Back in 2015, Bruno Dias read the first game’s protagonist as male, writing, “You can choose the name of the protagonist, and so theoretically their gender, but Emily is Away really isn’t written to encompass the possibility of a queer relationship a lot of squinting is required to read it as anything but the story of a boy’s crush on a girl.” Emily Short described the game as “heteronormative,” pointing out that one of the interactions between Emily and the protagonist could be read as dubiously consensual, which “retrospectively colors some of earlier behavior as entitled Nice Guy-ism rather than awkwardness and genuine concern.” I’m not the only critic who has noted this rigidity. Except I’m a queer woman, and I used to be a queer teen girl, and that’s the person I kept on trying to be. And that’s how other characters kept perceiving me. Since I used my real name and screen names and attempted to play “as myself” to the extent that it was possible, the rejections felt not that different from getting dumped by a real person via the internet.īut while the rejections felt familiar, even real, they did not feel personal.Įmily Is Away <3 has introduced more nuance and depth to the characters and dialogue compared to the prior two games, but this increased realism made one particular failing stick out all the more: I kept talking like a straight dude in these games. After completing the trilogy, I genuinely felt as though I’d gotten dumped three times in a row. In Emily Is Away <3, the tense social media fights I had with Emily, Evelyn, and the other new characters raised my heart rate just like real-life fights I’ve had on social media with friends, crushes, and partners. Emily, as a character, felt hollow in the first game, but by the time I finished Emily Is Away <3, both Emily and Evelyn seemed like real teen girls with real teen problems. With each passing game, the series’ dialogue becomes more naturalistic. In the same way I liked digging through Facebook pages in 2008 to learn my new friends’ favorite movies and quotes, I loved navigating through little details on characters’ profiles that made them seem real, like their Facebook Notes app surveys and links to curated YouTube playlists reflecting each fictional teen’s tastes. Era-appropriate song lyrics on friends’ profiles and a selection of cringeworthy lyrics to add to your own. The clever imitation of Facebook’s interface and notifications. I used my old AIM screen name and my real name in all three games, but now that I’ve beaten them all, I really wish I hadn’t.įor those of us who lived through high school and college during the height of instant messaging and the Proterozoic days of social media, the Emily Is Away trilogy will trigger micro-flashbacks and sense memories. In the third game, you can choose among both feminine and masculine profile photos, each rendered in an abstract silhouette. You don’t specify your gender in any of the three games, although you’re presumed to be attracted to girls. You pick through dialogue trees to define your character and their choices in life and romance. You can fill in your own screen name and select some details for your profile. You’re playing as a classmate of Emily and Evelyn, and your interactions with them feel intimate and direct.
EMILY IS AWAY TOO ONLINE FREE SERIES
Emily Is Away (2015) and Emily Is Away Too (2017) are both text adventures set in a series of AIM chat logs, and the third game is set on an approximation of 2008-era Facebook. The three games are set inside of early-’00s social media. I played all three of the games in a row, which meant I got my heart broken by Emily via AIM in the first game, got another heart-stomping from Evelyn on AIM in the next game, and then got dumped yet again by Evelyn on Facebook in the final game. Each one ripped out my heart in less time than it takes to watch a Marvel movie. Last week I completed the Emily Is Away trilogy.
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