Mark Plays ‘Alter Ego’

Many thanks to Andrea/adaptation for commissioning me to play this game WHICH I STILL HAVEN’T EVEN FINISHED. No, seriously, I have put in three more hours beyond what you see in the videos, and I cannot stop. LOOK, I’M TAKING MY LIFE VERY SERIOUSLY HERE.

Videos first!

Part 1

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhEu4KWVy_I]

Part 2

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW3mTFVuHUU]

If you’d like to play Alter Ego AND YOU WANT TO PLAY IT, it’s a browser-based… something? RPG? I don’t actually know the terminology for what this game is. Anyway, you live an entire life through multiple choice, choosing what you do and how you react to various situations. The threat of death and sickness? Real. The game keeps track of your stats in ways such as “Familial,” which measure the strength of your family relations, or “Expressiveness” or “Confidence.” These affect whether or not you can successfully act certain ways. (And I failed at a few things I wanted to do because I lacked enough points.) In that sense, the game has more depth if you spend more time on your tree of tasks, which looks like this:

Each square takes you to a prompt that deals with social skills, intelligence, emotions, family, or health, and you must decide what sort of person you are. There are bonus squares from time to time. Also, I’m pretty sure there are veiled references to masturbation a lot. Also, I got a man reaction at the beach at one point. Also, my dad is super racist. Also, I am exaggerating none of these things.

I’m fascinated by this game. I’m currently in the Adolescent stage and desperately trying to make my character a homosexual, though apparently old ladies rubbing lotion on my back turns me on??? Whatever, we’ll see. My parents have started fighting a lot, and now this game is otherwise eerily mirroring my own life. WHAT.

Give it a try!