I had some free time today and decided to download and play this game. I'll just jump to the point I'm trying to make here; I don't really think the game deserves the amount of praise it has seemed to garnish with people. Don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy the game, but if I had played it in 2010, it wouldn't have been anywhere near my top 10. 

I'll just get the necessary complaint over with first, HOLY SHIT WAS THIS GAME FUCKING REPETITIVE! Okay, there I said it. Maybe it's because I'm a child of 90's  and therefore my appreciation of BBS is non-existent. Though,  I can defiantly see where the nostalgia factor would add to this game and I can always appreciate a game for trying to invoke that in it's players. The game does a wonderful job of creating this atmosphere, maybe it does it a bit to well, but, I'll get to that later.   I will also add, that this game did prompt me to explore some "old skool" computer stuff. I'm  very grateful that we as a society, for the most part, have moved passed dial up! Holy crap that shit seems so pre-historic, especially after playing through this game..   

Overall though, I think the game shoots itself in the foot with it's emulation process. I mean,who the fuck actually thought the whole process of having to dial the calling card, use the c0dez, than dial the actual number of BBS site you were trying to access, was fun? Not me, it was kinda cool for the first three times, but  then the whole process started to drive me insane, not to mention that  half the time the c0dez's didn't even work. Thanks for nothing, RobFugitive. Maybe, if Ms. or Mrs. (  I don't know), had been a little less inclined to directly re-create this universe, she would have realized that leaving out the tedious shit, would have made the game 20x better!    
 
This really has nothing to do with the emulation process, at least, I don't think it does....But, when trying to figure out how to advanced to another part in the story, I often found myself stuck, but not because I didn't know how to solve a puzzle; I thought that most of the puzzles in the game were pretty straight forwards, anyways. Instead, it was because I didn't know what the next puzzle I needed to solve was; if that makes any sense at all. Often, the only way to find out what you were supposed to be doing next,  was literally going through all of you PM'S and BBS's on the various sites, making sure that you hit "Reply" to each one. I guess this might seem like a trivial complaint to some, or an "OMG YOU FAIL", but it was frustrating to say the least and made the game wayyyy longer than it probably should have taken me to complete.
 
The thing that bothered me the most about this game, was the lack of any sense of a real relationship between *Emilia and I.  I mean, I guess I can accept  the whole idea of a love story between a computer and a human, it's 2011, why the hell not? However, I don't even understand why the computer and my "dude" where in love. They shared a total of fifteen short PM's, half of which she talks utter non-sense,  and already they are confessing love for one another!?! I just can't wrap my head around that. I guess my guy was just one smooth ass talker.. I don't think it should have bothered me as much as it did, but it kind of killed any chance of eliciting an emotional response from me, the game was just telling me that we were in "love", without provided any reason why.  Because, I liked her crappy poem? Sorry, that's not enough for me.  
  
I feel bad sitting here ragging on this game so much, because, at the end of the day, it was a good 2-3 hours spent. I loved the puzzles that the game required you to solve, it was nothing too challenging but it did require paying attention to the little details, and in return that had the effect of immersing me in this bizarre world.  I also liked, the little twists in the game; finding out that *Emilia was a computer, well that was a HOLY SHIT moment. I think my favorite moment though, was when *Emilia confessed her "love" for you and then *BOOM* Lake City Local crashes, when all you wanted to do was PM her back :(. It has this strange affect on me, more so than I thought a little game like this could..  
 
The best part about this game was hands down the music. It pretty much made the game for me. If this game didn't have music, I don't think there would have been a chance in hell that I would have finished. Each track, had the ability to capture the mood of the game during all the different scenarios. I especially enjoyed the music that played when ever a site crashed, it almost felt like my computer was laughing at me. Also, notable "Stars Come Out" and the "Disappointed" 
  
I guess the most notable thing about this game though, is the fact that I'm still thinking about it for some reason. Like I said, it wasn't anywhere near my favorite game or anything, yet, here I am wanting to talk about it and share it with people who haven't played it yet. It's a shame that it will slip beneath the general populace, but then again maybe not, because I think it may take a special kind of person to truly appreciate this game, even with all it's silly flaws.

 
 
I had some free time today and decided to download and play this game. I'll just jump to the point I'm trying to make here; I don't really think the game deserves the amount of praise it has seemed to garnish with people. Don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy the game, but if I had played it in 2010, it wouldn't have been anywhere near my top 10. 

I'll just get the necessary complaint over with first, HOLY SHIT WAS THIS GAME FUCKING REPETITIVE! Okay, there I said it. Maybe it's because I'm a child of 90's  and therefore my appreciation of BBS is non-existent. Though,  I can defiantly see where the nostalgia factor would add to this game and I can always appreciate a game for trying to invoke that in it's players. The game does a wonderful job of creating this atmosphere, maybe it does it a bit to well, but, I'll get to that later.   I will also add, that this game did prompt me to explore some "old skool" computer stuff. I'm  very grateful that we as a society, for the most part, have moved passed dial up! Holy crap that shit seems so pre-historic, especially after playing through this game..   

