KING OF XANADUby MACHINES UNDERNEATH2024 Fantasy Squiffy
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This Twine game depicts the fall of a great empire. We play as the emperor, a being with complete control over the the people. Excess and corruption are rife.
But then, a famine strikes the land, and the old way of life begins to disappear.
The writing is descriptive and evocative, and the story is good in itself and can be applied to almost anything in life where a group has grown powerful and complacent.
It reminded me of something I saw in China earlier this year. At the Summer Palace, there were some older buildings that had been destroyed, and I heard the story about how it had been burned down by Europeans. Our tour guide said that her mother used to bring her there in her youth, tell her the story of the burning, and say, 'That's why you have to study for school, that's why you have to work hard, because if China isn't strong it will be burned down again."
Obviously this game is different as there is no invading force, just nature itself, but the two tied together in my mind.