Observant

1. What made the experience fun or not? I think it was fun I wish it was harder to catch the immigrants though. Mason and I almost caught everyone on each side. I caught all of his and he caught 5 of mine. I wish there was a way to be more sneaky.
2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing? I think learning the strategy and being able to sneak around. I think the players will want to try and get around the guards.
3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game? I think it is persuasive because it motivates people politically. I won’t get to in depth to offend anyone, but especially with what is going on now I can see how this can motivate someone in one way or another.
4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The only metaphor I can think of is maybe don’t get caught. I can’t think of any without getting too political. The mechanics worked almost like battleship you have to guess where the immigrants are as the border guards and try to catch them before they reach the green card into the US.
5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for? It makes me feel bad in a way but also the drive to catch the player. I think there could’ve been a different them than guards and immigrants. Maybe it could’ve been like cats and mice. Sort of makes us feel empathy for the immigrants getting caught.
6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for? Yes this is and activist game. You can take it politically or you can’t. It advocates for immigrants in different countries and makes you think about that situation in our world today.
7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku.Silent grid of hope
   Names erased between the lines—
   Ships flee through the fog.

Last Resort

1. What made the experience fun or not? I think it could be fun, but I don’t really understand chess so it made it super hard for me to play with someone who knew how to play chess.
2. What is the motivating factor to get or keep players playing? I think to kill one another. The tactics allow you to kill each others pieces so the more you kill the other players the less they can do to kill and take over your side.
3. Is the game persuasive, and what is it trying to get you to do outside of the game? I think maybe it can be persuasive. It can maybe persuade people that war is bad and can get very violent. This game can relate to a lot of real world scenarios.
4. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? Civilians are the board. In this game, cities claim they are fighting for the people but the people themselves become the terrain over which power moves. Like squares in chess, civilians are treated as strategic positions rather than lives. The mechanics are almost exactly like chess moving pieces to dominate others.
5. How does the gameplay make you feel? Who does the game make you feel empathy for? It makes me feel angry but also competitive because I know it’s not real when I am playing it but things like this do happen in real life so sad. It make the player feel empathy for the civilians as they are innocently being killed while the two players battle.
6. Is the game an activist game? If so what does the game play advocate for? It is an activist game for war and innocent lives and civilians victim to war.
7. Describe the game in 3 sentences or in the form of a haiku. They guard the squares.
   People become the board’s lines.
   Peace is checkmate’s lie.