Oh, yeah, sure. But within teen angst poetry, as within all things, there is a range of quality. In that category, subcategory back-of-napkin-sized, this is pretty good. Which is not the world’s highest bar, but it does what it sets out to do.
(Of course, this could have been quite easily been produced by the Disturbing Horror Generator (“you [one of]murder[or]fuck[or]give birth through your face to[or]vomit up[or]are raped by[or]torture[or]are cannibalised by[at random] [one of]your mother[or]your father[or]your unborn child[or]your grandmother[or]a giant rat that is really your mother[or]a witch-monkey alien thing with deep-sea-fish teeth that is really yourself[or]Benedict XVI[at random]”); when Giger or Miller does something like this, the interest is as much about execution as concept.)
You’re right, naturally - which is what I found out after I went back to the game.
Still not to my likings at all - too crass, too brutal, too unfriendly, and in a way that screams “newbie and overeager” rather than “stilistic choice”. But that’s just my own opinions (and I hope I don’t get flamed here too for stating them), and they in no way undermine the essential fact that a newcomer with something to say is always a good thing. And this newcomer certainly had something to share. Whether I like it is imamterial, especially as so many others did. I felt it might be interesting for me to step in and say that I really didn’t like it at first, but at a second glance it did seem to have something more going for it.
And if my review seems to attack or offend the author of the game in any way, or misrepresents any part of it, please do let me know and I’ll ammend it. Because as it stands, it’s simply my views on it.
Nah, I think your reaction’s totally valid and not any more ad hominem than any review is; if you think it feels like cheap shock material, that’s a fine reaction and you should stick to it. (That’s about half of my reaction, fwiw).
Oh, no! My post was not in answer to your statement in any way! Don’t take it personally, really. And–wow–that “trust me” in my post was as accidental as any other miscarriage. Sorry.
thank you all for the discussion. I am quite overwhelmed and encouraged by the responses I got. Peter, please feel free to criticise this and any future work of mine as you see fit.
The main reason for this post is that my game is now on Baf’s Archive. Thank you, David Kinder. You can now play it online. I tried it. It works.