Cibele is a game about love, sex, and the internet. You play as a 19 year old girl who has become close with a young man she met in an online game. Her relationship with him heats up, becoming more and more intimate with each phone call and private chat.
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interesting concept so so writing
This review contains spoilers
If you've never fallen in love online before, you might enjoy this game. If you have, you've already played this game.
Since this is a narrative focused game, a review of the game has to come from the perspective of the narrative, so this review has major spoilers.
I wanted to like it. I really did. As a girl whose first few loves were online and just as awkward, I feel like it captures exactly that kind of frustrated, timeless, pure energy of first loves, especially with the added complication of figuring out how to negotiate it online. Idly performing some task while discussing topics totally divorced from the game felt authentic to how it happens "in real life," where it almost feels like the games are a crafted digital space for you two to talk in. I think it properly captures how much these virtual spaces contextualize our behavior and make us different but almost more authentic versions of ourselves, and it does an incredible job of making the rest of the world, the "real world," feel awkward and stilted in comparison. But I found myself wondering what the point it was trying to get across was beyond that.
Was it just to capture that energy? Because if so, I feel insufficiently motivated to identify with the main character; instead of playing out this sort of energy for myself, instead of feeling like I am falling in love all over again, I am distinctly watching Nina do it for me; her very real presence (in this case, her literal physical presence on screen) drove home the point that this was HER story, not a shared one, and so I left feeling like I was invading her privacy, going through her emails and archives she'd almost certainly never look at again once they were zipped up (I even explicitly avoided opening archival data in an effort to more effectively roleplay to no avail). Even my token interaction of grinding enemies went away as I realized that Cibele would just keep smacking them to death if I let her.
Was it a cautionary tale? A lot of textual evidence seems to suggest this. During some of the DMs with another guy, it's revealed Nina had her nudes leaked by a different flame. Blake says he loves Nina repeatedly, but the content of his attraction boils down to superficial details like her appearance gleamed from photographs to how "chill" she is, a descriptor used basically only when you have nothing else to say about a woman. Blake even explicitly compares Nina to a different female character who we're told is simply not attractive enough for that kind of consideration. Blake even tries to go back to that relationship they had before, much to Nina's disappointment. But if the game is a cautionary tale, then why does it read so much like a love letter, ending with Nina explicitly saying that she's glad she shared this with Blake? Why does Nina treat her implied nudes getting leaked in such a blase manner? What is Blake's status as the leader of their clan supposed to imply here?
I feel like a good companion piece would be the 2013 movie "Her" staring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson. In many ways, what's being shown here is similar thematically and emotionally the Oscar contender, but I came away with the impression that that movie simply had more to say about its subject matter.
Maybe, despite loving story focused games exploring rare subjects, this game wasn't designed for me. Perhaps this game was meant more for the people who had never negotiated suddenly feeling for someone online. If that's you, you might want to give this a try.
Since this is a narrative focused game, a review of the game has to come from the perspective of the narrative, so this review has major spoilers.
I wanted to like it. I really did. As a girl whose first few loves were online and just as awkward, I feel like it captures exactly that kind of frustrated, timeless, pure energy of first loves, especially with the added complication of figuring out how to negotiate it online. Idly performing some task while discussing topics totally divorced from the game felt authentic to how it happens "in real life," where it almost feels like the games are a crafted digital space for you two to talk in. I think it properly captures how much these virtual spaces contextualize our behavior and make us different but almost more authentic versions of ourselves, and it does an incredible job of making the rest of the world, the "real world," feel awkward and stilted in comparison. But I found myself wondering what the point it was trying to get across was beyond that.
Was it just to capture that energy? Because if so, I feel insufficiently motivated to identify with the main character; instead of playing out this sort of energy for myself, instead of feeling like I am falling in love all over again, I am distinctly watching Nina do it for me; her very real presence (in this case, her literal physical presence on screen) drove home the point that this was HER story, not a shared one, and so I left feeling like I was invading her privacy, going through her emails and archives she'd almost certainly never look at again once they were zipped up (I even explicitly avoided opening archival data in an effort to more effectively roleplay to no avail). Even my token interaction of grinding enemies went away as I realized that Cibele would just keep smacking them to death if I let her.
Was it a cautionary tale? A lot of textual evidence seems to suggest this. During some of the DMs with another guy, it's revealed Nina had her nudes leaked by a different flame. Blake says he loves Nina repeatedly, but the content of his attraction boils down to superficial details like her appearance gleamed from photographs to how "chill" she is, a descriptor used basically only when you have nothing else to say about a woman. Blake even explicitly compares Nina to a different female character who we're told is simply not attractive enough for that kind of consideration. Blake even tries to go back to that relationship they had before, much to Nina's disappointment. But if the game is a cautionary tale, then why does it read so much like a love letter, ending with Nina explicitly saying that she's glad she shared this with Blake? Why does Nina treat her implied nudes getting leaked in such a blase manner? What is Blake's status as the leader of their clan supposed to imply here?
I feel like a good companion piece would be the 2013 movie "Her" staring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson. In many ways, what's being shown here is similar thematically and emotionally the Oscar contender, but I came away with the impression that that movie simply had more to say about its subject matter.
Maybe, despite loving story focused games exploring rare subjects, this game wasn't designed for me. Perhaps this game was meant more for the people who had never negotiated suddenly feeling for someone online. If that's you, you might want to give this a try.
