Let's Play: Interactivity: The Interactive Experience
3I picked this game up with itch.io's Racial Justice Bundle. This... Okay let's start with: This is not a game. It is, by both it's title and in operating it: an experience. That is the best way to describe the game, which is good because it's right there in the title.
Also I want to apologize: In the video I note the narrator's odd accent and struggle to place it. The author is indeed from Edinburgh, Scotland, so my saying that they sound somewhat Norwegian is probably way off the mark. Sorry 'bout that.
A lot of stuff is getting played around with in Interactivity, most notably ideas around free will and conventional game interactions. The game starts by talking about levers and how light switches are just tiny levers; you interact with a couple and then move to the next room. Then it talks about valves, and how switches are just tiny valves. That's your first hint that things aren't all they should be. Then as you get closer to "The Button" The game hammers home about how you _should not touch the button_. Sure okay. No problem. The catch is that in order to leave, you have to press _a_ button, and that's where my brain (and others I'm sure) think "Oh ho game, nice try, but that's a button and I see what you tried to do there", and I pat myself on the back as I figure out how to not press the button... only to be lead on a long corridor that ends up with me... pressing the button. It's pretty good.
The real kicker is that the game changes if you play it again, and the conventions get played with even more. I won't say more to avoid spoilers, but it's quite fascinating. I don't know if I liked this game or not, but it made me think, and it has stuck with me since playing with it. For that reason alone I think it's worth experiencing.
Game info: https://aethericgames.itch.io/interactivity-the-interactive-experience
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