<
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/aug/07/videoverse-review-a-profound-exploration-of-love-games-and-fandom>
"Anyone who ever played and loved a video game, especially as a teenager, will
know that the game itself is often only part of the experience. It is also
about community. We seek out other players, through forums, message boards and
social media, and sometimes the relationships we form in these haphazard spaces
move beyond expressions of shared fandom. They become friendships, support
networks, perhaps even romances.
Videoverse, the new visual novel from
Kinmoku, creator of the acclaimed relationship drama
One Night Stand, is an
engrossing and emotional study of these digital relationships and the games
that precariously support them.
The year is 2003 and 15-year-old video game fan Emmett spends hours each day on
his Shark games console, playing the Japanese role-playing game
Feudal
Fantasy. When not playing, he is socialising on the machine’s online service,
Videoverse, a combination of discussion forum and instant messaging platform.
Emmett is part of a thriving, mostly supportive community of gamers and
artists, but when the console’s manufacturer, Kinmoku (one of many slyly
self-referential elements in the game), seeks to move the user base on to its
new Dolphin console, the company announces that
Videoverse will soon be
switched off, plunging the group into an existential crisis.
Playing as Emmett, you experience most of the game through his retro-style
console, posting
Feudal Fantasy fan art, commenting on posts and chatting
with friends via a multiple choice textual interface. There’s laddish pal
Zalor, caught up in an unstable relationship with fellow player Tifa-Chan;
there’s quiet game nerd MarKun666; and then there is mysterious newcomer Vivi,
a talented artist whom Emmett immediately falls for. Their halting, cautious
relationship is told entirely through instant-message interactions, your
conversation options swaying between game chat and snippets of real-life
detail. The dialogue is authentic, relatable and often painful as anxieties and
secrets come to the fore."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
