I played three online narrative games and one physical game. Each one made me stand in someone else’s place, and each showed me how quickly I judge people without knowing what they are going through.

Game 1: Orphans and Society (2022) by Youssef Fadlallah

Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1To5rlSOTbt9-oqV9dBAEYJ76NvT–YpEFiK9dzzdmi4/edit?usp=sharing

In this game, you play an orphan in Egypt and read ten scenarios from childhood to marriage. For each one, you pick a solution, and each choice leads to a different outcome. The scenarios include visitors asking personal questions, students photographing you, the word “Mallga,” the Mother’s Day essay, a headmaster suspecting you of theft, an insult at university, and a father refusing your marriage. The author says all of them happened to him or to other orphans.

What I liked most is that even kind people hurt the orphan. Visitors who bring gifts and take photos still make him feel pitied and incomplete. The game also shows that the stigma follows him at every stage of life. The last scenario is the best example: he graduates, has a good job and an apartment, and asks the woman he loves to marry him. Her father welcomes him until he learns he is an orphan, and then his face changes. He says he can’t trust his only daughter to someone whose family he doesn’t know. Whether the player leaves respectfully, tries to convince him, or gets angry, the answer stays no. The game also teaches something practical: say “Dar” (home) instead of “Mallga.”

What I disliked is that some outcomes are too perfect. When you tell a classmate you’re an orphan, he becomes your best friend for life, but in real life people react in different ways. The game also says your insecurity grows, but I couldn’t see it. There is no score, so I didn’t feel how my earlier choices added up.

I learned that pity is not respect. An orphan faces a choice about hiding or revealing his identity at every stage, and both options cost him something. In the marriage scenario, even success, love, and a stable life aren’t enough to change how people see him, so some barriers come from society’s perception, not from the player’s choices. To improve it, I would add a confidence score that goes up and down with each choice, and end with a short list of what people can do to treat orphans better, such as asking before taking photos.

Game 2: Being Under the Influence (2018) by Karim and Mahmoud

Link: https://karimhabashi.home.blog/2018/11/18/final-draft-of-being-under-the-influence-game/

You are home alone, and your friends want to pre-drink before the biggest party of the season. You are their driver. At each step, you choose whether to drink, whether to take a joint to impress your crush, and whether to keep playing beer pong. Then you drive your crush home, lose focus, and crash into a house. You choose between running away or facing the police, and then between telling your parents the truth or lying to them. The game ends with a message about peer pressure and statistics on drugged driving.

I liked that the story feels real. Most of us have been in a situation where we said yes just to avoid looking odd, and the pressure comes from friends and a crush, not from strangers, which is how it really happens. The real statistics at the end make it more than a story. What I disliked is that the story keeps moving toward the crash, so my choices felt like they changed little. Saying no to the joint also leads to being laughed at, with no way to refuse and be okay. The reasons for choosing are also shallow, such as seeming like “the bad boy” in front of your crush.

I learned that one “yes” to fit in can end in a crash, a damaged car, a police station, and a loss of your parents’ trust. The game also shows that saying no has a price too, since you are excluded and made fun of, so resisting pressure takes courage. I would improve it by giving the player a realistic way to say no and still stay in the group, such as a friend who supports you or a believable excuse, and by letting that choice lead to a better ending.

This connects to my own life through social media. When I spend a lot of time on it, I get influenced by others and buy things I don’t need, and then I feel the financial burden. It also affects my personal life, because everything looks perfect online. I came to understand that these people don’t have perfect lives; they only show their beautiful side. The pressure is quieter than a party, but it works the same way.

Game 3: When Someone You Love Is Depressed (2022) by Ali

Link: https://aliacreates.wordpress.com/2022/05/09/digital-narrative-game-phase-5-final-draft/

You play Noha, who is trying to support her friend Khaled. He has lived with depression for eight years. You go through ten scenes, including self-isolation, falling grades, canceled plans, an argument, warning signs, and good days. At each choice, you click “understand why” to see how depression affects Khaled’s behavior. The game ends with a thank-you to the friends who stay loyal during someone’s struggle.

