One Read Post

In the spirit of fun and trolling, I'm going to do an experiment, and try to apply the one play mechanism to this blog post. So I'm warning everyone in advance: I'm taking this down the second I see a grade go up for it.

(Okay... not really, that would be silly)

First, check these out:
https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/505914
https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555639
https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/555181

This post is an analysis of 3 one play games, all found on Newgrounds. What's a one play game? It's a game that you can only play once. No, I'm serious, you can only play it once (from any particular computer, or possibly IP address, or possibly as long as you save your cookies; I haven't tried to thwart the system yet). You play it through to the end, and then the game saves there, and you get stuck there, and that's it, that's all you can do. Every time you go back to that game, you will wind up in the same spot... which is usually dead. On a side note, the "Why is Johnny in an Art Game?" one isn't really a one play, it let me restart.

"But dude, how could a game like this possibly have any real play value? Isn't part of a game the fact that you can play it again and again?"

Well yes and no. I don't think you'll get much entertainment playing these three games more than once. First, let me talk about YOLO. YOLO is basically carpe diem for douchebags, and I won't touch on that further. Also, the game had some weird slow down issues... not sure if that was intentional or not... it seemed to be lagging the whole time I played it.

"Why is Johnny in an Art Game?" was next. I'm not 100% sure what was so artsy about this game. You walk through it, and you have one option of play the whole way through, and you eventually jump off of a building while your character ponders his nonsensical surroundings. The only thing this game got me wondering was "how much time till Nerd Club?"

From those two games, I got nothing. They were boring, and made me sigh in disappointment at best.

The last of the three games was interesting though. One Chance. Yes, now that game is one I might consider art (because art is subjective and I can call my chewed up pen cap art if I wanted; see last post). The premise is that you have 7 days until everything dies (how original!). There is no goal of the game, and I'd be willing to bet that there is no way to win, regardless of the choices you make in game. I didn't find it "fun," much like Warren Spector didn't find the movie History of Violence very fun. But after playing, I certainly felt intrigued by the story that gets told, and the message that the mechanics of the game along with the story delivers. Actually, it's not even a message really, it's more like a question, and if I had to define that question, I'd say it's "If you knew you only had a few days to live, what would you do in those few days?" And in playing the game, you get to answer that question, assuming of course that you take the game seriously. Here's some possible answers: "Try to stop it, even knowing that you will fill," "accept your fate and make your last few days count," "Try to stop it, but then give up when things grow more desperate."

I think that the fact that not only your character, but everyone in the game will also die changes the meaning quite a bit as well. To add more tension, it's your character's fault, and your character is in an interesting position... one in which he has a real chance of stopping it (at least in the game... you and I playing the game from an outside perspective know it's hopeless). The question changes and becomes a bit of a challenge: "With the best intentions, you bring the end of the human race, and you may be able to still reverse it, but it's unlikely. Given the limited time you have left, what do you do now?" The answers don't change much... but the thought processes behind them do. The reason I call this game a work of art is because it didn't leave me with a sense of satisfaction or failure; nor was I able to play it until I grew bored of it (which is how the one play mechanic changes it). When I finished the game, it left me thinking. And that, in my honest opinion, is what really makes art.

So with that, I think I'm satisfied. I have no intention of trying to play through it again, or looking up videos to find out the other outcomes. I believe that if I do so, that that might obscure the game author's intent.

What path did I take? I went to work a few times, trying to see what would happen... but when the character's wife died, I felt that it was time to spend the remaining time he had with his daughter instead. I took her to the park. And the next day, I had him go back to the park for the game's end.