Friday, October 17, 2008

Gravitation


Recently I came across an MSNBC article headlined, When has a video game ever made you cry?. Recognizing that well-known challenge for a game to evoke the kind of emotional response of a book or film, I eagerly read the piece.

From there, I found Jason Rohrer's game, "Gravitation." I cannot say that the game made me cry, but it made me think. As a father, I was, let us say, "attracted" to the game's subtle illustration of the choices one makes between personal advancement and one's identity as a parent.

"Gravitation" is disarmingly simple. You are a dad (or a Mom, I suppose; the 80s-era graphics allow for plenty of discretion) bouncing a ball with your kid. That's it, at first...

Download the game (for Windows, Mac, or Unix) and see what happens.

Link: http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/gravitation/

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