Category: Game

Welcome to another exciting installment of CoolGames Inc, where each week, myself and my dear friend Griffin McElroy take your one-line video game pitches and gently massage them until we find one worthy of our creative powers.
In this week’s episode, we delve into the dark truths behind Pokéball metaphysics, reminisce about the time Jonathan Blow DDoSed GameFAQs and explore the untapped concept of ‘social permadeath.’ Justin McElroy guest stars.

Links to subscribe to CoolGames, Inc. in iTunes, your podcast player of choice or to download an MP3 are all a click away, tucked inside the buttons below today’s episode.

Theme song: “Social Science" by Maxo

Want your game idea to be featured on a future episode of CoolGames Inc? The best bet is to follow us on Twitter: I’m on there as @babylonian and Griffin is @griffinmcelroy. Once a week, we’ll put out a request for your pitches! Stay vigilant!
Before we go: a huge thanks to everyone who shared our first episode and left us a review on iTunes! Our launch week was a doozy, and the response was overwhelming and flattering. Thanks again for listening, and we’ll be back next week with another!

@griffinmcelroy you get home to make dinner but you bought hammers and not the chicken your partner wanted.
— Aaron J. Amendola (@ImAaronJ) February 3, 2016

The Wii U remaster is no straight port When The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess comes to Wii U next month, it will offer several new features, which Nintendo detailed in a press release today. The trailer above offers a quick look at the additions to the game.
Twilight Princess will boast a new set of high-definition graphics, as previously seen, but Nintendo confirmed that the game will also offer offscreen play on the GamePad.
Also unique to this version of Twilight Princess: Hero Mode, which ups the challenge by doubling all damage and eliminating heart drops. This more difficult option is available upon starting a new game.
Link will also have access to a new item, called the Ghost Lantern, which makes it easier to identify and collect ghastly souls for a certain quest. Link’s wallet has also been expanded to hold more rupees.
The game launches on March 4, and all physical copies come with a new Wolf Link and Midna amiibo. Amiibo add extra changes to Twilight Princess, such as access to new areas and, when using the Ganondorf figure, further increased difficulty. Nintendo notes that when using the Ganondorf amiibo in Hero Mode, Link will take quadruple damage.
Watch us play the HD edition of the game from the beginning to tide you over. For those who can’t get enough Twilight Princess, though, remember to check out the new manga adaptation, which begins its run next week.

Will explore her family’s past and future Family memories and a haunted past are the main themes that author Claudia Gray will explore in her upcoming novel, Star Wars: Bloodline.
Gray told USA Today that the events in the novel take place years before The Force Awakens and follow Leia’s transition from princess to general.
Leia will be a senator in Bloodline, and a large portion of the book will focus on helping the new generation of senators and lawmakers remember the importance of the Rebellion and the devastation the Empire caused. Gray said the book would take place decades after the fall of Darth Vader, at the height of a peaceful New Republic.
Gray also confirmed that Leia’s family would play a large part in the book and in the development of the senator. The author said that while the novel isn’t just about Leia as a mother or sister, there would be disastrous developments from within her own family. It’s a theme, Gray said, that would have “pretty far-reaching repercussions for several characters."
Star Wars: Bloodline is a direct follow-up to Star Wars: Aftermath, written by Chuck Wendig. Aftermath was released last year before The Force Awakens.
Bloodline will be released May 3, and an excerpt of the novel can be read on USA Today’s website. For more Star Wars reading material, check out this list Polygon put together of everything available right now.

Watch in 60 fps on YouTube | Subscribe to Polygon on YouTube
If you saw Hello Kitty’s Magic Apron on the Nintendo eShop, you probably wouldn’t think twice about it: just another budget children’s game, maybe with some light cooking elements, right?
Wrong. Hello Kitty’s Magic Apron combines the gameplay of Elite Beat Agents and Cooking Mama and sprinkles a heaping helping of recipes sung aloud in charmingly clumsy Vocaloid English. The resulting music, while often extremely catchy, can also be sometimes pretty harrowing. (We’re still thinking about that tempura song.)
Above, watch as we dive headfirst into everything Hello Kitty’s Magic Apron has to offer, and return as two changed individuals. Hello Kitty’s Magic Apron is available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop for $19.99.

