don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story

A interesting story by Christine Love. If this name sounds familar, she wrote the excellent Digital: A Love Story. This is described as a Spirital Sequel.

The main character is John Rook, a new English teacher. He observes the miniature dramas that occur within his classroom. And you can, periodically, read messages that the students place on Social Networking sites, see how they act when *not* around our teacher.

I haven't seen every possible outcome yet, but there's a fun TitleDrops in at least one of the endings:

Isabella: Well, don't take it personally, babe, but...

[I smile and nod. It is ridiculous, of course.]

Rook: I know what you're going to say. But... it's not my story, right?

Isabella: No. That's stupid. Why would I say that...?

edited 10th Apr '11 8:01:43 PM by Wondering

What's with the weird name?

Oh man, I love this game. I have just one question:

Is it possibly to stop Isabella from committing suicide?

You cannot change what happens, but you'll understand when you complete the game.

Brilliant VN, just wrapped it up. Got Kendall and Charlotte back together, let Taylor know why she sucks, and kept well away from Arianna. Then I launched the page, which needs tropes related to the Arianna plot desperately and a description that is not utterly bland even more so.

edited 17th Apr '11 12:19:57 AM by NoraOfTheFields

^^

Yeah, I just finished the game.

It was really awesome! I hope to see more from this author.

Alright, speedrunned the game. Lolwut at the twist ending. If the author really intended for this to be an alien story about alien people, I guess she succeeded. No one really thinks twice about tricking a teacher with a fake suicide, apparently because he's "too serious" despite constantly involving himself with them on an interpersonal level.

But more to the point, I also read the postmortem and the bit about John being an awful teacher jumped out at me. Did anyone else think like this too? I mean yeah, his students don't exactly get good grades but he's got to be doing something right since everyone in the class likes him.

Just finished it. Wow, that was actually really good, and rather relatable.

A spiritual successor to D:ALS? I gotta check this out when I'm back on my PC!

SLOWPOKE EDIT: I am not sure how to feel about that ending. That suicide prank really was just awful, but then again the story takes place in a fictional 2027 where apparently privacy is a completely foreign concept, so I don't really know what else has become acceptable in its fictional society. But whatever, still great like DALS, only without the constant BBS dialling :S

After getting the lecture on how your snooping isn't quite a secret, I felt like going back and doing another playthrough where I don't use the social networking at all. Unfortunately, the game forces you to do it periodically in order to advance.

Guess I'll just have to settle with exploring the other choices you get (I'm starting on Arianna's route, which has CG that makes Rook look super creepy)

edited 21st Apr '11 10:02:33 AM by opnerf

Just cause his students like him doesn't mean he's good at teaching them. (See: Several messages where students wonder what the heck he's talking about in class)

The title alone caught my interest. It has an interesting premise and I plan to play it sooner or later...

FUCK YOU ENDING! FUCK YOU AND YOUR BULLSHIT APPLICATIONS OF PRIVACY!

I have never encountered a game that I have become so enraged at in one scene. "Oh how childish to think that" says the sneering cow in a business suit! I swear I almost ground one of my teeth into goddamn POWDER at this bullshit.

HE'S a TEACHER for God's sake, has everyone in this universe LOST THEIR FUCKIN' MINDS!

edited 3rd Jun '11 6:38:57 PM by JosefBugman

u mad?

Yes, I mad.

What the hell is wrong with the characters? I mean for pities sake do they not understand that being "serious" is not a goddamn crime, or that he's not there to be your friend but can be reasonable, helpful and kind as well?

Yeah, I know that feeling, although I'm not quite so MAD about it. I remember being that mad though when I finished the game. I really had 2 points of contention with the author on the ending:

1. Yeah, suicide isn't funny. Nor does it make for a good prank. If I thought I had caused someone's suicide, or could have prevented it, I would be seriously traumatized. I would certainly not think it was funny.

2. They have no concept of privacy? That's stupid! There will always be a concept of privacy, just varying levels of it. I don't care if you want to put up naked photos of yourself on the internet, but I certainly don't want to. Plus, that whole idea brings up the topic of internet stalking, which is apparently okay in this future time.

I just thought that the original "Oh crap I'm an idiot for spying on these kids" thing was a lot better lesson than the one presented at the end.

Sending this game for a spin. laughing at the main character's inner monologue XD

Hmmm, just saw the Obfuscating Stupidity entry on the trope page - I think the person who put it up missed the point. It's (rather blatantly) implied in the final message the admin sends you that the class in fact did terribly, and the school bumped up their grades to keep up appearances.

If no one has objections, I'll remove it from the trope page?

edited 4th Jan '12 6:49:41 PM by ashnazg

I just played through this. It's...interesting, I guess, especially after I reached the ending. I was kinda pissed off at the twist near the end, but whatever.

I'll echo what others have said. It's an unusual premise well handled (the teacher's POV, the social messaging) and the drama is mostly convincing. The music is good, if a little repetitive when it plays for several minutes. Above all, I found it very engaging, having started on it earlier this day and finished it in a few hours, whereas Katawa Shoujo took me months to complete. It's short, but also I think the short messages in social-message-speak kept my attention up by making it possible to divert away from the main narrative often enough. And I loved those 12channel threads, it's the perfect concentration of hilarious 4chan stupidity. The only thing that did not quite ring true was the teacher being so willing to read private messages, but it definitely helped the narrative and becomes a major plot point.

I also note that the whole thing is far more Japanese than anything actually made in Japan ever could be.

Then the ending... I was actually thinking at first maybe it would turn out like this, then dismissed it as too cheap. It's a cop-out, something of a deus ex machina (suddenly everything is fine, with no effort from our hero), it really beggars belief and if one half of the ending is trying to make a point about the evolution of society, it's undermined by the other half. I'm not bitter, but it does mean the whole thing has far less emotional traction than I had hoped for.

My only other complaint if the character art. Too rigid and expressionless. Everyone is drawn to a geometric proportioning that allows very little differentiating. Their icons, by a different artist, are much better, it makes them look like teenagers despite the cartoonishness.

Finished this thing today. First VN I ever played, actually. I was a big fan of everything except the ending. First off, the whole "allow me to explain everything right at the end" device is not one I'm a big fan of. Suicide isn't really something to joke about, and the whole "nobody has any privacy, yo" is... I dunno. I guess we'll see in 2027 what high schoolers think.

Other thoughts:

I definitely did get the "John is a terrible teacher vibe".

I kind of stumbled into the romance route by accident - I wanted to let Arianne down gently, not give her a tongue-bath! The bit with her at the end was apparently supposed to come off as creepy and manipulative, but it just kind of seemed like a generic happy romance ending.

Other than those issues, I really, really enjoyed it. Thought the all characters were endearing - I even felt for Taylor, apparently a lot of people didn't.