New text-based browser games by Caelyn Sandel and Lydia Neon ask searching questions we may prefer not to answer. I have a hard time being honest with these bots, even though they promise to help.
For lots of us, digital space is more than just a practical tool — it's a sense of home. When younger many of us were drawn to games, technology and other interactive experiences because of the magic and mystery about who might be sharing those spaces with us. A blinking cursor is like a living thing; our 1990s were lush with weird virtual spaces.
It's now a place where we consistently explore identities and boundaries in nebulous online groups, which can be complicated depending on who you are. If you ever need help with that, Caelyn Sandel's BECCAA 0.8 project is there — you seek BECCAA out if you're having feelings about something someone made or did online, and it asks you questions and gives you responses that help you process your mood. In between, it offers provocative quotes on feminism, which in itself offers interesting context to consider the structures in which we need support.
Lydia Neon's Player 2 is a forgiveness engine — you tell it about a specific person and your interpersonal conflict with them, and, among other things, Player 2 helps you decide how you feel about the situation and what, if anything, you want to do about it.
There's something incredibly poignant and disconcerting about having a game talk about a person with you. It challenges your trust in a system, to lay it all out like that — even though Player 2 promises utter privacy, BECCAA does remember a few of your responses and gets to know you.
Do you trust games with your deepest fears, and to keep your secrets? Try them.
