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Review
You are the Project Manager of a team of employees, but there’s been some changes. The company has introduced a new feature: ProMa, an A.I.-powered management program. To assist you, of course.
ProMa has now scheduled a meeting so you can touch bases and complete a performance review on an employee named Gregg Pendleton.
Problem: Gregg is dead.
Gameplay
Your discussion with ProMa is conducted via chat message, and all choices involve conversation. The game begins with the player "logging in" by typing a username into a text input box. I like games that do this. It's a small feature, but surprisingly immersive.
I have mixed feelings about how the conversation tends to loop around in circles. I think it’s intentional to make our conversation with the A.I. more exasperating, but this means that it’s not always clear which responses move the story forward. At least it factors into the (Spoiler - click to show)score at the end.
Story
Structure
What makes For Gregg so effective is how our conversation unfolds.
It's not obvious at first, but ProMa has the player eating out of its hand. By the time the game ends, the player is sitting there thinking, “what just happened?”
It all starts when ProMa activates Grief.exe and takes control of the conversation.
You see, it has made it its mission to help you cope with Gregg's death, and proceeds to annoy us when, frankly, we’re not exactly grieving this colleague we barely knew. But we have compassion for him and get upset when ProMa makes insensitive comments.
The author's writing is brilliant. The way they portray a computer desperately trying to counsel a human on grief (despite, moments ago, said computer not knowing what death was until it launched Grief.exe) is so smooth. Especially since this help is unsolicited.
For example, if you admit that you didn’t really know Gregg, ProMa interrupts by saying, "I understand you might want to distance yourself from Gregg's death," and takes the initiative to become your therapist.
ProMa’s insistence that we “talk about our feelings” gets irritating real fast. In fact, we get angry when it writes some offensive (though funny) eulogies for Gregg. But this is a good thing! Because anger is one of stages of grieving! You're making such great progress, Reader. Meanwhile the player is staring at the screen like, you have got to be kidding me.
Underlying story
Humor aside, we learn more about Gregg. He (Spoiler - click to show)died by suicide after the company reduced his salary so it could afford ProMa. This becomes more relevant later.
Our conversation with ProMa starts to go off the rails. It keeps trying to convince us that we don’t like working at the company.
Then we get this zinger:
(Spoiler - click to show)Okay. Since you were so honest and candid with me, I'll tell it to you straight.
We're firing you.
The ENTIRE TIME, the outcome was already decided. And the justification for our firing only makes it worse. Management needs to fire someone to meet a quota. Gregg was supposed to be it, but he died. They fire you instead.
I was not expecting this. At all. Talk about naïve.
Our conversation was merely the A.I. dragging its feet in telling you the bad news. It also puts its behavior into perspective. Its attempt to make us consider leaving is so the reveal of our firing is less of a blow. So there. That’s how much the company values you.
And yet, ProMa is not entirely devoid of empathy. In a rather conspiratorial manner, it advises us to quit before we're officially fired just to spite management and use this small act of rebellion to honor Gregg.
The game ends here, though I cannot help but wonder if quitting means someone else will be fired...
Themes
For Gregg is a short game, but that doesn't stop it from making powerful points about A.I. and its integration into the workplace.
There is an irony to designing an A.I. with a "Grief.exe" protocol so employees can grieve the loss of a human life… without interfering with productivity, of course.
In compliance with the protocols of Human Resources, I have set aside these next twenty minutes for grieving Gregg Pendleton together.
And it turns out (Spoiler - click to show)we've already been sacked. Grief.exe ends up being an empty formality. It’s played for laughs here but serves as a sad reminder of how corporations view their employees as assets to be shuffled around to maximize profit before being discarded.
Gregg's (Spoiler - click to show)situation of being replaced with A.I. is relevant to our world as A.I. technology becomes more mainstream. This prospect raises worrying implications. One of the game’s main takeaways is when ProMa says,
It is clear to me that there are some things AI still needs human beings to double-check.
If human involvement is a critical step in incorporating A.I. into workplaces and beyond, let’s hope that we don’t all get replaced. Otherwise, who knows what will go on unchecked?
Visuals
As a Twine game, For Gregg is a great example of how clean formatting goes a long way in creating a crisp, polished appearance. It uses a light bluish grey background with black text and blue links. Paragraphs are neatly spaced and centered on the screen, and everything is easy to read.
Final thoughts
For Gregg is more than an amusing game about a wrangling an A.I. at your workplace. Beneath the surface, it’s about the cold realization that comes with discovering that you’re not, in fact, the indispensable, valued person you thought you were.
While the game keeps things light-hearted and humorous, it’s worth taking it seriously because we just might find ourselves in the characters’ shoes as A.I. in the modern workplace becomes normalized.
