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[Schizo]

I dont have the skill in writing as other people do to fully express what i think about the game.

[aeiowu]

give 'er a go anyway. we won't bite.

[austinofdoom]

I thought this game was amazingly thought through. It was simple, making the message much more powerful. It made me think about game design, something I want to get into, and the experiences, thoughts and ideas games have the potential to give.

I noticed how with each "level" (every time you converted the crowd and it reset) The conversations individually got more difficult but it also required less and less converts to convert everyone, until eventually you were no longer able to speak anyone's "language" and then no-one would talk to you at all. Every aspect of the game contributed to the presentation and delivery of the message perfectly.

The game...It's a sociological commentary. It's an allegory for the spreading of ideas. It's a simulation of slow self-discovery and alienation. It's about individualism, it's about mob mentality. It's all of these things, it's none of them completely.

The game made me think about the left-right polarizing of political talks, and how it seems like no-one really listens to anyone. It made me think about my religious upbringing and how I am; how I relate to the people around me now and the people from my past.

I want more people to play this game and "get it". I know that won't happen, this just isn't the medium for everyone. I grew up playing video games so this really spoke to me and gives me hope for the future of truly unique, thoughtful games. Thank you.

[fucrate]

Awesome post austinofdoom, it's really cool to hear well-thought out responses to the game.  Thanks a lot for posting it

I do agree that it's too bad Gray won't be played by many people, but as an experiment I think it's done really well so far, we've gotten a lot of positive response from people who really gave it a chance and thought about it.  In the end, it might be better that only a small number of people play it, I don't think the average flash game crowd is really going to give it a chance anyway...

[Pace]

My interpretation of Gray is that people have a tendency to become more and more polarized, and eventually no one listens to the person in the middle.

Here's a personal experience of mine which obviously isn't the intended meaning of the game, but is something it reminded me of.

In 2003, I was a third-gendered androgyne for three months.  I asked people to use gender-neutral pronouns for me, or "they" since English doesn't have a decent gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun.  (As in "I met someone last night.  They were nice.")  It was incredibly horrible and traumatic.  There is no room for anyone to be in the middle.  Everyone is either black or white, there are only two options, and if you're anywhere in between, you'll be ignored at best and trampled at worst.

The context used in the game is politics, but I think it holds true of any situation where people get attached to two opposites.  They polarize and leave no room in the middle.  No room for gray.

[Henri]

Did anyone else notice that the logo says 'gray' black' and 'white'

Thats a really clever artistic logo

[ronintama]

It seems to me that this game is about being a devils advocate to begin with, merely going against the majority because you can, and switching once you've convinced everyone to change because that's boring. Eventually though, through using gray mediums to convince everyone, you end up convincing yourself what you're preaching.

I think it also speaks about peace not being able to win out over chaos, no matter how hard you try, you'll always be over-run. Which just speaks about the world in general. Look at all the peace makers and how far they've gotten. Most of them are ignored or forgotten. But we still remember the men/women who have made chaos for this world (Hitler, Napoleon, Genghis Khan). So in that sense it shows the utter futility of peace and a middle ground.

It could also be perceived as not a world experiment, or changing the world, but a view of within. The constant ebb and flow of our own minds, that one lone thought that eventually consumes our mind. And when we finally settle that thought (it becomes gray) the rest of our own beliefs are in such a state of chaos that settling that one thought has only caused more trouble. The upturning of a standardized, if not hectic, world for a single thought.

[lettersoup]

hi!
first of all, please excuse my bad english, but i've never been really good at it.

first thing that i noticed the most was that, after you got a lot of people the same color as yours, it was difficult for me to find the character i controlled on the screen, it was getting "lost" in the masses an took me some time to find the character i was controlling.
second thing i noticed were that the rioters you talked to were surrounded by the opposite colour of their "body" colour.

so here my first opinion:

the people running around behave like one big being, all the same in thoughts, acting and so on. but there are a few guys who run around and riot against this behaviour, they want the people to "wake up" an be something special(this is shown by their opposite-color-surrounding). but they don't manage to be themselves completely free of the mass-behaviour. to make it more easy to understand, let's say it's a capitalist-society an some guys walk around shouting that communism is cooler.

now you arrive in this group of people. you're a communist, and you're sure that communism is the right form of a society. but alone you can't do anything to change the society. so you walk around and talk to those who seem to be unhappy with the society like it is, because they are simpler to convince. you convince them to join your side, and they convince other people to do this. the people that until now fitted very well into the capitalist-society see that there is a new party, and some first join by curiosity, then the rest joins because they follow the others. so your character changed the whole community to a communist one. epic win!

but then you realize, oh sh**, communism isn't that cool at all, capitalism was better, and turn into a capitalist, repeating the procedure explained above, with the only difference that you have to make capitalists out of communists now. it's already more difficult to convince them of joining your side, because they already changed because of you, mistrust is rising and so on... by this way, society changes from communism to capitalism and vice-versa a several times.