“I’m making this show as you’re watching it." Louis CK released his new television series, Horace and Pete, with no fanfare because he wanted viewers to experience it without knowing anything about it beforehand, he said on his website today.
The comedian pulled a Beyoncé last Saturday, springing Horace and Pete on the world out of nowhere while his FX series, Louie, is on an extended hiatus. CK is selling episodes of the series exclusively through his website, and released the 67-minute pilot episode Jan. 30.
"As a writer, there’s always a weird that as you unfold the story and reveal the characters and the tone, you always know that the audience will never get the benefit of seeing it the way you wrote it because they always know so much before they watch it," CK said today. "And as a TV watcher I’m always delighted when I can see a thing without knowing anything about it because of the promotion. So making this show and just posting it out of the blue gave me the rare opportunity to give you that experience of discovery."
The way CK is making Horace and Pete also plays into his release plan. The series is filmed as a multi-camera sitcom, and CK said it’s intended to have a "live feeling."
"So I’m making this show as you’re watching it," he said.

CK also touched on the pricing of Horace and Pete, which, at $5 for the pilot, is higher than the standard $3-per-episode pricing for most TV shows. He said today that he is "producing, directing, writing, distributing and financing" Horace and Pete by himself, and noted that the show is "fucking expensive" to make. Its cast includes well-known actors such as Alan Alda, Steve Buscemi, Edie Falco and Jessica Lange.
"Horace and Pete is a full on TV production with four broadcast cameras, two beautiful sets and a state of the art control room and a very talented and skilled crew and a hall-of-fame cast," CK explained. "Basically this is a hand-made, one guy paid for it version of a thing that is usually made by a giant corporation."
The pilot of Horace and Pete will remain at $5, while the second episode — which is being made right now and will be released the morning of Saturday, Feb. 6 — will cost $2. The rest of the episodes will go for $3 each. In keeping with the bootstrap feel of the show, CK did not provide a release schedule or details on how many episodes he plans to produce.

It stole TIFF. It stole Sundance. Then it stole our hearts.

The man behind the chicken mask

To best understand Nick DenBoer, the mind behind The Chickening, it’s extremely important that you get a sense of just who he is. And the best way to do that is to examine his house.
Situated in Toronto’s north end, DenBoer’s home used to be a large storage unit. When he bought the building, which sits nestled behind an alley and is surrounded by more traditionally designed houses, it was barren.
But DenBoer, an artist who attended Toronto’s prestigious Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) for a brief period and worked construction for many years, saw the potential for the unit to be something more.
He bought the building and started carving away – literally. What he managed to build is something you’d see in Architecture Digest; a beautiful two-story home that includes a massive video editing suite, a jam space for he and his friends to play in and a stunning wooden table that takes up most of the open concept area on the second floor.
DenBoer calls it an ongoing project, and although it may seem like his home has nothing to do with The Chickening, it actually has everything to do with it.
Because DenBoer is a master of remixing, of taking something and turning it into something entirely new.
Including his storage space turned modern chic house.

None of this was supposed to happen

Taking in DenBoer for the first time, it seems almost impossible that he was the man behind The Chickening.
The short film, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last year during the festival’s Midnight Madness programming block, became famous almost instantaneously when he and co-director Davy Force published it on YouTube during Sundance.
Like much of DenBoer’s artwork, The Chickening is a reimagining or remix style video. This time around, DenBoer focused on Stanley Kubrick’s iconic masterpiece, The Shining. In The Chickening, Jack Torrance and his family move into a poultry themed amusement park for the winter. What follows is one of the funniest pieces of poultry-heavy comedic debauchery to come out of a Shining remake, that’s most certainly not safe for work.
Considering just how deranged The Chickening can be at times, DenBoer doesn’t fit the picture of what its creator may look like. Dressed in a green cardigan and white slacks, DenBoer is the epitome of being a Canadian: extremely polite, apologetic (he was on a phone call when I first arrived at his home) and extremely considerate, offering an array of beverages before the interview got underway.

