Social Justice Warriors

Great idea here, but it's the pure definition of half-baked. The gameplay kinda comes down to a rock-paper-scissors type attack scheme (with some luck modifiers), and a defend option. I had a thought that this was just an excuse for secret-a%%holes to write some really offensive stuff, so I was willing to overlook the benefit of strategic or comedic rebuttals if the edge was funny, so I gave it a chance. The offensive stuff intends to be taken and found humorous, but just comes across like insults from ChatGPT, but in a game from 10 years ago. "Don't like America- MOVE!" kinda stuff. Then you choose rock-paper-scissor, hope for the best, and see what you get. There are crusading interlopers who do random stuff as well, like double your opponent's sanity and reputation, or possibly save you from a crushing defeat of random odds, but because nothing feels really in your control, or that anything you choose really matters outside of choosing to attack their ego or their logic. This game really didn't really tap into either for me, so I'm going to say confidently there's not much to see here, and it's a damn shame. I hope the devs come back to this idea, but take inspiration from games like Papers, Please, and provide us with some honest debate and introspection and manipulation, like in Trolley Problem, Inc.

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I have mixed feelings about this 'indie game.' It's novel from a certain point of view regarding a topic that has already been frequently discussed over the past few years.

Past that, the actual gameplay mechanics are so-so and it's easy to run into a brick wall regardless of how you play and which class you pick.

But I don't regret getting the game on sale.

Interesting concept with an undercooked execution.
Developers have done their homework on subject's vocabulary and memes. Unfortunately, doesn't translate too well into compelling gameplay that runs off its steam way too fast (barebones variety of tactics, repetition and often seemingly unpredictable nature of the outcomes of your choices doesn't help all that much)

Funny for 5 Minutes - The Videogame.

It's a text-based rogue-like without any gear, levelling, or effective way to refill your life. After 30 minutes, I think I saw every textbox there is to see. The game will always at around the same levels, because while one can refill one's life, the attack in the same round probably takes that bit away again.

And I'm not even sure about the message of the game. Is it ridiculing the trolls? Is it for SJWs? Is it ridiculing both? For example: one of the attacks of the trolls is "Ad Hominem". Yet the rogue has an attack which is literally an Ad Hominem. Oversight? Ridiculing contradictory logic? "It's okay if I do it!"?

I'm refunding it, seeing how I already played "through" it. It's not even worth the discounted price, and the usual 8 Euros are just ridiculously overpriced. If it gets down to the cent-region, you might think about it. 50 cents is probably what it's worth at most.

Upon purchasing this game I was understandably expecting a lampooning of SJW culture, but I'm not sure WHAT I got in all honesty. While it's certainly self-deprecating towards the phenomenon of "social justice warriors", it does ultimately seem more intent on portraying all "politically incorrect" people as drooling, ignorant "trolls". So the self-deprecation effort comes off a tad tokenistic, at best...

The actual gameplay, in any case, is where things fall down the most. For each character class of SJW that you play - paladin, mage, cleric, or rogue - you get four different possible ways to "defend" each of your "troll" opponent's attacks. These are amusing enough, and include writing a logical but long-winded rebuttal of their claim which erodes their Patience, or simply insulting them with a high-damage attack which in turn wreaks havoc on your own Reputation score.

Regrettably, though, it seems your chances of victory depend mostly on unpredictable RNG. This said, I did find one appalling exploit where the paladin could continually "block" the opponent's attack, which seemed to all-but guarantee a boost to one of my two attributes every single time...so you may as well just spam that one until you're topped up and ready to take 'em down from a position of power (I did appreciate the joke of "no need to dignify with a response" as the paladin's justification here, though; anyone who's battled in real-life forums will surely have heard THAT one before).

Had it been a more genuinely balanced parody at the expense of BOTH sides of the debate, as it claims to be on the Store page, then I may have found this game more endearing. (A choice to play as either SJW or "troll" may have helped herein, as might have renaming the "troll" to something less one-sided; let's face it, BOTH sides are arguably "trolls", to some extent.) As it is, it doesn't especially work as either insightful satire OR an otherwise compelling strategy game, as aside from the above-mentioned exploit I didn't find much "strategy" to employ. Perhaps if I'd given the game a bit more time and patience I might have discovered more strategic potential, but the whole thing lost my interest so quickly that I honestly didn't give it that chance.

