Pretty heavy and complicated and I do like how this does explore options with coming out where it's invariably difficult and just navigating around situations where things are not understood, precisely contextualised and I guess the sort of messiness that exists with situations both interpersonally and with regards to understanding yourself. It's just yeah, something about queerness is that it is one of those things that can become a bit strange in terms of how it exists with both societal and self-inhibition and the perplexing nature of dealing with those elements, and I guess this game does really showcase those feelings in a very concise way but also where there's a deep personal element behind it all. It's seldom static but something that exists as an unravelling process of sorts that can be about as anguishing as it is relieving to come to grips with yourself. Harrowing is probably a good way to describe the whole process - but also I guess how it parallels itself with the temptation to numb and inhibit or not express your emotions and so forth. This was cathartic to play when I played it.

Oh god, like I think this game can be kind of incisive at points but it's also fascinating in terms of both existing as a zeitgeist of the year 2008 and where everything was at during that time, and also being the sort of product of imagination of an edgy 14 year old who probably watched way too many South Park episodes or something. It's sort of like that and sometimes the satire can be really blunt and obvious, sometimes it's really, really of its time and sometimes it can be kind of funny. It at least isn't like something like Meet the Spartans (2008) where it solely just existed as dumb people marinating their brains with pop culture and stuff like that so yeah. Also, this is a game where you just repeatedly commit suicide over and over again and sometimes it becomes a bit more inventive. This whole game is just a collection of mini-games and occasional short cartoons, honestly.

That said, it's also like, apparently there's nobody else out there who dislikes this game as much as its own creator who just looks at all these Let's Plays and people talking about it and is like "Oh my god, why am I known for this?" but has also kind of reflected on some aspects of it as what they eventually went onto do with games explaining complicated systems in intuitive sorts of ways. There's the Capitalism: The Game and the Prisoner's Dilemma: The Game that really stood out to me, the former you just grow bigger and bigger and achieve more success than your peers, and the latter is sort of like Case's later game Evolution of Trust (2017) only that... good lord. I'll say that much. In all fairness, considering the circumstances with how this game was created, you could do a whole, whole lot worse. (thinks back to my 14 year old self making games and shudders!)

I remember playing this at a time when I was like super feeling anxiety and just wanting to get some sort of grips on those feelings, and I guess this really works in terms of just like showing a game that precisely contextualises feelings like that. It's like, anxiety is useful given proportion and I like how this shows the sides of it with the sort of decision making or lack thereof with anxiety either being this all consuming thing or something you're numb to and ignore. Some pretty cute and nice looking visuals in this as well. Anxiety is depicted both as a cloak and a barking wolf who either alerts you to danger or is annoying and exists within some sort of malleable combination of both being misunderstood and not entirely understanding itself.