar_Aura

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Edited By Lunar_Aura

Let's all create some achievements for this game! :)

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Tesla

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Edited By Tesla

How do I shoot my gun?

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Rhombus_Of_Terror

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I played it as I read the article, I only saw in hindsight that it is only an interactive educational tool to describe a brief point in Cambodia's history. Any association with the word "game" would allow the player to think there is some kind of reward - reward not being points or exp but rather it being narrative - for completing it.

People's approach to this medium in particular could inherently change their experience with said medium. Selecting the ambient sounds option in "The Killer" instead of having music in my opinion holds your attention differently as the silence between the two "characters" is ever more present and you question what is going on until you make that final decision, thus "The Killer" reveals it's true purpose as explained above.

This kind of stuff is indeed a refreshing approach to an interactive experience it can never be called a game / nongame. However, it can stand alongside games of rich narrative as the control scheme would be remarkably similar. Heavy Rain is one of the more mainstream titles to come close to this.

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SonicFire

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Edited By SonicFire

I don't think that the game accomplishes its objective where cambodia is concerned, but it does represent the spectrum an emotion of interactive media.

But face it, you can put ANYthing to a melancholy Jonsi track and make it seem quite poignant

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Rek503

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Edited By Rek503

I thought the only option was to shoot him. It blew my mind that you could have an option where you didn't shoot him, and I actually feel genuinely bad that I didn't even think for a second that I could just fire in the air.

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Cobra_Lionfist

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Edited By Cobra_Lionfist

It's all well and good that he wants to bring Cambodia to people's attention but the actual game is extremely shallow and simplistic, the music is bad and the whole thing is so predictable and unsubtle it just seems insulting. If he really cared about Cambodia why didn't he put in the effort to make something great, instead of making something that could be coded in a couple hours, and judging by the shot of his other "game" reusing art assets. If someone makes a movie or writes a book about a serious issue they usually make sure it's a good book or movie, people don't just assume it's good because of what it's about.

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deactivated-5a1a3d3c6820c

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Sorry, I care about the horrible, horrible things happening in the world, but this pretentious rubbish is ridiculous.

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makari

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Edited By makari

@TheHumanDove said:

What I found interesting was how most people that hated the game, shot the guy at the end.

Interesting indeed...

And all the people that did would be dead. Perhaps it's a dark sociopathic comedy about him wanting all the naive, sheltered and pretentious people in the world to die? Art'n'stuff.

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Hagane

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Edited By Hagane

The way he stumbles forward after you push him when he gets tired made me feel strange.

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sixstringguy

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Edited By sixstringguy

needs a mode 7 flying section. Otherwise very powerful.

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punpun

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Edited By punpun

... huh

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yukoasho

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Edited By yukoasho

@the_ghost_baby


For those who are calling it boring I think your missing the point. It clearly says it is a "notgame" and unlike most games its main objective isn't to entertain but to get its message across.

I can't speak for others, but I personally don't see where entertainment and cultural edification have to be mutually exclusive.  Great dramatic films such as Downfall and Jin-Roh have been tragic and left lasting impressions, but were still entertaining to watch for those inclined to drama.  As Pezen said, they don't have to be "fun" in the classical sense, but if something isn't engaging, than the author has lost the audience.
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the_ghost_baby

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Edited By the_ghost_baby

@vinsanityv22: IMO the author uses the length to try and create a connection between you, the killer, and the victim over time. When you get to the stage where you have to shoot I think you'd be more inclined to think about what decision you will make rather then if the game started at the execution. If that was the case and you hadn't heard the music or seen the background animations you probably wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

For those who are calling it boring I think your missing the point. It clearly says it is a "notgame" and unlike most games its main objective isn't to entertain but to get its message across.

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jfbguy

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Edited By jfbguy

I liked the concept. I actually shot at the ground the first time, and it still read it as I shot him. So I quickly reloaded, got blown up by a mine, reloaded, and then shot into the air, to complete what I originally intended to do. I think the mine blows up if you never let go of the spacebar ever, kind of making it so the user doesn't just click away from the 'game'... interactive narrative. The ending reminded me of the board game Train. If you have never heard of it, you should read up on it. Very similar in concept.