As a Canadian, DenBoer is visibly excited to talk about to talk about The Chickening and its appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival last year.
All of which, DenBoer confessed, happened by accident.
“We didn’t even submit to any festivals, but we ended up in 27 of them," DenBoer said.
DenBoer explained that after sending a rough copy of the film to a friend of his, comedian Kenny Hotz (Kenny vs Spenny), Hotz sent it out to a group of people.

"I was actually really pissed at the time," DenBoer admitted. "I was like, ‘Dude, you fucking leaked this thing ahead of time and gave away all this content.’ In retrospect, it was actually great that he did that because one of the people on his email list was Colin Geddes from TIFF."
Geddes is one of the most influential festival programmers in the world and is in charge of stocking TIFF’s heavily attended Midnight Madness. The specific part of the festival establishes and promotes various horror, sci-fi, fantasy and other genre films from all around the world.
According to DenBoer, when he got his hands on The Chickening, he was enthralled by it and immediately decided to use the short to open and close Midnight Madness, giving it one of the most prestigious spots in the entire festival.
It was an experience DenBoer would never forget. Opening night, he was in the audience watching people watch his short film, doubled over in laughter and thoroughly enjoying what he had created. DenBoer said it was surreal, as someone who’s never watched one of his videos with an actual audience, but admitted the best part of it was talking to actors like Patrick Stewart and Anton Yelchin who were immediately smitten with the film.
"We played before Green Room, and so after the movie premiered, there was a Q&A on stage," DenBoer recalled. "I remember someone asking Anton Yelchin a question and he just turned around to us and said, ‘I want to hear more about The Chickening.’ It was pretty crazy."
Once it debuted at TIFF, The Chickening started making its way around the world, being passed from festival programmer to festival programmer.

"Tim League from Fantastic Fest saw it, called us up and said, ‘I just want to play The Chickening over and over! It’s the only film. We’re going to cancel all of the other films,’" he said. "From there, we just kept getting emails like crazy. I just didn’t understand the power of TIFF."
DenBoer said that although they hadn’t intended the short film to play any festival, once they played TIFF and Fantastic Fest, they were invited to have their video screened at the majority of smaller festivals in Canada and the United States. The Chickening even played a small horror festival in Mexico City. According to DenBoer, trying to watch a short film while there are Mexican wrestlers fighting in a ring next to you is a memory you’ll never forget. The dream, however, was always to play Sundance. While they were hopeful, they were sure they weren’t going to get in for the 2016 roster.
"We were actually going to release the video online at the end of last year, but for some reason we kept our fingers crossed that we’d get into Sundance. We really didn’t think we would," DenBoer admitted. "But then one night Mike Plant (Sundance’s short film programmer) called me up and said, ‘Dude, I’ve got some good news. You’re in Sundance.’"
When asked if he ever thought that he’d end up at Sundance, showcasing a short film to thousands of audience members, and potentially turning that into a feature-length production, DenBoer laughed.
"I’ve always been the type to just go with it. Starting in art class in high school, through college and then working," he said before pausing for a second to take a sip of water. "But no, I never thought I would be showing a film at Sundance."

