Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story
Encyclopedia
Don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story (stylized in all lower case) is a 2011 indie video game
by Christine Love. Intended as a spiritual sequel to Love's Digital: A Love Story
, the game was developed over the course of a month and was released as a free download on April 4, 2011. Don't take it personally is a visual novel
, with the majority of the plot taking place outside of the player's control except for key decisions. It follows a new high school literature teacher in 2027 over the course of a semester, with the ability to see private messages between students at any time without their knowledge. It deals with themes of privacy and relationships in the future. The game was received positively, with critics praising the interplay between the metafiction
al elements of the story and those of the game itself, with special acknowledgment reserved for the writing.
, or interactive fiction
game where the majority of the story is told through still images of the speaking characters in front of anime
-style backgrounds with text overlaid. The player's viewpoint follows one character, the teacher in a school, with the player seeing his thoughts as well as his and the other characters' statements. The player advances the conversations the teacher is in or witnesses at will, but cannot go backwards and has little control over what any of the characters, including the teacher, are saying except at a few key moments. At these points, the player is presented with two or three choices for what the teacher says; which option is chosen can change what path the plot takes, in either a minor or major way.
In a departure from most visual novels the player can also see, at any time, the equivalent of texts and Facebook
postings between the students on a system called AmieConnect (often shortened to "Amie"), as well as conversation threads on a 4chan
-like imageboard
that serve as foreshadowing for future plot points. These extra conversations take place in parallel to in-person conversations between characters, occasionally at the same time; the player is notified anytime a new text message or post is made.
A single playthrough of the game takes "over an hour".
The next day, Isabella misses a meeting she set up with Rook, and does not return to the class. Through Amie texts and wall posts, the other students intimate that she committed suicide, while the school is unable to provide Rook with any contact information for her. Class continues without her, and a little while later Arianna, if the player rejected her earlier in the game, makes another attempt to have a relationship with Rook. The player may choose to reject or accept her again. Through Amie, Rook learns that both Charlotte and Kendall wish to resume their relationship, and can influence Kendall to try again or not, which changes whether or not they get back together. Taylor, jealously and unsuccessfully tries to drive a wedge between Nolan and Akira.
As the end of term approaches, Rook begins getting strange emails about Isabella's death, and begins seeing shinigami
figures. Upset by these occurrences, when Akira's mother asks to speak to him concerning misuses of Amie, he assumes that she has found out that he is spying on the students' conversations. When he meets her, he finds that Isabella is alive and had simply moved away; the students made it look like she was dead via Amie as a prank that got out of control. Furthermore they already knew that he could see their messages; Akira's mother explains that the students have no idea of online privacy, having always had technology like Amie, and assumed that anything they put online might be read by anyone. The game ends with Rook having a casual lunch with the students, a date with Arianna, or neither depending on the choices made during the game by the player.
, a 2010 game by Love. The game was made for NaNoRenO (National Ren'ai
Game Writing Month), a month-long contest in the vein of National Novel Writing Month
(NaNoWriMo) where developers attempt to create a visual novel in one month. Love's favorite character to write was Kendall.
noted the game as an example of the "creativity" missing in many large-budget titles, and praised the story, calling Love "a writer first and a game developer second." Alec Meer of Rock, Paper, Shotgun
described the game as "a game about love, sex and the internet" that was "capable of being profoundly moving" and was about "what it is to feel like someone’s kicked me straight in the heart." He praised Love's ability to use dialogue to effect an emotional response, though he noted that the game seemed to lose some of its impact in the final chapters and felt that the use of the "12chan" threads as a Greek chorus
was "perhaps a meta-layer too far".
Aaron Poppleton of PopMatters
called the game "a meditation on privacy in the modern age" and "one of the more thoughtful games to come out in a long time." He criticized the art direction of the game, saying that the limitation of creating the game in a month led to poor artwork and an unpolished presentation that lets down the possibilities of the story. He did note that the story and writing of the game made the downsides of the game "almost entirely a moot point", and that it is a very strong game. Pete Davidson of PC World
, in an article about the treatment of sexuality in video games, called out the game as an example of a game that used sexual themes maturely to explore love and relationships. Emily Short of Gamasutra
, in a discussion about the game, said that it was definitely worth playing and full of "charming characters, colorful dialogue, and important questions", but criticized the uneven exploration of issues regarding privacy versus personal boundaries. She said that the game's lack of focus on Rook's issues with personal and professional boundaries was a weakness in the story, given that the distinction between boundaries and privacy was crucial to the plot. Love collated common criticisms and reviews of the game on her blog, summarizing that while it was less praised than Digital: A Love Story, most players seemed to like the way she wrote the relationships and overall story, though her portrayal of Rook was weak and that many players seemed to miss that he was intended to be "an absolutely awful teacher" and that the potential relationship with Arianna was intended to be creepy and make the player feel bad. She also noted that her use of licensed artwork was detracting from the game's potential in comparison to the reaction to the custom works.