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Quantical

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Edited By Quantical

@vinsanityv22: so it didn't make you read up on Cambodia at all? Maybe you already did all that but this simple nongame actually made me think. Sorry you feel that way.

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vinsanityv22

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Edited By vinsanityv22

I guess it's more interesting if you finish it. But I'm not gonna hold the Spacebar for two minutes or more just to shoot someone. If it's supposed to make someone "think" about their actions, I hope they think of this; "Man I just wasted some time there alright". :D  That nongame should be a whoooooole lot shorter. 
 
There's another "nongame" out there (I suppose there are many, thank you indie devs) about reflecting on the length of one's life where you walk a sprite through a montage from the left side of the screen to the right. As you do, he grows older and older and then he dies. That's it. It's much shorter, and therefore more playable and more effective at making it's point.
 
Nice song though.

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Deusoma

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Edited By Deusoma
@ProlificShadow said:
That was surprisingly powerful. People like  xzibition8612 are the reasons why we don't see more of this. It's sad really. 
No, people like xzibition8612 are flies, buzzing annoyingly yet harmlessly in our ears. We don't see more of this because people don't create it. In my experience, the people who create things like this genuinely do not care what other people think of it. They merely wish to make a statement, not obsess over how people interpret that statement.
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ArchTeckGuru8

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Edited By ArchTeckGuru8

Reminds me of the Milgram Experiment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

(not completely, just an abstract sense)

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Quantical

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Edited By Quantical

Wow, thankyou for posting this Patrick, the music is beautiful in this.

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TwoLines

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Edited By TwoLines

Very interesting.  

What's fascinating, is that being a soldier and playing a game have something in common. 
You're given an order, you're expected to follow it through, failure is not an option.  

Also you, as a soldier or gamer, are devoid of symphaty at times. You don't feel connected to your actions. 
I'm not saying what you do in a video game you'd do in real life. 
I'm saying there is a connection. Our id is let loose, and terrible things happen.  
 
Even so, I knew what was going to happen, and I shot in the air. 
I think that hints at what kind of person you really are.

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Stubert73

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Edited By Stubert73

I still believe that video games could be one of the best ways to create empathy, and this experiment was a powerful example for me. Thanks for sharing. I would have never seen this otherwise.

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Gold_Skulltulla

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Edited By Gold_Skulltulla

Really interesting read. I like the kinds of things Magnuson is interested in bringing up within games, but I don't feel like I had the emotional attachment to the figures that it seems like he was going for. I enjoyed the presentation and the pacing, but I never had that moment of suspension of disbelief where I actually felt invested. All told, it's still a decent hook for delving into some of the tragic history of Cambodia. Maybe it's worth noting that I chose the ambient music, and maybe the music track added that extra element that seemed lacking in my experience. Though, based on the selection between the two options, the Jonsi track seems like it would have come off as ham-fisted and cloying. Regardless, I hope to see more experiments in this vein and to hear about them on GB.

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ervonymous

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Edited By ervonymous

Soul-searching is always a good thing even if this didn't do anything for me. Good ol' tarot cards.

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Geralt

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Edited By Geralt

Douches.....as far as the eye can see :1

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thebigJ_A

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Edited By thebigJ_A

The endings are definitely different. I shot in the air in mine, and it mention how lieutenants like me who refused to shoot were killed as well.

I shot in the air. It was a powerful, and strange, moment for me. My instinct as a gamer almost caused me to shoot the guy, but as he slowly sank to his knees, I realized I just couldn't. It was an evil thing to do, and I couldn't shoot an unarmed prisoner, even in a game. I was afraid I'd be stuck on that screen, but to my vast relief the game allowed me to shoot in the air. That relief crumbled when I realized what it represented. I'd have been killed for that act of mercy, and wouldn't have saved the prisoner.

Moving.

(Those "reviews" cause me to lose my faith in humanity, btw. Disgusting.)

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TheHumanDove

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Edited By TheHumanDove

What I found interesting was how most people that hated the game, shot the guy at the end.

