Skip to main content

On Sale: GamesAssetsToolsTabletopComics
Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
TagsGame Engines
(1 edit) (+1)(-6)

I politely submit a formal request to add the "Dead Dove:  Do Not Eat!" Tag to Arches (and Echo, and maybe The Smoke Room depending on how dark it's gonna get in endgame).

I had downloaded Arches and was following along, enjoying the art and the writing if not the terrible choices the characters kept making (Terrible in a 'Oh! You stupid bastard; of course you would do that and it's only going to make things worse!' way not a 'The character is only doing this because the writers are telling them to...' way)... but then it started getting back into some of the grittiest and most uncomfortable concepts of Echo... and I realized I didn't have the ability to go read route-guides and plot synopses to gently spoil myself and gird my psychological loins against nasty surprises like I did with Echo... and then Arches started getting more horrifying than Echo and I had a 'I am not enjoying this' epiphany and just shut down the game, uninstalled it, and deleted my review figuring I could come back when the game was complete and the route guides and synopses were available to peruse so I could be better prepared if I chose to read the rest.

But in the meantime, yeah... Dead Dove:  Do Not Eat!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More info on "Dead Dove: Do Not Eat!"

In Archive Of Our Own (AO3), there is a tag that can be assigned called "Dead Dove:  Do Not Eat!"  Based on a joke in the show Arrested Development*, the tag has become a catch-all for "No, Really, the dark/disturbing/upsetting themes in the story are *very* dark/disturbing/upsetting, graphic, central to the plot, and relatively unavoidable and irredeemable. Please do not blow past the warnings, open it, read it, and feel dimmed/disturbed/upset, then come and complain in the comments about how dark/disturbing/upsetting the writing was and cast aspersions upon the writers and anyone who was more prepared than you.  You were literally warned."

*A character finds a bag with 'Dead Dove:  Do Not Eat!' written on it in the fridge... The character pulls the bag out of the fridge, opens it, looks inside... looks away shocked and disgusted... then, after a few beats, says "Well, I don't know what I expected."

"Dead Dove: Do Not Eat is a warning or tag used to indicate that a fanwork contains tropes or elements that may be deemed morally reprehensible without explicitly condemning the sensitive aspects."

i don't think it really fits Arches and Echo, what you described wouldn't fall into the "horror" tag? also is there even a Dead Dove: Do Not Eat tag in this site?

(-1)

https://itch.io/post/7167448

I mean, here's one of the writers justifying why they just HAD to bring back Brian the Rapist Methbear... a really gross polarizing character who seems to exist solely to be shockingly EEeeeEEEeevil but in ways that are super murky about whether The Great Evil Thing lurking nearby makes him that way or just made it easier for his already inherent evil to break through any charades of decency.


I go back to my original point:  If the Dead Dove:  Do Not Eat were to be introduced to Itch.IO:  This is the game to introduce it.

If anything to start nipping the following comment threads in the bud:

"I have a criticism because this game made me feel icky and I wasn't ready for it, and other games tagged 'horror' or 'psychological horror' didn't affect me this badly and I enjoyed them more" (-17)
---- "Well it didn't affect ME that badly so your criticism and feelings are invalid and I am going to be pedantic and nitpicky about it (+5)"

the point i was making is that your definition of Dead Dove :Do Not Eat is not the commonly accepted one, if  Arches had this tag most people will assume that the story portrays immoral behavior without condoning it, and for as polarizing as Brian is, you can't deny that the narrative explicitly condemns his actions (also evil in murky ways? the post you link straight up calls his actions sick), what you seem to be wanting are better/more detailed content/trigger warnings