Red flag simulator
(text originally written 4/25/2022, for an essay about sharing the art you love with the people you love, finding catharsis in frivolous trinkets, and buying a new computer. relevant passages for Cibele reproduced here with minimal edits)
phone newly cased, figure freshly unboxed, my new computer still had 48 minutes of updating to go. My roommate's kitchen tasks concluded themselves. Our conversation lulled. She took a call from her boyfriend in the other room. I closed my door, sealing the music into my own bedroom. just me and the Forth Wanderers. I tidied up a little bit. I flipped back through the book I had finished earlier: Cara Ellison's Embed With Games; a chronicle of her year doing gonzo journalism on the independant game development scene back in 2013. crashing on couches all over the world, she wrote profiles of fascinating artists all working in the most exciting mixed-media art form we've got, as of this writing.
I had been keeping a list of whose games I wanted to immediately seek out after finishing the book. the first was Nina Freeman, starting with her then-in-development game Cibele. I found her itch.io page on my phone. thirty nine minutes to go. I paid eight dollars for her game. I scrolled through the rest of her published works. I spelunked into some of the poetry on her website. twenty three minutes to go. some of that poetry was included in Embed, offering a glimpse into the work she discussed in her interviews with Ellison. I was really taken by them. they portray an honesty and an open sexuality, revolving around the kind of online communities which don't exist in quite the same way anymore.
the game she was working on was about falling in love with someone through an MMO, circa 2009. getting to know someone through hours of daily cooperation online. taking suggestive photos for your e-crush on a digital camera, transferring them from SD card to computer, and sending them over email. virtual connection spilling over into our real lives in larger doses, before micro-blogging and content algorithms and endless streams of disparate video strained that connection into something even thinner. something almost entirely one-sided. I knew I needed to play her game. it was going to be the first thing I did once my computer was finished. twelve minutes to go.
finally, the wait was over. I input all the passwords that needed inputting. I clicked all the update buttons I could find. I tested the keyboard for a minute. I still like my Keychron better. I tested the camera. it still sucks. they've been putting the same iPhone 4S front-facing camera in these things for the better part of a decade. it's ridiculous. I tested how hot the thing runs while editing video in Final Cut Pro. finally, I don't have to fear for my computer setting my wooden IKEA desk on fire. all that done, I installed and played Cibele.
it was beautiful. it was voyeuristic, and it was uncomfortable, and it made me laugh out loud for no one, and I loved it. it was art. you should play it too. it's only about two hours long. it should run on anything. I dare not say anything about its particulars—those are best discovered on your own.
phone newly cased, figure freshly unboxed, my new computer still had 48 minutes of updating to go. My roommate's kitchen tasks concluded themselves. Our conversation lulled. She took a call from her boyfriend in the other room. I closed my door, sealing the music into my own bedroom. just me and the Forth Wanderers. I tidied up a little bit. I flipped back through the book I had finished earlier: Cara Ellison's Embed With Games; a chronicle of her year doing gonzo journalism on the independant game development scene back in 2013. crashing on couches all over the world, she wrote profiles of fascinating artists all working in the most exciting mixed-media art form we've got, as of this writing.
I had been keeping a list of whose games I wanted to immediately seek out after finishing the book. the first was Nina Freeman, starting with her then-in-development game Cibele. I found her itch.io page on my phone. thirty nine minutes to go. I paid eight dollars for her game. I scrolled through the rest of her published works. I spelunked into some of the poetry on her website. twenty three minutes to go. some of that poetry was included in Embed, offering a glimpse into the work she discussed in her interviews with Ellison. I was really taken by them. they portray an honesty and an open sexuality, revolving around the kind of online communities which don't exist in quite the same way anymore.
the game she was working on was about falling in love with someone through an MMO, circa 2009. getting to know someone through hours of daily cooperation online. taking suggestive photos for your e-crush on a digital camera, transferring them from SD card to computer, and sending them over email. virtual connection spilling over into our real lives in larger doses, before micro-blogging and content algorithms and endless streams of disparate video strained that connection into something even thinner. something almost entirely one-sided. I knew I needed to play her game. it was going to be the first thing I did once my computer was finished. twelve minutes to go.
finally, the wait was over. I input all the passwords that needed inputting. I clicked all the update buttons I could find. I tested the keyboard for a minute. I still like my Keychron better. I tested the camera. it still sucks. they've been putting the same iPhone 4S front-facing camera in these things for the better part of a decade. it's ridiculous. I tested how hot the thing runs while editing video in Final Cut Pro. finally, I don't have to fear for my computer setting my wooden IKEA desk on fire. all that done, I installed and played Cibele.
it was beautiful. it was voyeuristic, and it was uncomfortable, and it made me laugh out loud for no one, and I loved it. it was art. you should play it too. it's only about two hours long. it should run on anything. I dare not say anything about its particulars—those are best discovered on your own.
hmhmhmh
Tells a story of first love and interaction with others through the membership online and in an MMO group. I think it's hard to connect to when you are older or a guy because the guy is such a loser with so many things he says being a red flag, not that it's an abusive relationship just that your talking to basically an idiot child. The actual use of the game, internet, and other people just isn't handled as interesting or as well as something like Secret Little Haven and it's too short to really do anything that interesting with other characters and dialogues. A more unique and personal project (and older) but I'd recommend something like Florence, Secret Little Haven, or One Night Stand before this.