One thing I will say in the developer's defence: the landscape has changed a LOT in the few years since this was released, so anything aiming to be this topical can't possibly have the desired impact when there's little or no mention of such recent buzzwords as cisgendering, transphobia, Islamaphobia, mansplaining, toxic masculinity, cultural appropriation...hell, this game even pre-dates the Trump-for-president era! So one can't help but wonder if this game might have more teeth if it were remade or updated to include such contemporary concerns.

As it is, this game is definitely more bark than bite, and is unlikely to offend or inspire anyone on either side of the "political" fence, especially in the year 2017. You might as well just go on Facebook now and start up a "debate" with the eejit of your choice: you'll probably find more fun in doing so. Any enjoyment you get out of this game will be short-lived at best, so it's definitely not worth eight dollars of your hard-earned, evil, exploitative capitalist cash (that's sarcasm at the end there, btw).

Verdict: 4.5/10.

Feels like a prototipe or a jam game.
Every character has 4 choices which seldom change. No inventory. Your choices either hit or miss, no inbetweens (despite what the text says).
UI is not very polished and every enemy looks the same.

was fun for about 2 minutes. disappointed. There's just no depth at all.

Social Justice Warriors is a bit of a clunky game, not always clear to new players, and at times, blatantly unfair. So as a playable version of internet arguments, 10/10, extremely realistic. But there's a whole lot more to this game than you can tell from screenshots and comments.

For starters, despite playing as an SJW and battling a variety of trolls, the game doesn't pick a side as much as you'd think. Yes, the narration describes you as a valiant force of good against internet ne'er-do-wells, but it's so over the top at times that it's clearly not expecting to be taken completely seriously.

The actual depiction of the trolls does a lot to help the balance. While they're helpfully labelled 'Rabid Troll' or 'Popular Troll', they actually look just like you, an ambiguously-sprited person tapping away at a keyboard. And your actions in, erm, 'battle', can sometimes mirror their's, since you have the option to always try to maintain the moral high ground, or lose your patience (and reputation) and start mudslinging.

There's a lot of variety in the game. You can choose four different classes, each with unique play-styles that coincide with different areas on the internet. The Paladin uses Twitter, the Cleric uses Reddit, and so on and so forth. And each has a multitude of choices in conflicts. Try to logically defeat the troll, or wreck their reputation until nobody takes them seriously, or take a second to regain your composure. Each of these choices has their own impact on your own Sanity and Reputation, which act as dual-health bars.

That's not to say the game plays fair, at all. My biggest complaint is the amount of sheer randomness you can encounter if things don't go your way. If your sanity or reputation ever get too high, any troll can instantly use a powerful attack and wreck them. A rumour or exposed phone number, and you're back to square one. If left alone, they'll call upon the dark forces of the web, and even though they'll occasionally get a reassuring answer of 'NOT YOUR PERSONAL ARMY', you stand the risk of total online annihilation. And every once in a while they just completely disregard any move you make. It's not a very consistent game to play.

But the game puts a message above the gameplay, and the message is good. If you somehow managed to get high sanity/reputation, you transform into the Social Justice Champion (yes, I cringed a little writing that,) and how does this mighty warrior fight their battles? Well, all your combat options are replaced with things like 'Listen to their concerns', 'Defend opponent from attackers' and 'Propose a compromise', and the goal changes from 'Try to ruin the troll' to 'Acknowledge their point of view and try to raise their sanity/reputation until they no longer feel the need to argue with you. I don't see how anyone who isn't a genuine troll can't see this as a pretty good message to portray in what I expected to be a silly game about internet fights.

In short, it's not an incredible game, but as a representation of arguments on the internet, it's accurate in a way that's comedic but not shallow. Plus, if you took one glance at the game, decided it was 'pro-SJW propaganda' and immediately started frothing at the mouth, thank you for confirming on a slightly meta level just how accurate the game can be.

This is one of those games where the dev clearly tried to avoid criticism by making it seem like anybody who didn't like it just didn't "get" it.
Well, I "got" it. But the gameplay is excruciatingly dry and threadbare, and the "message" is completely summed up in the "about this game" section on Steam. Save yourself the money and the braincells and just read that unless you are a masochist.

Would have been better suited to a free flash game on Newgrounds or Kongregate.

Repetitive and only funny for about 5 minutes. I was kinda expecting something like Papers, Please. Not even close. This is more suited to a flash game than something to pay for.