I liked that it looks at the friend and not the patient, which I haven’t seen before. The game shows how tiring it is to keep trying when nothing seems to change, and it even says staying in a friendship with someone depressed is much harder. It also names the replies that hurt. A shallow reply like “it’s okay, it will pass” (معلش) ignores what the person feels, and the opposite extreme, like assuming a friend is on drugs, hurts just as much. The Egyptian Arabic in the dialogue makes it feel like real conversations. What I disliked is that the game is long, and the “click to understand” steps sometimes interrupt the story. I also would have liked one scene from Khaled’s side to hear what he felt.

I learned that support is a slow process, not one big gesture. Small, steady things help more than advice, and a friend can be tired and still caring at the same time. Looking after yourself is part of helping. To improve it, I would add a scene from Khaled’s point of view and a scene where Noha gets help for herself.

Game 4 (physical): The Empathy Toy

This is a physical game, so there is no link. We played in pairs, and both of us were blindfolded. One person described the shapes and told the other what to do, and the other person followed the instructions without knowing what they were holding. After the blindfolds came off, we saw the pieces and tried again.

I liked that the idea was completely new to me and different from any game I’ve played. Being blindfolded and depending only on my partner’s words was a strange and memorable experience. Seeing the pieces afterwards and trying again showed how much our communication improved the second time. What I disliked is that the first round was frustrating. Neither of us could see, so we never knew if we were doing the right thing until the blindfolds came off.

I learned that being clear is not the same as being understood. A description that makes sense to me can mean nothing to the person who hears it. In real life, I may think I explained something well when my partner doesn’t have the same picture in their head. The listener has a job too: asking questions and saying what they don’t understand. To improve it, I would add a third round where we swap roles so everyone feels both sides and finish with a short group discussion about when we felt “blindfolded” in real life.
Comparing the games

The three online games teach through choices. I read a scenario, picked a solution, and saw what happened, so I learned by reading about someone else’s life. The Empathy Toy taught me by putting me in the situation myself, because I felt blindfolded instead of reading about it. That made it the one I felt most in my body, while the Orphans game moved me most emotionally.

The games also look from different positions. Orphans and Influence are told from the main character’s own point of view, while the Depression game looks from the side of the friend who is trying to help. Orphans and Depression explain what another person feels, while Influence mainly shows what happens after a decision. The Empathy Toy has no story, but it shows the same idea. When I couldn’t see, I depended on my partner’s words, and if they were unclear I couldn’t understand. In the same way, we often don’t understand an orphan or a friend with depression because we can’t see their situation from where they stand. All four games ask the same question: do we really understand what another person can’t say or can’t see?

The game I would like to create

I would like to create a two-player game about how social media shapes our choices, inspired by all four games. Player A sees only a perfect social media feed, with a friend’s trip, new clothes and a party, and has to decide what to do: buy the same thing, post something, or send a message. Player B knows the real story behind each post, such as the debt, the editing, or the sadness, but can only describe it in words, like in the Empathy Toy, and can’t tell A what to choose.

From the Orphans and Influence games I would borrow the scenarios, but I would add a visible score, which was missing in Orphans. In class we played a game about the experience of an Egyptian wheelchair user, where every choice added or removed points for resilience, knowledge and social connection. At the end we could tell who the person was from their scores, so the effect of each choice was easy to see. In my game, a money score and a mood score would work the same way, so the player can watch their choices add up. From Influence I would add realistic ways to say no without losing your friends. From the Depression game I would add the other person’s side, so the player hears what the person behind the post feels. At the end, the players would swap roles and see real statistics about social media and spending, as in Influence.

I want players to feel what I learned from these games: what we see from outside is only part of the story, and asking before judging is where understanding starts.

This reflection was proofread with AI assistance (Anthropic, 2026). Anthropic. (2026). Claude (Sonnet 5.5) [Large language model].https://claude.ai/share/2d8ff82f-65c3-4009-9f0c-c8cda1d0ff50