a yearbook project landed him in front of conan o’brien

DenBoer’s always been an artistic individual. In high school, while everyone else around him was painting and drawing, DenBoer wanted to something different. He started an entirely new project, cutting out his classmates yearbook photos and using their faces to create oddball portraits. For DenBoer, it was the start of realizing that remixing could be a legitimate art form and was something he continued for years, until it caught on and everyone started doing it.
It was an area of art that he wanted to focus on while attending college, but once he actually got into the postsecondary school system, he realized it wasn’t the path for him and dropped out after only attending for a half a year.
To make a living for himself, DenBoer turned to construction and was excited to find out that it only helped with his art, giving him a new outlook on using space, design and of course, adding to what already exists to build something entirely new.
Most importantly, however, was that working construction allowed him the time to travel with a friend’s band. It was during their small road trips that DenBoer first started recording, and in turn, editing film.
For the artist, it was just another outlet for him to explore. Looking back on his earlier creations that he still has on his YouTube channel, DenBoer said he has to laugh at just how raunchy and "not child friendly" they used to be.
While it started out as a hobby, DenBoer quickly garnered an attentive fanbase. On YouTube, he found a group of people with similar comedic tastes who cheered him on with each new video. One fan in particular, who had been following DenBoer’s work for a while, called him up one afternoon with an offer he never thought he’d get: a staff position on Conan.
DenBoer said yes and immediately started remixing videos for Conan O’Brien. The director said he would spend his mornings getting caught up on the news, from daily American political drama to sports to entertainment, and would then talk to the Conan writers about some of the pieces the comedian wanted to tackle during his monologue that night. Once he had an idea of what Conan was looking for, he would go about remixing a video, and if Conan gave it the a-ok, DenBoer would sit at home and watch the beloved late-night comedian introduce his videos to millions of viewers.

It was a dream job that DenBoer never predicted he would ever want, let alone have, just a couple of years prior.
DenBoer worked with Conan for about six months, and during that time, was getting more videos on the air than he suspected he would. It was clear that Conan and he shared the same sense of absurdist comedy, and based on the audience reaction whenever one of his videos aired, so did the general public.
It was the boost of confidence DenBoer needed to continue pursuing his remixing style with bigger and bigger projects. Eventually, he and co-director Davy Force were talking about how much they loved The Shining and were floating around different ideas for ways they could remix Kubrick’s masterpiece while still paying homage to the director that influenced them when they were younger.
It was during a brainstorming session that one of them suggested The Chickening and the seed was planted.
Timing worked out for the two, and when they realized they both had a month off without any contractual obligations for other jobs, Force flew up from his home in Los Angeles to stay with DenBoer in Toronto for a week and work on what would become The Chickening.

From the chickening to the sound of music?

"We never expected this to be anything big, really. We didn’t even consider it a short film until it was included in TIFF, and that’s only because it has to be entered as a short film to compete. This was just something we were going to put on YouTube," DenBoer said. "There are so many different Shining parodies and remixes online, I kind of thought this would get lost in the fold.
But it didn’t. Instead, The Chickening went from being movie festival folklore that gave those who managed to see it bragging rights to an online sensation, picking up views faster than any other short that played Sundance.
For DenBoer and Force, it was an eye-opening experience about what they had just created.
"We hit the publish button and literally watched as the numbers skyrocketed. We watched as our email inbox flooded and phones started ringing."

Even more impressive for the two creators was watching how people they admired, like Elijah Wood, tweeted out the link to their video and followed it up with an email asking to work with them on a video.
"I was on Twitter and Howie Mandell reached out to me saying, ‘Hey, I just emailed you. Let’s work together,’" DenBoer said, laughing. "I thought it was a joke so I checked my inbox and there was an email from his assistant asking me to call him up so we could talk about collaborating. And then Elijah Wood. I love Elijah Wood!"
DenBoer was flabbergasted by what was happening, but didn’t have much time to soak it all in before some of the biggest studios in Hollywood were asking him and Force to meet them and talk about future projects.
"I’m flying out to L.A next week and we’re talking to Warner Bros. and Adult Swim about possibly developing a show with them," DenBoer said, barely able to keep the excitement out of his voice. "It’s exactly what we want to do. Short remixes of different shows and movies. Having access to those kinds of archives is the dream."
DenBoer and Force’s concept for their show is similar to Seth Green’s popular animated series, Robot Chicken, which premiered on Adult Swim in 2005. Except unlike Green’s quick clips, which can run for as little as 10-seconds to a couple of minutes, DenBoer and Force are looking to create pieces similar to The Chickening.