at one moment youself realize that extremes aren't the best way, and a more moderate society may make the trick(that's when you turn to grey). but not having enough power to convince people(because moderate speeches always aren't as powerful as extreme speeches) an already having earned the mistrust of people, nobody will listen to you.

second opinion:

you're an outsider of the society, and it doesn't really bother you. you like the fact that you are special and stand of the masses. but you feel alone and could need some friends. so you talk to some guys, say "hey, let's be outsiders together!" an one by one, you get friends. but people start to idealize you, like the leader of some kind of revolution, they think that you're cool because you're diffrent, you're not like everybody else, you got some exotic charm, etc...
so they follow the others and start behaving like you, being like you. at the beginning, you're happy about this, you think that it's cool to have  more friends, and by the way, if they idolize you, why not??
but at one point, you realize that you became just like all the others, which wasn't your goal at all! so you turn into what the other people were at the start, regaining your outsider status. but you feel alone again, and the procedure is repeated.

i prefer the second opinion, but i got no real clue how this could match the fact of turning gray and having nobody who listens to you at the end. yet, i think that it has got some sort of romantic touch and i like that 

i also liked the idea posted by other people here, who said that the game reflects the habit of people to put a sense in everything. because this is exactly what we all do. children normally are the best example to show this.
if you ask them why there are clouds, they will tell you that they are there to rain.
if you ask them why there are dogs, they will tell you that they are there to bark/be caressed.
adults put more complex senses in the things they experience/see, but at the basics, it's the same.

at the ending, thanks to the developers of the game, if you put people into writing so many lines about a game that is so simple, you definetly have done everything right :-)

[nicktheguy]

i really commend you guys on making this game.

    you have successfully made a game, that a normal regular 14 year old boy who happened to find your game by chance, played it, went to the discussion boards, and felt so compelled by reading such comments to post his own feelings towards the game.

    my immediate thoughts when i started the game up, was "what a bizarre game", but after reading such comments i soon began to think about it myself and delve deeper into the game. Everyone here of course has played the game and we all know as you progress through the game of constantly going against the majority, and attempting to change their views, to that of your own. After successfully turning the minority into the majority, you yourself change to the opposite point of view. That is where you repeat the process over and over again, and notice that it soon becomes harder to inflict people's views. It really takes a person to think, but people to be stupid.

    You change their view by giving a better argument right? If you now want to change them back you have to beat your own previous argument which in the game is just meeting in the middle more often, from 2 to 4 to 6 to 8/10? (i didnt count for the last one). which i thought was a very well thought out process. Though it becomes harder to change individual people, if you change one person's view, more come along with that individual, following you like brainless sheep, which accounts for the fact that as you progress you have to talk to less people to become the majority.

    Along with all of that, the constant switching i saw as the need to be the minority or the devil's advocate as ronintama was saying before. But thats not even the most interesting thing i found. I really thought deep and hard (thats what she said) about the last few moments, turning gray, unable to talk to anyone finding yourself and your actions done in vain. You eventually switch sides so much you get stuck in the middle, as your own brain is split and unable to decide which side it is on.

    Now what does this have to do with anything? Well lucky for me ive been in an economics class lately, and thats where i pulled everything out of.The reason you can't communicate with people is because such conflicting ideals cannot coexist with each other. You can't convince a capitalism to be "half socialist" and vice-versa. It is literally impossible for socialism (the idea that the group goes before the individual) and capitalist (the idea that the individual goes before the group) can mix, and you are eventually surrounded by both, much like in the world we are in now.
 
     You slowly try to communicate with other people, but it is done in vain, and you are the single minority, as both white and black become the majority and suffocate you, trying to push you each others way, leaving you in the middle, confused, lost, disoriented, and that really was like a blow to the face, in the sense that it left an impact. Thank you, very much for making this game, because as an 8th grader going into highschool, it has helped me find my own ideals, and truly 'think'. MUCH KUDOS
  

[TheRealBuddy]

I personally think that gray represents a person, whom has an idea,  and tries to promote said idea (Be it political, religious, etc)  and he starts out trying to inform people of their ideas,  and people like it,  but take it to the extreme,  so as people begin to accept the idea,  they try again, to re-elaborate the idea that they had, in order to explain how it should work,   and this goes on, until eventually,  people are so split off into what they belive about this person's idea, that no matter how hard they try to explain,  eventually it gets lost to everyone but the person, whom realises there is no point in trying to explain it to others anymore.

I think that the game idea is very simple,  but the lack of story makes it profoundly more open to interpritation,  and is an amazing concept, rarely seen in games,  I definately would give this game a showing for a strong point to reprisent "Games as Art"

Very well done in my opinion

[Dark_Intent]

 The sad fact of modern life is that you don't have to be right or even factually correct, you just have to sound better than the other person. Some of us, a lucky few, eventually realize that white and black both have flaws and look for the truth of the situation instead of just believing what's popular. The unfortunate side effect is to become gray; one of the world's unseen and unheard. No matter how much you argue or how well you argue you'll never convince others to a gray mentality, it only comes through personal epiphany, if it comes at all. This point as well as the others that have been described before me are all made extremely well by this game, and I salute it's creators for actually making you think about something instead of just blindly following behind white or black.

