Dig your Hot Take, Jess. I think it isn't a game, but that's okay, and I still like it. But the ending was a bummer. I like lots of things that aren't video games. Some stuff on steam are less like games and more like other things. There's many 'games' that are actually more like toys. Townscaper for one, and it's lovely! And visual novels are basically illustrated choose your own adventure ebooks. If a choose your own adventure book is a game, what about just a regular book? Because there are visual novels without any choices that are 100% linear. They are certainly aren't games, are they? And I've read a couple that were good. My thesis is okay that walking sims aren't games, but that's okay, not every story needs gameplay.
I wish you guys were playing the open source version instead, as the steam release by 'Epyx' is shady as hell. They just dumped a dosbox wrapped version of the original abandonware dos port lazily on steam. Didn't even bother to add trading cards or achievements (which could've been done in 10 minutes with screenshots of ASCII characters) Or they could've added the graphics and mouse interface from the Amiga port, or even added an option to play the original Unix mainframe version as a historical curiosity. But they did the bare minimum, and neither Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman or Ken Arnold are going to see a dime from the steam release.
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