Kind Words 2 Playtest

Introduction:

The game is a gem (I’m pretty biased). It sets you in a digital world where you can send and receive letters anonymously to other people. It is not really as much of a game as social media, but I argue here that social media is a subset of the broader category of games. Except it isn’t gamified at all and attempts to contribute to a positive and safe environment. The point of the game is to provide a medium of messages that allows people to express themselves and communicate with other people genuinely.

Player Mechanics:

• Psychology - The character is you more so than the digital avatar.
• Agency - The choices you make in interacting with the game.
• Emotion - Feelings that arise throughout playing the game.

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Game Mechanics:

• Sending Messages -  The key mechanism is being able to send messages that can be accepted or discarded by other people. In Kind Words 2, you can write poetry at a salon, ask for recommendations at a record shop, leave life advice at a mountain sauna, or rant into a void.  These different environments give the player specific contexts in which they want to communicate with others and interestingly highlight the various ways and attitudes people take when communicating.

• Receiving Messages - The flip-side of sending messages is being able to receive them. Players can go and see what messages are sent by heading to those environments. My favorite way of receiving messages is at the mountain-top where it scrolls through the different wishes people have left up there. Requests are sent-out as well that can be viewed in select locations where the player can mindfully respond to them.

• Player Customization - Allows you to create a digital avatar that can walk around the set-out environments and talk to people.

• Lo-fi BGM - Sets a calming and soothing atmosphere for the game. wouldn’t be the same if it was just rock music.

• Stickers -As far as the developers went in adding gamification to the game. you can collect and receive stickers through sending and receiving messages to people.

Themes and Player Experience:

• Connection - The game as any other forms of social media is meant to connect it’s users. Kind Words 2 accomplishes this in a non-exploitative manner by creating a safe-space for forms of communication.

• Expression - Since there really isn’t any digital player expression. Expression here means to be yourself, not even the character, but yourself. Responding and replying to messages by being authentic.

• Reflection - Thus, the very nature of the game leads it to being a pretty reflective experience. How would I react to that situation? or How do I relate to that event personally? leads to empathy and reflect of the human condition.

Conclusion:

This is the first game that I reviewed, which can’t be fully analyzed by Suitsian distinction and concepts of lusory, rules, and play. Games without clear goals, like The Stanley Parable and Kind Words 2, are still sold on Steam alongside roguelikes. So, what makes them games? I won’t go too in-depth, but I believe that they are games in as much as they modulate agency and provide a virtual reality/experience. Essentially, the game provides a framework within which players can act, even if those actions don’t lead to a defined “win” state.

That seems like an adequate analysis to me because it fits what makes Kind Words 2 a good game: the back-drop feeling of absurd care and kindness that we have all learned to stray from (or at least most people). To me the game that is being played here is a game that everyone has played, that of social communication and interaction. In Kind Words 2,  communication is played with a form of radical care and understanding.

I want to finish by addressing the critique of: “it is not real.” And to that, I say it’s a fair point. The anonymity and the limitations of not “fully interacting” with another person can be seen as the player is limited to only forms of messaging as communication. But I think that is a feature and not a bug because sometimes it is hard to show up in reality and the world. However, as with all games that offer a virtual experience, it takes a bit of mindfulness to remind yourself that it is not the “real world” and to know when your stay is up. In either case, Kind Words 2 is there as a beacon of human kindness and a great game to pick up if you need a reminder of the good humans can provide each other.

One interesting insight I’ve come to is that games don’t necessarily have a predefined aesthetic. Their aesthetic is more about what we interpret and play them for. For instance, League of Legends can be played for self-expression, fellowship, or fantasy, but it primarily incentivizes domination. This is why I prefer Teamfight Tactics, a game that aligns more with my preferences.

If you want to play the game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2118120/Kind_Words_2_lofi_city_pop/

1. I had a hard time thinking about player mechanics, because it’s not really played via the avatar ↩