Eliza

4 8月 2023

finished eliza.

while the game's more relevant these days thanks to a certain technology fad, what fascinates me more is about how tech startup culture could distort dreams and hopes of a better future into something alienating and dehumanizing.

the writing spares no empty words and the atmosphere is on point. it might be one of the best visual novels i've played, just because it gets to the message so potently.

and if any game reminded me of my old unpaid internship days, it's probably good.

this is a great title to play if you're hitting your thirties like me. you get nostalgic over the technological optimism of what your generation could've done to save humanity.

but technology can't. technology is the opium of the masses.

playing this game right when i started getting interested in interactive fiction and parser titles is also, well, interesting. it reminds me that as much as i like simulation titles, i like it when they don't simulate properly at all.

people want technology to be immersive, accurate, and communicative with us -- a perfect mirror that reflects our desires and dreams. which i don't find interesting at all. all the fun stuff in simulation titles and games close to that come from the silly errors and happenstance stuff that generate stories.

i like game dev because it's so toy-like.

i wonder if we've lost that fascination with technology since we want it to fix our problems. they're not fun anymore. they're supposed to save us.