Indie game
Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...
by Christine Love. Intended as a spiritual sequel to Love's Digital: A Love Story
Digital: A Love Story
Digital: A Love Story is a 2010 indie video game developed by Christine Love and released for free in February 2010. The game is a visual novel, with the player's actions unable to significantly change the course of the plot...
, the game was developed over the course of a month and was released as a free download on April 4, 2011. Don't take it personally is a visual novel
Visual novel
A is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage...
, with the majority of the plot taking place outside of the player's control except for key decisions. It follows a new high school literature teacher in 2027 over the course of a semester, with the ability to see private messages between students at any time without their knowledge. It deals with themes of privacy and relationships in the future. The game was received positively, with critics praising the interplay between the metafiction
Metafiction
Metafiction, also known as Romantic irony in the context of Romantic works of literature, is a type of fiction that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, exposing the fictional illusion...
al elements of the story and those of the game itself, with special acknowledgment reserved for the writing.
Gameplay
Don't take it personally is a visual novelVisual novel
A is an interactive fiction game featuring mostly static graphics, usually with anime-style art, or occasionally live-action stills or video footage...
, or interactive fiction
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
game where the majority of the story is told through still images of the speaking characters in front of anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
-style backgrounds with text overlaid. The player's viewpoint follows one character, the teacher in a school, with the player seeing his thoughts as well as his and the other characters' statements. The player advances the conversations the teacher is in or witnesses at will, but cannot go backwards and has little control over what any of the characters, including the teacher, are saying except at a few key moments. At these points, the player is presented with two or three choices for what the teacher says; which option is chosen can change what path the plot takes, in either a minor or major way.
In a departure from most visual novels the player can also see, at any time, the equivalent of texts and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
postings between the students on a system called AmieConnect (often shortened to "Amie"), as well as conversation threads on a 4chan
4chan
4chan is an English-language imageboard website. Launched on October 1, 2003, its boards were originally used for the posting of pictures and discussion of manga and anime...
-like imageboard
Imageboard
An imageboard or image board is a type of Internet forum that revolves around the posting of images. The first imageboards were created in Japan, and many English-language imageboards today are centered around Japanese culture...
that serve as foreshadowing for future plot points. These extra conversations take place in parallel to in-person conversations between characters, occasionally at the same time; the player is notified anytime a new text message or post is made.
A single playthrough of the game takes "over an hour".
Setting
The game is set in a private high school in Ontario, in 2027. The player follows a new 11th-grade literature teacher at the school, John Rook, who has recently had his second divorce and is undergoing, in his words, a "bizarre midlife crisis" that has led him to quit his career in computers and become a teacher. The students in his class are Arianna Belle-Essai, Kendall Flowers, Taylor Gibson, Charlotte Grewal, Isabella Hart, Nolan Striukas, and Akira Yamazaki. Rook and all of the students have school-issued computers, which the students use to communicate between each other in private and public messages. Rook, and therefore the player, can see all of the messages that the students send, even the private ones; the school administration has told Rook that it is for monitoring online bullying, and that he is not to let anyone know that he can see students' private messages.Plot
Soon after the game opens, the player learns that Kendall and Charlotte have just broken up out of a lesbian relationship, while a few weeks prior Taylor and Nolan had broken up out of a heterosexual relationship. Arianna develops a crush on the teacher, which in the player's first decision point Rook can reciprocate or not. Akira soon comes out as gay, finding to his dismay that everyone else already knew. He then attempts to enter into a relationship with Nolan, who is unsure how to respond; Rook can encourage him to try it out or let him decide on his own, but he enters a relationship with Akira regardless.The next day, Isabella misses a meeting she set up with Rook, and does not return to the class. Through Amie texts and wall posts, the other students intimate that she committed suicide, while the school is unable to provide Rook with any contact information for her. Class continues without her, and a little while later Arianna, if the player rejected her earlier in the game, makes another attempt to have a relationship with Rook. The player may choose to reject or accept her again. Through Amie, Rook learns that both Charlotte and Kendall wish to resume their relationship, and can influence Kendall to try again or not, which changes whether or not they get back together. Taylor, jealously and unsuccessfully tries to drive a wedge between Nolan and Akira.
