I never stopped loving you.
Yes, there’s a fashion shop with a limited collection of clothes.
But this isn’t really the key in of game about investing in your character’s appearance.
It’s more about the act of writing to others.
There are a bunch of ways to communicate.
These are short cards another player has posted, lamenting recent break-ups or venting about an annoying family member.
You jot down out a reply to these and send it off.
Or you offer your own worry as a prompt and wait for the advice and sympathies to roll in.
But this is just the most vanilla of back-and-forths.
There’s also a shop specialising in asking for recommendations.
What’s some good Spanish language music?
(Ana Tijoux).
What should I play on web app during my lunch break?
(Scrambled Maps).
Sometimes all it takes is to be shown you’re not alone.
This is something Kind Words 2 does a lot.
There are yet more places to share thoughts.
There’s a hot spring full of people trading wisdoms.
And a notice board that simply asks for cat descriptions.
I found something particularly moving about this spot.
Their hopes for a steady job, a healthier body, more cats.
Overwhelmingly, people wish for connection: friendships, family, and romance.
In this, and in other ways, Kind Words 2 brings up a lot of feelings.
It’s like taking a hot bath in other people’s emotions.
Inevitably, some of your own will come sweating out.
It also brings up some worries of “toxic positivity”.
It’s evident that some elements of the game are ferociously happy, as if by mandate.
A recent one was: “Pumpkin spice latte.
What is its place in the world?”
This fits with the idea of a space designed to avoid conflict and nastiness.
The game is called “Kind Words 2” after all, not “Reddit 2”.
Yet despite the framework feeling almost repressively nice, it’s not fair to say it is toxically so.
The notes you get are often full of hurt or trouble.
People share thoughts of violence or painful memories.
If you chose to respond to these with a relentless attitude of positivity - (“Don’t worry!
Everything is actually okay and good!")
then that might not be truly helpful.
Your requests and prompts can feel helpful in the short term, in other words.
I struggled for years to discern the difference between “personal” thoughts and “private” thoughts.
This is just another avenue for practising the habit of sheepish self-revelation.
It feels good to throw paper aeroplanes!
Even if doing it IRL is healthier.
(“It will all work out!”
… “Plenty more fish in the sea!")
And it can feel like there’s an element of performance to some responses you get.
But it’s also hard to judge the author’s level of authenticity from behind an avatar.
And I say this as a person whohatescliches, yet has felt their worth firsthand.
My friends seemed to have all evaporated, depression was at the door.
She said: “It’s not the end of the world.”
And then she vanished into the streets.
She was a stranger, all she offered was a simple, commonplace phrase of encouragement.
If I remember right, it even annoyed me a little.Why was she so fucking chipper?
And yet… the spell of sadness was broken.
I got up and went on with the day.
We have this idea sometimes that connections with others must be long-lived to be meaningful.
I encountered her for less than five seconds.