[selcrout]

Wow you did a great job allow me to virtually shake your hand
and congratulate you for creating something that challenged,moved and excited me

I think that you were a negotiator in a riot between two classes or two cultures
or two physicalitys. You started by talking one state of mind from one side to your side and then you switched to the other to stay Neutral so then it got more difficult to talk to people cause they were giving you the general human response which was "hey man did I not just agree to every thing you told me and now you want me to change back to the way I was" but once you got one of the people more came cause the one you started with told a friend After switching back and forth for a while You become Gray which is a neutral color and people cant, they wont, they refuse to listen to you and so you decide to just dissapear or be the Middle of the road neutral person

I also really got the sens that i was easing a riot or stopping something from happening keeping things the way they were or should be 

also there is the saying that once you slay the beast another head pops right back in its place so that also could be another way of seeing this game

you tell the people how you feel. they follow you. They take it to far you switch sides to get them back on track. so on and so forth till you realize. NO NO NO NO NO
this is all wrong this is not what i wanted and you explain that but alas there is no one left to listen so you just vanish into The back wash of history or violence or circumstance 

[aeiowu]

Thanks for your thoughts nick, they mean a lot.

It really takes a person to think, but people to be stupid.  

Good point, that's actually kind of what spawned the whole idea for the game in the first place. http://mile222.com/2009/04/im-working-on-a-game-called-gray/

[Cheshire_Bandit]

Wow. I really enjoyed this game.

I thought it was interesting that when you talked to people, the conversation bubble had a black and a white area, and the waves you sent out came from your particular color, and that the whole point was to meet in the middle. Then, with every successful wave, their side of the bubble would grow more and more gray. I also thought it was interesting that even though you turned their side of the conversation bubble gray, instead of turning gray themselves, they still turned to one extreme (either black or white) when they "converted". I kind of saw that this way: Once you presented a valid argument, instead of just changing and reevaluating their view points, they blindly followed yours just because you made a good case. To me it was a very good example of people's need to be led, a weakness of will that seems to be present in many of us (especially in America). Just as your arguments are meeting theirs in the middle, you have to remember, their arguments are meeting yours as well. And since they are making valid points, it leads you to question your own beliefs. This brings the change.

When your character switches sides, maybe it's because he is confused. Through learning about the beliefs of the other group, he's realized that there is a good reason they are fighting for their own ideals. And this process repeats itself until he realizes that neither side is entirely correct, and that the only way to solve the conflict is to say, "To each, his own."

And I'm not sure how to look at what happens after your character turns gray. Maybe it's the fact that it was a neutral point of view, and therefore a very peaceful or non confrontational one, and there is an overabundance of people in the world who refuse to just let things be. It's this attitude of self-importance. Very few will put away their pride and agree to compromise. And in the United States, specifically, the majority of people seem to have a need, or a craving for dramatics. No one is willing to listen to the person who is telling them to just let their fellow man make his own choices instead of trying to force the views that they think are right. We all are indoctrinated to have a specific sense of right and wrong. Black and white. But there are so many variables, and so many different interpretations of things, that in all actuality, nothing is black and white. Just shades of gray. And it's those variables and interpretations which cause your character to switch sides in the first place. And there's always a point when you can't take the conflict any more, and to find any peace, you have to relinquish your opinions, because really, they are inconsequential. And far too many people never realize that in order for there to be true peace, you must let go of concrete belief. This can be said for politics, religion, war, interpersonal relationships...Pretty much every part of life.

The only thing that confused me is, why was your character the only one trying to talk to people. Everyone else was rioting in the streets. What makes you so special? Why weren't there other little guys running around trying to "talk sense" into the other faction? Why weren't there other grays? I guess maybe that's over-analytical. Those questions may not even matter, and are probably straying far from the overall point. Though, there is no exact point, since it's open for interpretation.

Lastly, I think that when interpreting this game, you have to take into consideration the commentary within the game. You can't just see things black and white. So in your interpretation, you always have to keep an open mind and leave room for alternative ideas. The way I looked at it might not be right. In fact, I can safely say it's not at all right. And the same can be said for everyone else on this forum. I've really enjoyed seeing how the meanings that other people carried away from it (or didn't) were so different from, or very similar to my own. Not once did I say, "Oh yeah, that guy is misled." All I want to know now is this: what about the artist's interpretation? There's no way the maker of this game could have just made it without any of their own ideas on the situation depicted.

[MiniMeMilo]

Before I read any other posts, I'd like to post my own thoughts.

The way I see it, the protagonist is trying to decide which side he agrees with, and when (s)he finally decides it's too late and nobody will listen. Kind of like The Boy Who Cried Wolf; he switches sides so much that the rioters on either side know that he will probably switch again later on, so they totally ignore him.