As the end of term approaches, Rook begins getting strange emails about Isabella's death, and begins seeing shinigami
Shinigami
is the personification of death in Japan. It's unclear when the concept entered Japanese culture; it may have been imported from China , or possibly been imported from Europe during the Sengoku era—that period in European history featured a common motif of the Grim Reaper gathering souls...
figures. Upset by these occurrences, when Akira's mother asks to speak to him concerning misuses of Amie, he assumes that she has found out that he is spying on the students' conversations. When he meets her, he finds that Isabella is alive and had simply moved away; the students made it look like she was dead via Amie as a prank that got out of control. Furthermore they already knew that he could see their messages; Akira's mother explains that the students have no idea of online privacy, having always had technology like Amie, and assumed that anything they put online might be read by anyone. The game ends with Rook having a casual lunch with the students, a date with Arianna, or neither depending on the choices made during the game by the player.
Development
Don't take it personally was developed over the course of a month, and was released as a free download on April 4, 2011. It was written and developed by Christine Love, with artwork made for the game by Auro-Cyanide, artwork licensed from Tokudaya and Kimagure After, and with music licensed from Rengoku Teien and propanmode. It was Love's longest game to date, and her first attempt at a game with a branching storyline. It was intended as "a spiritual sequel of sorts" to Digital: A Love StoryDigital: A Love Story
Digital: A Love Story is a 2010 indie video game developed by Christine Love and released for free in February 2010. The game is a visual novel, with the player's actions unable to significantly change the course of the plot...
, a 2010 game by Love. The game was made for NaNoRenO (National Ren'ai
Dating sim
Dating sims are a video game subgenre of simulation games, usually Japanese, with romantic elements. They are also sometimes put under the category of neoromance. The most common objective of dating sims is to date, usually choosing from among several characters, and to achieve a romantic...
Game Writing Month), a month-long contest in the vein of National Novel Writing Month
National Novel Writing Month
National Novel Writing Month is an annual internet-based creative writing project which challenges participants to write 50,000 words of a new novel between November 1 and November 30...
(NaNoWriMo) where developers attempt to create a visual novel in one month. Love's favorite character to write was Kendall.
Reception
Don't take it personally was chosen as a "freeware game pick" by IndieGames's Michael Rose, who said that it was worth playing through multiple times in order to see the different paths the story takes depending on the player's choices. Pete Davidson of GameProGamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
noted the game as an example of the "creativity" missing in many large-budget titles, and praised the story, calling Love "a writer first and a game developer second." Alec Meer of Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Rock, Paper, Shotgun
Rock, Paper, Shotgun is a UK-based PC gaming blog written by Alec Meer, Jim Rossignol, John Walker, and previously Kieron Gillen and Quintin Smith. Rock, Paper, Shotgun launched in July 2007. In 2010 the website partnered with Eurogamer...
described the game as "a game about love, sex and the internet" that was "capable of being profoundly moving" and was about "what it is to feel like someone’s kicked me straight in the heart." He praised Love's ability to use dialogue to effect an emotional response, though he noted that the game seemed to lose some of its impact in the final chapters and felt that the use of the "12chan" threads as a Greek chorus
Greek chorus
A Greek chorus is a homogenous, non-individualised group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action....
was "perhaps a meta-layer too far".
Aaron Poppleton of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
called the game "a meditation on privacy in the modern age" and "one of the more thoughtful games to come out in a long time." He criticized the art direction of the game, saying that the limitation of creating the game in a month led to poor artwork and an unpolished presentation that lets down the possibilities of the story. He did note that the story and writing of the game made the downsides of the game "almost entirely a moot point", and that it is a very strong game. Pete Davidson of PC World
PC World (magazine)
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...
, in an article about the treatment of sexuality in video games, called out the game as an example of a game that used sexual themes maturely to explore love and relationships. Emily Short of Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
, in a discussion about the game, said that it was definitely worth playing and full of "charming characters, colorful dialogue, and important questions", but criticized the uneven exploration of issues regarding privacy versus personal boundaries. She said that the game's lack of focus on Rook's issues with personal and professional boundaries was a weakness in the story, given that the distinction between boundaries and privacy was crucial to the plot. Love collated common criticisms and reviews of the game on her blog, summarizing that while it was less praised than Digital: A Love Story, most players seemed to like the way she wrote the relationships and overall story, though her portrayal of Rook was weak and that many players seemed to miss that he was intended to be "an absolutely awful teacher" and that the potential relationship with Arianna was intended to be creepy and make the player feel bad. She also noted that her use of licensed artwork was detracting from the game's potential in comparison to the reaction to the custom works.