The core issue with gentrification is the loss of a community’s essence. When a community is changed fundamentally by means of either economic or residential factors, the loss of key pillars in identification results. A loss of culture, a loss of heritage, a loss of community pride, and a loss of history, are all part of that.

There is an interesting article that was published recently about the “food boom” in Pittsburgh’s trendier neighborhoods, and how these restaurants are creating a new vibrant culinary scene. The otherwise optimistic article goes on to lament the possibilities of older eateries being priced out of the market in favor of newer, in-fashion places. Food is just one example of this; gentrification is a multi-faceted concept that affects the lives of residents and business owners alike. When considering this part of gentrification, allowing people in the area to have a proper forum is a good goal, but constructing a place for them while allowing for people no longer in the area but with strong bonds, to continue to communicate. The dispersal of a group into a diaspora with regards to gentrification is a hard thing to tackle here, but that is the most pressing matter here, and one that aligns with the rest of my groupmates.

With that in mind, my proposal is for a media sharing site/forum that would run as a set of imageboards.. These specific sites would provide people with the ability to post pictures, short video clips, or even text, about neighborhood events. The goal would be to capture the essence of the neighborhood and provide a place for sharing within a small-focused area. Each section of the city would have its own sub-form/board, breaking the site into multiple parts. This would allow topics specific to certain populations within the city neighborhoods to be presented to their target demographics.

Playing “The Girl In the Haunted House” gives a general outline for the best way to design this sort of game in a way that branches well, yet provides enough cohesiveness to the different branches. While there wasn’t much stylistically here, the font choices (small, white font with little kerning) and a black background fit the theme. I wish that the game was more visual, with sound or other media that helped to relay some of the action and events, but I was satisfied with the dialogue.

The opposite is true of “The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo.”  The sound design was excellent. With the clock chiming, the sound of the storm outside, and the other ambient noises, the game became unsettling through the way that those pieces enhanced the dialogue. To me, the most haunting, impressionable effect was the “voice” of the “uncle.” The distorted, echoing, moaning, churning voice made the appearance of the uncle mysterious but also incredibly dreadful. I did not even realize that the voice was speaking until I listened closely through the distortion. When I figured out that it was saying “Child…” repeatedly, it somehow became more unsettling. Presenting the uncle like this was great though because it never quite let through a solid idea of who or what it was.

There was a sense that the story was unpredictable because the true nature of the “uncle” and what he was is hidden from the player. In all of my playthroughs, I had to piece together who or what the phenomena was through context and without being directly told the information. In that way, I believe that the story maintains a sense of discovery which helps it feel even more like a game. Finding new information through exploration and through the contextual pieces gathered from multiple playthroughs gave me a feeling that I had to play through multiple times to find more. I enjoyed that aspect of it, and it made the new dialogue options feel more varied and unique.