I’m pleased to announce the release of the second Wikileaks Stories game, You Shall Know The Truth.
Your support (spreading the word, ratings, comments, etc.) would be greatly appreciated.
You Shall Know The Truth
Posted by Jonas on February 24, 2011
http://www.jonas-kyratzes.net/2011/02/24/you-shall-know-the-truth/
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Evil Roda
/ February 24, 2011FUCK YES! *goes to play it*
Evil Roda
/ February 25, 2011I played through it twice, to see if I missed anything, and the second time, I clicked yes to the question at the end just to see what would happen. Did you really do that? Great, now I have clear my damned browser cache…
Evil Roda
/ February 25, 2011So clearing my browser cache didn’t work. I conclude that to play the game again, I must utilize a proxy, or Tor.
Seriously, man, why?
Jonas
/ February 25, 2011If you really want to kill your Flash cookies, I recommend the BetterPrivacy Firefox plug-in. It’s a useful thing to have, anyway.
(Or wait for about two minutes. You didn’t hear this from me.)
Because saying yes to that question is a choice that matters.
gnome
/ February 25, 2011This is really amazing Jonas! So unique, beautiful and smart. Congratulations!
David T. Marchand
/ February 25, 2011I loved it. I’ll be playing it again soon. And, you know, to play again you can reduce the amount of information that Flash can store in your PC by using the right-click Flash menu.
David T. Marchand
/ February 25, 2011Yeah! Chesterton quote and happy ending! That’s what I’m talking about!
James Patton
/ February 26, 2011(This comment contains some spoilers; play the game first. Go on. It’s short and very good.)
That was excellent. I especially liked the way you used a kind of horrible irony in the game: saying that cyber terrorists are noted for being paranoid while you, a government agent, check their sandwiches for bombs. I found the comment that there was nothing of interest on the guy’s desk except a snapshot of him and his family, *and that you weren’t going to take the photo because you already had a copy*, to be particularly disturbing.
The artwork for the scenes was also excellently done; it’s always difficult for a small indie to create believable, more-or-less naturalistic environments that don’t look like they were made on a computer, but you pulled it off effortlessly.
My one gripe is that the final question – “Is this the truth?” – is actually ambiguous. It depends on what “this” applies to. Since it’s placed just after those soundbites of American politicians (which was an excellent and chilling move, by the way), I assumed that the question meant “Are those words, spoken by those American politicians, the truth?” So I answered no. However, “this” could also apply to the game: the question could mean “Is this message which you’re receiving from this game the truth?” in which case I’d answer yes.
Jonathon Wisnoski
/ February 26, 2011I also found the question ambiguous.
Jonas
/ February 26, 2011First of all – thanks, everyone!
I think you make a fair point here. The ambiguity isn’t intentional, but I’m not sure how to do it differently – that the game needs to end like that is something I feel very strongly. Still, it’s more confusing than it should be.
James Patton
/ February 26, 2011Yes, I agree that the game ends perfectly there. Placing the question right after the speeches makes perfect sense and creates a very powerful sense of agency: “You’ve seen the evidence, now choose!”
Perhaps you could preface it with a quote: something like
That way, both the information which the question refers to and the question itself are framed at once, which should lessen the ambiguity. You could use one of the sound recordings as the quote, perhaps.
If you’d rather not do that, perhaps rephrasing the question itself would work: if the question is “Who is right?” or something along those lines, and the options are “Wikileaks” and “The U.S. Government” rather than “Yes” and “No”, that would dispel the ambiguity.
Of course, I have no idea whether you can or want to change the ending, so this is partly hypothetical.
Jonas
/ February 26, 2011While that would remove the ambiguity, I fear it’s too specific, and would remove the strength of the question. The question does have wider implications, which is why it also has the potential to become ambiguous.
The flaw and the strength cannot be separated.
Ezra
/ February 27, 2011“the question at the end”
There was a question at the end? My game went glitch-crazy shortly after leaving the apartment, and then the game screen went black. I had assumed this was the intended ending.
Jonas
/ February 27, 2011No, there is a question. Were you playing with the sound off? The black screen plays audio, then takes you to the question. Maybe you clicked away before that happened?
Ezra
/ March 1, 2011I thought I clicked away after waiting at a blank black screen with no audio for ~10 seconds. I had heard audio earlier in the game.
byth
/ March 1, 2011The first time I tried this I just couldn’t do it, for whatever reason. Now that I’ve played it I think it’s great. I have yet to do the fully obedient run, but the amount of content in here is really impressive given what I’ve seen so far.
byth
/ March 1, 2011**Sorry for the double post, but if you don’t have NG or Kong accounts, the rating on the game changes significantly (0.01 at the moment) for a single vote.
And an extra thought: Some people don’t seem to understand it. Obviously not everyone will, but you should make it clear that this isn’t a hack conspiracy game and that you’re referring to actual documents. I know people can be thick and it should be obvious enough, but nonetheless I think that one should aim for a maximum awareness.
Jonas
/ March 1, 2011Yeah, perhaps I should clarify that in the game’s description.