Interesting indeed...

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deactivated-65d51c2303ca6

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That was surprisingly powerful. People like  xzibition8612 are the reasons why we don't see more of this. It's sad really. 

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RsistncE

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Edited By RsistncE

Absolutely astounding that a simply pixel art "notgame" with a well selected music track can make more of an emotional impact than 99% of the stuff Hollywood puts out in the same category.

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Karl_Boss

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Edited By Karl_Boss

  

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AxleBro

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Edited By AxleBro

 this was really interesting for me. i shot into the air because i was all caught up in the music emotionally.
 

however the reviews on newgrounds made me realize how dumb so many people are. let me more or less  paste a good example:
 
0/10 "boreing"
 
"i dont get it sense all i do is hole space and we walk, when do i get to do anything. this is not even fun, 0/10"
 
another one was the dude asking how to shoot.
 
 it still baffles me that people are unable to understand stuff like this. how can one even function in society without any kind of comprehensive capabilities. even reading the comments here i see some people who just don't get it.

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Pezen

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Edited By Pezen

I think where this (non-)game succeeds and fails is at the heart of the whole thing. It's a creation that reflects one person's idea of what something was through a song that sets the whole pace. I would consider the idea that the killings were probably a lot less melancholic and more stressful and brutal. The walking, as noted by some, is a bit of a chore and personally I figured I was the victim. So when I finally stopped and it told me to aim I realized who I was. As for things having to be fun or games because they're interactive, I personally don't think "games" have to be "fun", but they should be engaging and pique my interest in some way.

But at the same time, just because an interactive experience is about something tragic, doesn't mean it's free from criticism.

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animaltime

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Edited By animaltime

Another Flash game I've played reminded me of this.  
It's called One Chance, and the game will lock you out after you finish it, giving your decisions real meaning. 
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181 

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InternetDetective

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Hands down funniest game of 2011.

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tourgen

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Edited By tourgen

Great scam this guy is running.  Kickstart cash to travel the world and make shitty flash nongames.
 
I gave his game as much consideration as he did making it - none.  Craftsmanship is worth something dude.  Get some skills.

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yorro

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Edited By yorro

Both are prisoners of their own world.
 
If this does happen in Cambodia and if I have a decision to end it all, I would without a second thought. Unfortunately I don't have that power, the only decision I can make is whether I dwell on this or not.  The thing is: I will still live my life, do I need to dwell on this? No, life has given me ample amount of stress already.
 
No matter what I decide, the outcome will be the same (just like the choice of the man with the gun, same outcome).

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AngriGhandi

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Edited By AngriGhandi

I went in blind, and didn't really notice the part where you said the game takes place in Cambodia-- so the combination of the slow pan down and the reveal text afterwards were pretty powerful.

People ask whether games are ever going to get more "serious--" and yes, heavier ideas are going to continue to find their way into mainstream games, here and there-- but independent projects like this are always going to be where actual statements get made, precisely because they don't need to operate under the requirements of being a game. They can totally undermine your expectations. And that's why I'm always glad to see them highlighted-- even on a decidedly un-heavy, feel-good site like this one. So yeah, great article.

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apoloimagod

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Edited By apoloimagod

I wouldn't call it a not-game... I would rather call it a not-entertainment. Saying it's not a game would remove part of the elements that make this piece of software so impressing.

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Gerhabio

1996

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Edited By Gerhabio

Sure, artists or people in general are free to use interactive video as they like like any other medium. But yeah, like the creator said himself, it's doesnt feel like a game.

That said, it feels a little shallow (as in real short and lacking detail) as well. But if it gets people interested in the subject I guess that's enough.

Simple video (documentary) and anthropological studies (like ethnographies) are probably best suited for this type of documentation and exposition. Interactive mediums are OK for expressing emotion.

Ran into a mine.

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prestonhedges

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Edited By prestonhedges
@CletusTheFoetus said:

Made an impact on me, that's for sure. For those who argue about needing "gritty realism" to evoke some emotional response try reading a book or a poem - the ones without pictures.

Except this dude didn't write a book or a poem. He made a flash game that rips off other, better flash games.