For DenBoer, having access to a show like the Dukes of Hazard, which ran for 147 episodes, means the possibilities for remake and reimagining potential are endless.
"One of the biggest hurdles that we face is acquiring the rights to certain work. When you take out the legal issues in acquiring rights, it allows you to just focus on creating," DenBoer said.
The legal issues surrounding DenBoer’s work has been one of the biggest stresses he’s faced and is one of the main reasons he’s decided to not monetize any of the videos he’s put on YouTube, including The Chickening.
Even though his projects would fall under the fair use act because they’re completely different from the original and are essentially parodies, DenBoer never wanted to risk taking on a major studio or a company that held the rights to the original work. And, like he said himself, he never thought this would be a viable career path for him.
It’s partly why even though there’s a demand for it and even though he would love to do it, he doesn’t think he and Force will ever turn The Chickening into a feature-length film.
"I would love to do that, but I don’t think we could get the rights," DenBoer said. "I mean, we haven’t reached out to anyone and it could just be a matter of reaching out and asking if we could do it. Who knows?"
Still, he admitted he wasn’t hopeful. Although he would like to eventually move into making feature-length films, he was more than happy to work on the potential series at Adult Swim.
"We didn’t make The Chickening to make money and we didn’t go into it thinking we were going to attend all these festivals. We just wanted to make the video. Everything else that has happened since then has just been an added benefit."
As for DenBoer’s ideal project? The creator laughed when he was asked and cocked his head, thinking for a second before clapping his hands together.
"The Sound of Music," he said. "I would absolutely love to do the Sound of Music. It has Julie Andrews, it has Nazis, there’s music involved. Yeah, I would love to do the Sound of Music."

so, what’s next?

DenBoer isn’t sure how much longer his type of art will be viable and something that people want to pay him to make. He’s aware of how fast the internet moves and accepts that what’s popular today isn’t necessarily going to be tomorrow.
But he insists that it’s his approach to every project in life that’s helped him get to the point where he is today. He said that if he worried about making something for other people, he would never have started remixing videos in the first place.
"I’ve always made art that seemed interesting to me and that I had fun with. It just so happens that people liked my videos and wanted me to make more of them," he said. "But I’ve always taken what’s come my way and adapted to it, embraced it."
For now, it seems like the world is adapting to DenBoer’s art and embracing his vision. If the reception for The Chickening was anything to go by, it certainly seems like DenBoer has a lengthy career in front of him.
As for what’s next, what the next challenge he wants to dedicate his time to, DenBoer said he only had one thing on his mind.
"I really need to get some groceries. And beer. I’m all out of both, but that’s the next thing I’m going to do for myself."

Epic Games shows what it’s like to build a world, virtually Even if you’re not a game developer, level editor or virtual reality evangelist, Epic Games’ latest innovation for its popular Unreal Engine is impressive. During a livestream today, the company showed off how Unreal Engine developers can use the game’s editor in VR to develop content, moving and editing 3D objects with a “virtual iPad" interface.
Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney and Mike Fricker offer a quick overview of Unreal Engine’s VR editor in the video above. You’ll see Fricker using an HTC Vive head-mounted display and motion controls to edit a virtual environment in real-time.
"You’re editing VR in VR," Sweeney said. "It’s a completely what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience. There’s no question about what your game looks like."
If you’re interested in a longer look at Unreal Engine’s VR editor, Epic Games’ replay of its 40-minute livestream can be watched in the Twitch archive below. The company plans to reveal more details about its VR editor at next month’s Game Developers Conference.

Get in on the action early Electronic Arts today announced a closed beta for Mirror’s Edge Catalyst on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. The publisher has opened a sign-up page for the beta, but hasn’t said how many people will get in or when it will kick off.
News of the beta comes with a new trailer that gives us a bit more insight into Faith and what she will be facing in the game, which is set to launch May 24. EA also promises more to come in the months to follow, with plans to detail Faith’s story, the world around her and the gameplay of Mirror’s Edge Catalyst.

