"Reading a book" by Ed Yourdon is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
The Queue targets a specific persona and presents three perfect games for their particular quirks. Recommend interesting personas in the comments and be sure to share the blog with someone who matches this description!
Many of us need an incentive - or guardrail - to dedicate precious luxury time for reading. TV is so easy and passive. Smartphones are touch activated dopamine devices. Books are hard. The solution, then, is the book club.
Surely being told what to read, plus the social pressure of staying with the group is sufficient to achieve your chapter goals? Alas, time is finite, distractions are abundant, and once you fall of the literary wagon, it’s tough to get back on.
Let’s face it, you’re a lapsed book club member. If a page turner recommended by Oprah won’t do the trick, perhaps video games offer a solution to satisfy your needs?
The Client
Today’s client is the word-count challenged, aka the book judged by its cover, aka the lapsed book club member.
They are currently sitting in the corner of our office, quietly, fiddling with their paperback in one hand while applying side eye to the smartphone in their left hand. Tsk tsk tsk.
This person is interested in stories, appreciates the value of the written word, and enjoys the social aspects of the hobby. But, they don’t always have the time to sync with their friend’s schedules and are easily distracted.
The client is defined as such:
They seek a gripping narrative as a primary driver for their experience.
They value experiences that can spark interesting discussions.
It is difficult for them to align their free time with others.
They have access to gaming devices, in particular a handheld or Mobile device. Like a book, the game should work on-the-go when they have a minute.
They want to be able to make progress and reach a stopping point. They appreciate a solid chapter structure.
The Game Requirements
The persona dictates what must be true of the game for this to be a successful recommendation. For the lapsed book club member, the games should be inclusive of the following:
The game should have a strong narrative component.
The game should prioritize characters with points of view, not a voiceless protagonist in a setting.
The game needs to be worthy of discussion: strong themes, big twists, or excruciating player choices.
The game should have discrete progression chunks and clear save points.
The game should support saving any time (for when the bus reaches their stop).
Single player experiences are perfectly fine, because they allow friends to connect asynchronously. Playing with friends in real time is sometimes possible, but not the standard.
The game should lean into screenshots or taking notes. Think of this as writing in the margins.
The Queue
Life is Strange: True Colors, Oxenfree, Citizen Sleeper
Life is Strange: True Colors, released 2021, available on PC, Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation. Recommended for Switch.
This is a somewhat controversial suggestion, because I would argue out of the three of these, Life is Strange contains the least gameplay and is closest to being a book with interaction. The story is well-written and well-performed, but it is more about experiencing the narrative than it is about steering it.
That being said, it has quite a few significant twists and puts a handful of rather significant plot choices in the hands of players.
As such, I think it is worthy of discussion. Some potential topics include how it handles Alex’s sexuality and the portrayal of non-heterosexual romantic interests, how it signposts (or doesn’t) towards the reveal of the villains, and what the best ending for Alex is.
Life is Strange may have the fewest decisions in-game out of this list of three, but it might offer some of the best material for Discord discourse with the other lapsed book club members you assemble for an asynchronous group play.
Oxenfree, released 2016, available on PC, Mac, Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, iOS. Recommended for Switch.
Oxenfree is offered second because it is much more interactive than Life is Strange, but still not quite as much of a game as the final suggestion. This game takes place over the course of a single-night and as such has a great sense of pacing that makes it difficult to put down (but you totally can!). You’re constantly engaged in choosing dialog options, which will pull at your desire to say a certain thing, roleplay a character, or see a plot thread take a certain direction.
Life is Strange intentionally tells you when you’re making a choice with critical impact. Oxenfree is much more subtle, and as such provides an excellent opportunity to take stock of where everyone is, who is still around, with a little investigation on who did what to make certain things happen.
The other great thing about Oxenfree is that the first play really is not the end of the game. You should really play it twice (something I need to do myself!) and that too provides ample fodder for experimentation, debate, and ex-post facto investigation.
Good topics include the source of the radio signal, whether it’s aliens or supernatural creatures, which characters are the most well-rounded, and hypothesizing where the sequel will take the franchise.
Citizen Sleeper, released 2022, available on PC, Mac, Switch, and Xbox. Recommended for Switch.
The first two suggestions prioritize plot and characters. Citizen Sleeper is a deep dive into a theme of extreme capitalism, a dystopian future, and surviving in an adverse and cruel simulation.
Citizen Sleeper puts you in the shoes (robot shoes?) of an android escaping corporate bondage and trying to survive on a station. There are a variety of ways to make money, different allies, and different people who also need help. Many of your discussions with your video-game book club will be about who did what, and why. You should discuss what Citizen Sleeper makes you think about. Then, you should try to identify, and analyze, relevant parallels between Citizen Sleeper and our own reality.
Like the other games, this game is less about mechanisms and more about choices. There is little action of which to speak and no explosions. You’re playing a novel of sorts, but one with an emphasis on choice and active verbs.
All three of these are relatively short, intense page turners filled with choice and consequence. All three have obvious avenues for post-play chats and arguably multiple moments worthy of setting down your controller to think, write a note, and fire off the most provocative discussion for your Discord.
In recommending these to you, I find myself jealous of you potentially having a book club with whom to discuss these three games. I am a little sad thinking about how I mostly played them by myself. Lucky you!
Edited by Joshua Buergel