Overall though, I think the game shoots itself in the foot with it's emulation process. I mean,who the fuck actually thought the whole process of having to dial the calling card, use the c0dez, than dial the actual number of BBS site you were trying to access, was fun? Not me, it was kinda cool for the first three times, but  then the whole process started to drive me insane, not to mention that  half the time the c0dez's didn't even work. Thanks for nothing, RobFugitive. Maybe, if Ms. or Mrs. (  I don't know), had been a little less inclined to directly re-create this universe, she would have realized that leaving out the tedious shit, would have made the game 20x better!    
 
This really has nothing to do with the emulation process, at least, I don't think it does....But, when trying to figure out how to advanced to another part in the story, I often found myself stuck, but not because I didn't know how to solve a puzzle; I thought that most of the puzzles in the game were pretty straight forwards, anyways. Instead, it was because I didn't know what the next puzzle I needed to solve was; if that makes any sense at all. Often, the only way to find out what you were supposed to be doing next,  was literally going through all of you PM'S and BBS's on the various sites, making sure that you hit "Reply" to each one. I guess this might seem like a trivial complaint to some, or an "OMG YOU FAIL", but it was frustrating to say the least and made the game wayyyy longer than it probably should have taken me to complete.
 
The thing that bothered me the most about this game, was the lack of any sense of a real relationship between *Emilia and I.  I mean, I guess I can accept  the whole idea of a love story between a computer and a human, it's 2011, why the hell not? However, I don't even understand why the computer and my "dude" where in love. They shared a total of fifteen short PM's, half of which she talks utter non-sense,  and already they are confessing love for one another!?! I just can't wrap my head around that. I guess my guy was just one smooth ass talker.. I don't think it should have bothered me as much as it did, but it kind of killed any chance of eliciting an emotional response from me, the game was just telling me that we were in "love", without provided any reason why.  Because, I liked her crappy poem? Sorry, that's not enough for me.  
  
I feel bad sitting here ragging on this game so much, because, at the end of the day, it was a good 2-3 hours spent. I loved the puzzles that the game required you to solve, it was nothing too challenging but it did require paying attention to the little details, and in return that had the effect of immersing me in this bizarre world.  I also liked, the little twists in the game; finding out that *Emilia was a computer, well that was a HOLY SHIT moment. I think my favorite moment though, was when *Emilia confessed her "love" for you and then *BOOM* Lake City Local crashes, when all you wanted to do was PM her back :(. It has this strange affect on me, more so than I thought a little game like this could..  
 
The best part about this game was hands down the music. It pretty much made the game for me. If this game didn't have music, I don't think there would have been a chance in hell that I would have finished. Each track, had the ability to capture the mood of the game during all the different scenarios. I especially enjoyed the music that played when ever a site crashed, it almost felt like my computer was laughing at me. Also, notable "Stars Come Out" and the "Disappointed" 
  
I guess the most notable thing about this game though, is the fact that I'm still thinking about it for some reason. Like I said, it wasn't anywhere near my favorite game or anything, yet, here I am wanting to talk about it and share it with people who haven't played it yet. It's a shame that it will slip beneath the general populace, but then again maybe not, because I think it may take a special kind of person to truly appreciate this game, even with all it's silly flaws.

I think the game was terrible. I agree with you that there's no actual relationship development between Emilia and yourself and I didn't care when she died at all. I have no nostalgia for BBS and didn't care for its repetitive and frustrating nature. The story was dumb, as well. I enjoyed the music and the aesthetic, but I did not care for anything else.

I too grew up in a post-BBS world, so I really didn't have any memory of that stuff. That's something I really appreciated about the game though. Seeing an approximation of how things worked back in the day was really fun for me. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm into computers and hardware though. 
 
I actually haven't finished the game. I'm at the point just after you recover your computer from the virus. Actually a bit past that. About the point where my long distance cards were all cut off, I decided I'd finish later and have not gone back to it. I agree that the typing of all the phone numbers and passwords was super tedious, but the sound of the modem connecting is always magical. Overall I really think that the tedious nature is necessary to capture the proper feeling that the game strives for. It can be annoying, but I think it ultimately adds to the experience. 
 
I should really go finish this, but since the ending was already spoiled for me a long time ago, I'm not finding much motivation.

I think you guys are missing the point. 

" I think you guys are missing the point.  "

" I think you guys are missing the point.  "

It's point wasn't to be a great game, which i think is the where you find most of its faults. It set out to get an emotional response out of you. I believe you said it did get to you a bit (I could be wrong. I'm too lazy to scroll up haha), so, therefore, it succeeded at its goal.  
 
Personally, I think the fact that we can even have this conversation about the game shows that it is worthy of its praise.

Agree to disagree I guess. I'll just say I thought the game was great.