We’ve played many ‘serious games’ this quarter, and many of them have attempted to convey a ‘feeling’, to show how it feels in another’s shoes, to varying degrees of success. We are Chicago takes this and, aside from some technical and graphical shortcomings, really pushes on the player the experience of a Chicago kid, in particular the inevitability of things. The game does not come at the player with this and that message as many educational games attempt to, nor does it require most of its message to be outright said/explained. The messages comes through in the narrative and mechanics. Narrative examples would be Aaron’s cousin Deon getting shot, or having the store he works at be robbed by his friend as part of a gang. Mechanic examples would be needing to cross the street to avoid gang violence, walking through metal detectors at school, etc. What is the message? The lack of safety/security one feels, but also how casual such insecurity is experienced! The way of things is widely accepted and just seeing Aaron’s sister’s reaction to Deon’s shooting conveys how she is aware and almosts expects such things – regular occurences – when one would think she would be utterly shocked and unable to comprehend something so horrendous.
Aaron’s set up to be a first generation college student, but it’s a suppressed aspect of the story, and it’s shown that his friends feel as though such opportunities are denied to them and as a result they are trapped in the gang web. We are Chicago conveys the ‘feeling’ of being in Aaron’s position, the ‘feeling’ of lacking a father figure, of needing to take care of your family, of the pressure of being a first generation college student, of trying to juggle friendships with gang incidents, of trying to stay safe, of the entire experience of being. The game almost plays as an interactive movie, as the player has far less input than they suspect, and the game has a harrowing ending, with one of his friends shooting the other. The ending reflects the reality, and the player must pick themselves up, think about what transpired, and move on, for better or for worse.
I think the lack of input on the side of the player is interesting. On the one hand, it may be to help the game be as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, by keeping gameplay to a limited amount of option-making scenarios. I also think it’s representative of the situation that Aaron finds himself in, where there are so many exterior factors that influence his life, that the amount of choices that he can make about his circumstances are relatively limited. This gameplay choice gives the player a better feeling of having limited decisions, which I think would hopefully help them empathize with Aaron more.