Kickaha over at the Adventure Developers forums posted a very nice writeup of When We Were Kids. One thing it highlighted was uncertainty as to whether the game had a moral it wished to convey, or whether it was simply a product of my worldviews, as most art inevitably tends to be. The short answer is that it’s a mix of both. The long answer is as follows. Have at it.

This game was indeed meant to make a point, though not a didactic one, and certainly not one meant to be a teaching tool in classrooms! Mainly, it was a cynical mockery of how adults generally teach kids to deal with bullies, i.e. by ignoring them, being nice, or telling an authority figure what’s going on. When I was younger and nerdier (hence, a very blatant target for bullying), I quickly discovered that none of these approaches actually worked, and you’ll notice that they don’t work in the game as well. Talking to the teacher only results in her getting annoyed, trying to suck up to Morgan backfires, and not doing anything, well, accomplishes nothing. The only valid options are either to use your wits to outsmart Morgan somehow or (gasp!) threaten her.

But wait! There’s more…