Internet game session

My partner and I played Dys4ia, This Is the Only Level,  a stripped down version of Oregon Trail, Don't Shit Your Pants, and Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars.

Dys4ia: I like collections of micro-games. A variety of somewhat simple tasks in a short time frame is surprisingly engaging and interesting to watch. Repetition can make the viewing of a game dull, but Dys4ia is always telling a story. The viewer is pulling more of the story than the player, who is also partly concentrating on finishing challenges, but I found that associating some tasks to bits of the story imprinted them on my memory.

This Is the Only Level: Really fun, but confusing to watch. This is pure game play, there is no story or really detailed aesthetic. You're watching someone complete a puzzle, which can be an interesting experience, but to truly get it, you need to play. However, the viewer can notice some things that the player won't. The game gives the illusion that it is entirely repetitive, which the viewer can often see through faster than the player can. The viewer sees when the green door is open or closed or not, which spot you landed on killed out, how you died as soon as you spawned, etc. The player can get too disoriented on occasion to notice little change ups to give away how to complete the current challenge.

Weak Oregon Trail: This was an MS Paint remake of the classic Oregon Trail. It's missing some of the features of the normal version. The the rabbits in the hunting for food mini-game ran in a straight line across the screen in the same spot. No constant updates as to who got malaria or bitten by a snake (it takes forever for "Nothing fun happened today." to appear. No kidding.). You must float across all rivers written with the barest amount of code you can get away with. The choice, freedom, and excitement of crossing the American frontier with death never too far behind your wagon party is gone in this version. It gets tedious fast.

Don't Shit Your Pants: I love this game. Short, simple, text based adventures are fun and have lots of potential to engage you. This one is hilarious and has replay value. The automatic thoughts that go through your head are hard to recount when you need to transcribe them through a game. You think it would be easy to not shit your pants in a game because you do pretty well on a daily basis in real life but you'd be surprised.

Lesbian Spider-Queens of Mars: A classic arcade-type game. It reminds me of Joust. Imagine Pac Man with a tractor beam. You roam around a maze shooting a web-laser to weaken your slaves (or something) enough so that you may pull them into your web. It's fun to play and to look at. Enemies and the maze change up to keep things from getting stale, but it feels a little weird to control and it never feels terribly exciting.