I.M. Reacts to Reacting to the Past!
Because being Jack Reed, the young, charming Communist, was hard enough…
What I liked about the game was how the players had the freedom to do whatever they wanted with the class time without much interruption from the gamemasters. It challenged the players to think strategically about how to garner enough points to have a big impact and influence on the game. It was also interesting how communication became a big deal when it came to promoting your agendas while unknowingly promoting other people’s agendas. It really came down to understanding who your character was and figuring out how to respond to the issues that the society faced. I liked that the game could be manipulated and that there were more ways to gain influence than what was described in the book. The characters were also all interesting, but it was sad that all members were not utilized with our small class setting. There were a lot of surprises in the game and the possibilities would always keep people on their feet and ready to debate. It challenges you to think creatively and think about re-prioritizing your character’s values in relation to the values and issues that other people are advocating for. It is a matter of getting to know the other players and appealing to their character’s ideologies in order to gain their trust (and their influence). Overall, the game was open to be played however the players wanted and required a lot of critical thinking to strategize the best way to garner PIP’s and influence among the villagers.
Despite how much I really enjoyed the game, there were things that weren’t as popular for me. First, the game’s excitement and fiery battles didn’t really take off until the middle and close to the end of the game. The factions were all quiet for the most part unless leaders stepped up to break the silence. In a setting where revolution was already burning in all people (suffragettes, labor, and bohemians), it was sure quiet and lacking a lot of activity. It wasn’t until the factions were quiet did it leave both factions vulnerable for a slight bohemian attack. I think at that point, there wasn’t too much direction. I feel like it would have been more useful to spend the class where the rules were discussed to understand how each faction reacts to a rival faction. Maybe more background in how the propaganda for the factions would have been helpful in raising the voices of the factions.
The next thing that I didn’t really enjoy in the game was the last session. I, as a player, was really upset when there was so much confusion from what would happen to a neutral faction where some members were dissenters. I just don’t feel like the last session was completely thought out for all the possible things that could have happened to the factions. While I agree that it was important to include what happens to factions in the face of war, I don’t think it was fair to say that the players lose all their PIP’s. I may be biased because my character, Jack, did a lot of work from wooing Mabel to designing and organizing the Paterson Pageant by himself to participating in all of the bohemian activities. This goes for everyone because everyone else also had to do a lot of work. It would have been okay to say that the dissenters’ PIP’s would be lost from the faction but not the character as well. I find that by doing as the game did, it would have made things more complicated than it actually had to be.
Finally, although there was some supplemental content that the players would read in order to understand the topic centered in the session, for some of the students, it really was hard to grapple the entire context of the time period they were playing in. It’s hard to react to the past when the past wasn’t entirely understood by the players. It did leave room to understand the heavy issues during the time period, but at the same time, I think some of the causes of the “awkward silences” in the game were caused by this lack of full understanding of the time period. Only when people recognized themes in the reading, did they begin to take action and speak out against the rival faction. I feel that the interactions were minimal unless provoked by opposing players. Also, the only running incentive of the game was to gain 15 PIP’s in order to vote (and to avoid writing a long and dreary essay about why you couldn’t vote or something) which left players not promoting their causes nearly as much after said vote. In fact, I confess that the reason I did so much with the other villagers was to make sure that we all had enough to vote. This was the only incentive which does strategically work for those that take advantage of it. I used this incentive as an excuse to promote my cause for organizing the Paterson Pageant as participation gets all participants a huge load of points. From the Pageant alone, it garnered the 15 PIP’s needed to vote. All in one session could the game’s main objective to vote be reached. I feel that because of the small issues in these areas, the game lacks some of the magic, intensity, and excitement that could be possible.
For a personal reaction, the game was the complete opposite of what I thought it was going to be. Knowing my shy and reserved nature, I thought the game was going to consist of my character not doing as much. I also initially thought that I was going to easily win Mabel over by being smooth and romantic. However, the case stood where my character actually did so much work (though I should have seen that coming since my character only wanted revolution and change to occur) to the point where I would stay up late at night in order to get all the necessary preparations for the next day done. My bias as a person also made it very difficult for Jack to be smooth with Mabel, so that was also a big challenge. There were times where I just loved my character, and there were times where I just hated my character for how much work I had to do on his behalf. It also was a concern of mine when my character’s perspective and views did garner a lot of positive acceptance from many of the other players (including Dubois) despite the fact that he was definitely a communist. It made me question the thought processes of the other individuals and collectively as a society for them to trust my character and agree so willingly with him and his views. I was happy with how things were going until the end of the game where more work was demanded of my character when a lot of the villagers wanted to make a coup. All the hard work of everyone went to waste on the last session where PIP’s were lost. It made sense that the result would change, but that was not where I was concerned. I think that PIP’s are garnered for your beliefs and showing your beliefs. The player should keep them even if they dissent in the last session because they are still demonstrating on the behalf of their beliefs. It’s like how Mabel left and took her PIP’s with her. Despite how different the game actually turned out for me, I couldn’t say that I wasn’t prepared. As a person who has always played video game RPG’s and choice-based games, I already understood the idea of acting as another character even if their values don’t align with yours. However, this was the first time that I did it live, but as a theater kid as well, the transition wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Other than these main problems, the game had good plot progression as the sessions neared the end of the game, and it was a great way to understand different perspectives in a time where people wanted to make a change.
