I must confess, I’m not much of a gamer.

I’ve never heard of Twine before, but I came into it with an open mind. The games I played were Depression Quest and Howling Dogs.

Depression Quest, created by Zoe Quinn, Patrick Lindsey, and Isaac Schankler, is a heavily text-based game about a character battling Depression. It puts you in charge of the main character’s actions (which are selected from a given list). Although there was the interactive quality of choosing the characters actions in the game, it sort of just felt as if I was just reading a book. The game isn’t very enjoyable (even the game creators mention it when you reach the end of the game). The game stands with more of an educational purpose to their audience.

Like Depression Quest, Howling Dogs is also heavily text-based. In Howling Dogs, you are stuck in a “room of dark metal” with “fluorescent lights embedded in the ceiling.” The only way for one to escape this room, is by putting putting on a set of virtual reality visors (which won’t release until you make the character eat and drink). This game reminds me of a text-based version of visual empty room escape games. Like the visual empty room escape games, Howling Dogs gets frustrating a bit when you realize you can’t leave.

I think it’s interesting to see this battle over entertainment’s identity. I think that including some type of interactive quality is a key component to make a video-game qualified as a video-game. Are Twine games my preferred type of video-game to play? That is up for debate.