Actor says it was the worst of his career Banking on a trip to Japan, Channing Tatum once auditioned for the third Fast & Furious movie, Tokyo Drift.
Talking to Jimmy Kimmel, Tatum said it was the worst audition he ever had and recalled not even wanting to necessarily join the movie.
“I wanted to go to Tokyo very badly," Tatum said during the interview. "I wanted to drift Tokyo. I was like, ‘I’ve never been to Toyko! I hear they have really great food.’"
Tatum said that when he went in for the audition, he stopped himself halfway through and walked out of the room. The actor said it was the type of scenario where he knew he wasn’t going to get it and didn’t see any point in continuing it.
"They didn’t even try to stop me," Tatum said. "They were like, ‘Alright. That’s probably a good idea,."
According to Tatum, it was one of the worst experiences he’s had in his career while auditioning. He told Kimmel that on top of not remembering his lines, his acting was just rubbish.
Tatum never said which role in the movie he was auditioning for, but it seems pretty obvious that he was going out for Sean Boswell, played by Lucas Black. In Tokyo Drift, Sean moves to Tokyo to live with his father after repeatedly getting into trouble with the law back in the United States. While in Tokyo, he befriends a group of street racers and takes down one of the most notorious drivers in the city, who also happens to have ties to the yakuza.
Tokyo Drift also marked the first movie without the late Paul Walker’s Brian O’Connor. Series star Vin Diesel, who plays Dominic Toretto, makes a brief appearance at the end of the film.
Diesel, who’s currently filming the eighth installment, recently confirmed the release dates for the final two Fast and Furious movies.
Fast 8 will hit theaters April 14, 2017, with the ninth film scheduled to be released in 2019 and the tenth in 2021.

Finding love and connection on Instant Messager I’ve always been an introvert, especially when I was younger.
If I wasn’t playing Diablo II or Warcraft II over Battle.net I was just chatting with people online. I had friends at school and around the neighborhood back then, but I have never been bothered by being alone. The then-revolutionary concept of “instant messaging" on a computer screen was the perfect combination of social interaction with isolation for people like myself.
The story will be familiar to anyone around my age: You’d be bored over the summer or on the weekend without much to do and end up idly browsing chat rooms.
My mom received a seemingly endless supply of America Online (AOL) discs in the mail for free trials. I would sign on with our dial-up internet connection during the night when the phone line wasn’t in use. Trailer parks in north Texas didn’t always get the most state-of-the-art technological advancements, like high-speed connections, as quickly as other places.
One night in 2004 I met someone in an AOL chat room who would change my life forever.
THE WORLD WIDE WEB OF RELATIONSHIPS
Emily is Away, a recently released free-to-play text adventure game on Steam, tells a similar story, albeit with a different beginning and ending. In Emily is Away, you talk to Emily, a girl from your high school, over the course of five different chapters, all the way from senior year of high school until senior year of college.
While the story differs drastically from my own in that you have a preexisting in-person friendship with Emily, it’s also similar in that the entirety of the game happens within an imitation of an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) chat box. It’s a conversation. Everything from angsty-teenager-themed profiles to the horrendous fonts and background text colors are intact and just as embarrassing as you remember.

