Many of the messages sent by the player and the replies back to those messages have no effect on the game. The messages that the player sends are never explicitly revealed, though their contents can be inferred from replies received from other characters in the game. The player, therefore, is unable to send a "wrong" reply or message, and the game cannot be lost. The player does not have a choice in the direction that the story takes, though the game requires the player to correctly decipher what actions to take before the plot can advance.^[4] A single playthrough of the game takes around one hour.

Plot

The game, set "five minutes into the future of 1988",^[1] opens with the silent protagonist, whose name is given by the player, having just obtained a computer. When the player checks their messages, they learn the telephone number to the Lake City Local BBS, a local board, and can then log on to there.^[10] One of the topics posted to that board is some poetry by a girl named "*Emilia"; when the player responds to her message, the two start up a conversation. While this conversation is ongoing, the player learns of another BBS and of a board whose telephone number is in another area code. They also learn of an illegal method to get access to boards like that, which would otherwise require the purchase of long distance calling cards. The conversation between the player and *Emilia, which is inferred to have taken place over a much longer duration of time than has transpired in reality, begins at this point to show *Emilia forming an attachment to the player.^[11] Soon after, *Emilia confesses to the player that she loves them; the host computer for Lake City Local then breaks down, however, leaving the player unable to contact her.^[12]

Soon afterwards the owner of Lake City Local contacts the player with a garbled message that *Emilia had tried to send to them. This message implies that *Emilia is in danger, asking the player to contact someone named *Paris, and provides a mass of binary code.^[13] The player has no context for this message; but after hacking into another BBS, The Gibson, the player finds a cryptic message reposted from another board saying that there are several artificial intelligences (AIs) around the world that have been recently "killed", naming *Emilia as one of them.^[14] The player hacks into the source board for this message, and finds a history of artificial intelligence posted there by *Blue Sky, a "historian" AI.

According to *Blue Sky's records, the American government created an AI at the same time it created ARPANET in the 1970s. This AI, *Mother, in turn created child AIs, but its first attempt spread out of control and had to be destroyed by a virus that spread after it—later officially explained by the government as the real-life Creeper and Reaper worms.^[15] *Mother's later attempts, which could only exist on one system at a time, were more successful, and these AIs left the ARPANET in favor of the Internet when it was developed.^[16] *Reaper, however, continued to spread and destroyed any AI it found, such as *Emilia. The player finds *Paris, another AI and *Emilia's brother, on an ARPANET node, who explains that compiling the binary code in *Emilia's message can recreate her.^[17] The player compiles *Emilia onto their system, and the two learn of a "payload" that the other AIs have developed, which exploits a vulnerability that can cause *Reaper to self-terminate; however, infecting *Reaper with it requires that an AI be recompiled with it as living bait, meaning permanent deletion. Realizing that they have no other choice, *Emilia becomes the payload carrier. After a final conversation, the player allows *Emilia to sacrifice herself, saving the AIs and ending the game.^[18]

Development

Although *Emilia is explicitly female, Love purposely ensured that the protagonist's gender is never stated, as she wanted them to be a blank slate that the player would project themselves into, rather than a character that the player would control.^[23] She intended for this, combined with never showing what the protagonist actually says, to create more immersion in the story.^[20] Unofficially, however, Love thought of the relationship as "queer", both in respect to the player's gender and in respect to *Emilia as "a confused adolescent falling in love with someone she's not supposed to"; Love has stated that this did not come across as strongly as she intended.^[20] Love has said that one of the intended messages of the game was the importance of love and relationships, though not necessarily romantic love; as an example she specifically referenced *Emilia valuing saving her "family" due to her love for them over her adolescent love for the player.^[20]

Reception

The writing and story of the game were especially praised by reviewers. Kieron Gillen of Rock, Paper, Shotgun said that after playing it, he "[couldn't] think of a better love story in the Western medium", and that the terse and minimalist prose worked well to create clearly defined characters. A reviewer from The Economist called the story "engaging", saying that it provided a "memorable and thought-provoking experience".^[4] In an analysis of the game's story, Emily Short of Gamasutra called the decision to leave the protagonist blank rather than writing a viewpoint character "brilliant", saying that it made the entire game work much better than it otherwise would.^[29] A reviewer from The A.V. Club, grading the game as an "A", called the story "moving".^[30] The majority of the criticism for the game was in regards to the interface used to navigate the online world; while The Economist found it quirky and realistic, Gillen felt that it made it easy for the player to miss a key message, leaving the player stuck with no direction as to where to turn.^[4]

Love later made a "spiritual sequel", Don't Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story,^[37] and then another game "that further extends the non-linear style of Digital", A Hate Story.^[38]

References