A Dark And Quiet Room

Post-Game Reflections

First, just to get this out of the way:

Ben! I played a girl! Are you happy now!!!?!?!??111eleventyone

Actually, the most awkward part of the experience was actually trying to step into a character that had been characterized by someone else for so long. Had I been doing so from the beginning, it might not have been so odd.

Gabrielle noted that, in the end, our group raised horses and grew gardens. It’s such a girly ending. She pities me.

We didn’t realize that we could end the game whenever we wanted after we were done to one remaining pilot. In some ways, the ending would have been more powerful if it had come immediately on the heels of Marcus taking over as leader. But, the last mission gave him an opportunity to demonstrate his superior leadership skills.

Now, for the biggest item of discussion: the ending.

At first, I didn’t like the ending. It felt…weak, somehow. I kept wanting there to be something else to make it satisfying to me, and it wasn’t really coming.

We ended up having a serious discussion about it. In my mind, the group had taken the cowards’ route. They ran, when they should have fought. In the end, the ground that had been fought for was lost. They should have stayed. Even if they had lost, it would have been a noble end.

Gabrielle and Crystal argued the other way. What else was the group supposed to do? They were out of pilots, and they were slowly losing. Plus, they couldn’t keep out the Bigelow Boys forever. They said that I needed to think multi-generationally about this. The group hasn’t given up the fight. But they needed to withdraw for a while, regroup, and train their children to be better warriors than they had been able to be. And what good is a noble end if the aliens win? Crystal put it most forcefully: if they had stayed, would they have been fighting for victory, or just for their pride?

Made me think, it did. And in the end, I think that Crystal and Gabrielle are right. But, at the same time, it feels a lot like behavior that I do not like in others. Rather than being willing to take on serious issues, people hide away. At the same time, sometimes what looks like hiding is really just a temporary withdrawal, until a true victory can be won.

This is a major point for me, and it’s something that I’ll be mulling over for a while.

Conclusion

Joseph says it’s time to go. I’ve already been broadcasting too long, and he’s concerned that the aliens will be able to triangulate our position. Time to bug out and work our way towards home. So, for the Peoria Resistance Group, this is Seth Ben-Ezra.

See you on the other side.
…end transmission…