Since the entire game takes place in faux chat boxes, the mechanics are designed to call attention to the act of chatting itself. You don’t just select dialogue options from a list of choices and wait for a response; you’re required to actually type your response into the chat box once you’ve made your decision. While you’re not required to replicate the message you chose, the act of physically interacting with the game allows for a bit more suspension of disbelief.
It feels even more authentic once you get deep into Emily is Away, around your junior and senior years of college. There were several moments where I would choose a dialogue option that was intended to convey personal and honest thoughts to Emily. I wanted to tell her how much I cared for her. I wanted to tell her I was sorry for losing touch. I wanted to be there for her. But even if I chose those options, sometimes my character would delete his messages before pressing send.
It was like looking at myself in a mirror that showed the past.
I remember pouring my heart out into a chat box before deleting it all. In a way, just writing out what I wanted to say felt like enough, even if the other person would never know how I truly felt.
Emily is Away reminds me of the nights I’d sneak into the computer room while my mom was asleep just so I could speak to my friend Valleri. I’d drape a blanket across my head and the monitor to prevent any light from leaking under the door. I muted all sound and plugged in headphones that I didn’t wear to be absolutely sure no sound would escape.
We talked about everything. We’d chat about what we did that day, the homework we forgot to do and an always shifting laundry list of family drama and gossip. We talked about our goals for the future.
IDENTITY THROUGH ANONYMITY
The virtual body armor provided by a screen name shields your legal identity while sometimes simultaneously revealing your true self. The lack of personal repercussions, combined with the ability to hide and retreat with just the press of the power button, can help insecurities fall to the wayside during instant messenger chat sessions — for good or ill.
It was a fascinating phenomenon that’s all but gone in today’s age of social networking. With our real names and profile pictures leaving little to the imagination, all the mystery is gone. And, ironically enough, the more society is forced to name itself and show an honest face, the more superficial and less genuine many online interactions become. Anonymity comes at a price, especially if you’re targeted for abuse, but we gave something up when we began to focus on using our real identities in so many places.

Emily is Away made me feel like I was once again a clueless teenager looking for love, rather than an ambitious 20-something seeking acceptance. It looks back at a time when people communicated, rather than broadcasted.
My real-life relationship with Valleri became more serious as time passed. We eventually found ourselves looking forward to our talks throughout the day. Instant messaging turned into phone calls which turned into arranging an in-person meeting. It was the kind of organic connection that predated the more orchestrated algorithms of modern dating websites. Since then, neither of our lives have been the same.
Unfortunately, the player character in Emily is Away isn’t as fortunate.
While the game is a text adventure in that you choose dialogue options and make important decisions to move the story forward, the actual ending itself is more or less set in stone. One way or another, you and Emily grow apart.
You don’t earn love just by showing up and trying hard
In my game, she ended up with Brad, the douchebag boyfriend she always complained to me about. Even if you do everything correctly, such as liking all of the things she likes and choosing all of the best dialogue options, she eventually moves on, and you’re forced to do the same.
This isn’t the world of romances from most adventure games where if you say the right things you can always win the character’s affection. In this game, as in life, you don’t earn love just by showing up and trying hard.
While I was fortunate enough to find someone in the vast sea of screen names that was AOL, I made dozens of other connections over the years that have all fizzled out by now.
I still talk to one of my old Xfire friends, who has several children now and doesn’t have time for much gaming anymore. I stopped talking to one of my closest MMO buddies, the co-leader of a guild we started together. There was no real reason that we stopped virtually hanging out.  One day he stopped logging on, and I quit the game shortly thereafter.
The fleeting nature of human connection is as absolute as any other force of nature, but the distance granted by the chat programs of the ’90s allowed us to move in and out of each other’s life with almost no friction. You could talk to someone and connect with them on such an inherently deep and personal level, to the point that you’d think you’d never grow apart again, and then perhaps you’d never hear from that person again. It happened all the time.
While it can be easy to interpret Emily is Away as a sad tale of love gone awry, I prefer to see it as a period piece, a realistic look at online relationships of that time. It taught me to not dwell on the past and to instead focus on what I have now and where I’m going. Even though she isn’t real, I hope Emily is happy wherever she finds herself next — there are plenty of fish in the sea, after all. I was just one of them, and I enjoyed our virtual time together.
Besides, my real-life relationship with Valleri went significantly better. It’s hard to find time for games while planning a wedding.
David Jagneaux is a freelance writer and full-time nerd. You can read his work about gaming and technology at IGN, VICE, Motherboard, Playboy and more.