The first game I played was called spent. In this game we had the choice to pick our own job and insurance plan. The tough part was that we had to make our money last us the entire month. This game showed me the different struggles people go though in order to make ends meet. While playing the game, I realized that I was very stingy with money which is something that really surprised me. In my opinion, this was the most interesting out of all the games I played and I wouldn’t change a thing about it.
To me, this game was the most stressful. We were given a series of choices to make and our ultimate goal was to eventually safely seek refuge in a country with our families. The game always gave me two choices to choose from, but I always found myself thinking of all the various consequences that could arise from either choice. In fact, I think I overcomplicated things in my mind a bit. My only concern is that I found almost no possibility to win the game. However, thinking about it now, maybe that was the idea after all; accurately portraying people’s frustration. I also doing think I would change a thing about this game because it was able to get its message across without being too long or complicated
This game included a warning which said “This game may put you down if you’re already feeling kind of depressed as it is about putting yourself in the shoes of someone who is very depressed and making decisions on their behalf that might make them more or less depressed. It is a very good game if you know someone who suffers from depression and want to help them.” I was very intrigued by this and was very eager to try and play the game and see what this warning sign was all about. To say the least, I was very underwhelmed. The game was very long and boring. it required a lot of reading. Personally, I don’t think the creators of the game were successful in getting their message across because looking back at it now, I don’t think I learned anything from the game. I highly suggest they add more graphics to make the game more eye catching and try and cut the long texts short. Maybe they could include a video of animated characters to reenact the role of the characters in the game.
I really like this game because it was to the point and the choices were very realistic. What I learned in that I actually am afraid to have kids (Always knew that anyways but I just confirmed it even more). As I grew older, I realized how tough it was for my mom to take care of me and my sisters given that we don’t have any family members living in Egypt to help around nor is my father around most of the time due to work. Prior to playing the game, I assumed that the format of the questions would be the way they were, but I still felt tired as I kept making choices and decided to put the interest of my imaginary baby above my own. My only suggestion to make this game even more interesting is adding images to spice it up a bit.
I literally spend 30 minutes trying to figure this game out and I came out with nothing. I really think they should add more instructions and a “help” option.
I just have one question, why did I feel so offended that my imaginary husband slapped me and called me ugly even though I was sitting comfortable in the couch of my living room the entire time? When I played this game, a friend of mine was over and we took the decisions together. As the game escalated and I got more and more invested in it, he told me that this actually happens to women in most Egyptian households. Despite the fact that I already knew this, it angered me even more hearing it from a male friend. I really enjoyed the game and I liked that she used imaged in order to make it more interactive. Moreover, it was very realistic which is what kept me on the edge of my seat.
Societal standards have made it very hard for girls to just exist in their own bodies. Everyone has a say in how your body looks. In fact, people think they’re entitled to have an opinion about your whole appearance in general. Growing up, I did experience this a lot and it took a toll on my mental health. Till this day, I still have my good and bad days. I like this game because it shows how both sides of the pendulum are unsatisfied with how they look. I think people who are underweight are overlooked because people think they should thank god they can eat whatever they want. Many of my friends are on the slender side and dislike their bodies meanwhile some of my other friends are on the heavier side and would love to loose a few pounds. I think in the end it’s all about self acceptance and self awareness. I really like that she called the game “Peer Destruction” instead of “Peer Pressure” to emphasize the magnitude of the issue. My only issue with this game was that it was on google slides which was a bit odd for me and barely included any images.
What about my game?
After playing these games, I think I want to integrate a few aspects from each of them when creating my own. I was it to be short and to the point in order to not bore my players like “Domestic Abuse”. At the same time, I want it to be realistic and appeal to people’s emotions like “Spend” or “Peer Destruction”. I think I want to make to about something related to mental health because I feel like that would me the topic I’m most interested in.
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