Instead of a game with lots of funny dialogue you get to choose one of 4 (way too serious answers with little to no effect in the reply of your opponent. The game itself is hardly worth your time even if it was free. I recommend the duels in monkey island if you want to see fun arguments instead.

On the other hand it is kind of a good parody of some of the recent social justice warriors making a profit out of peoples gullibility (if only I hadn't fallen for what sounded like a fun title).

This game is repetitive, not funny and overpriced
Don't buy it

Granted the game can be fun but sadly the novelty wears off pretty quickly. Very repetative, very short. Not much else to say. If you really want this game then I'd wait until its on sale. I can't see a justification for spending £5.59 on this at the moment.

In short its a way to cash in on all the social justice stuff that's going on in the games industry, nothing more than that.

Took a chance on this, hoping would be more comical than it actually is. Definitely feels like a cash grab by the developer trying to capitilize on the political climate at the moment.

This game has mildly amusing writing and delivers a solid if somewhat preachy message. Unfortunately, the game has so little actual content or gameplay that the gimmick wears thin after about ten minutes and then you're left with the gameplay which is nothing but dice-rolling. There's a very limited amount of actual decision-making to be made, about the only thing that will make or break games early on is not understanding how the obtuse riddle stuff works but once you've got that down it's basically all RNG from there which results in a really boring game. It commits the terrible sin of sacrificing the actual gameplay to push its message more.

this is a bad, shallow game bandwagoning on a hot button issue to sell copies. Don't repeat my mistake by buying it.

Repetitive, boring, overpriced. It's a fine idea for a flash game to kill a pair of minutes but this... And faux pixel graphics adds insult to the injury.

Review composed for Apochs.net.

In recent years, debating on-line in the name of "justice" has not only become a norm throughout the internet, but also the center of hot button topics in pop culture and news organizations. Of course, it was only a matter of time before someone tackled the concept of keyboard warriors and turned it into a game. Enter: Social Justice Warriors. Nonadecimal Creative present this casual independent RPG/Simulation title that pits one of these social justice individuals against hordes of trolls looking to wreak havoc in r/. You are the voice of sanity in this offering, but if is as positive a message about society today, or does it just paint itself to be nobler than thou in the most insulting of ways possible?

As stated, you take on the role of your every day social justice bringer behind a computer screen. You take on various trolls, largely ignorant or rabbid ones, utilizing health and mana in the form of sanity and reputation. Each are affected by your opponents choice of words, or even by your own actions like a direct "lunge" at someone's character. The more you assert how right you are over your opponent, the more the Social Justice Knights, mythical beings that represent sanity and reason in the game's internet world, smile upon you. The better they look upon you, the more they alter the battle at hand, positively or negatively. But, once one of your bars are depleted, the game is lost, and your name enters the Hall of Justice for all to see, leaving you to start anew through standard Rogue-Like rules.

While Social Justice Warriors stands as a great idea in theory, the execution greatly misses its own point. First, you need to understand the goal of this game. The following is a quote taken directly from the title's Steam store page under the "About" section:

Social Justice Warriors expresses frustration with how people use divisive labels – like “SJW” and “troll” – to discredit and silence each other. No matter what social values you have, attacking and ridiculing other people not only fails to achieve progress but has an additional effect of escalating the conflict while exhausting your patience and eroding your reputation.

In the actual game itself, you play the role of someone who is meant to support the greater good, taking on all trolls in your path to do so. Your foe, who looks exactly like you, says something one might consider stupid, which, from my time with this game, was mostly about women or women's rights, to which you have to point out why the troll is wrong. However, this is largely an opinion-based system, and not all the things the trolls say are entirely inaccurate. The same goes for your characters legitimacy as far as statements go. This goes on until the arguments change for a brief amount of time, such as tackling racism, before just shooting right back into inequality with the ladies once more for no reason other than probably running out of talking points on said topic.

The game is also played through the use of four different attacks, which the type of move is named differently upon the choice of your standard stock Final Fantasy characters (and just as similar sound track) ranging from Rogue, Mage, Paladin, and Cleric. Each one also offers different incentives with additional random knights appearing to do things like give you a riddle, attack the opponent, or bestow some sanity or reputation to keep you alive. There is a necromancer, but he's basically worthless outside of giving you one last shot you won't really benefit much from other than one more shot at the troll who's opinion differs from yours.

There's also a level system, though it seems absolutely pointless as you stand as much of a chance taking on and defeating an enemy a few levels higher than you compared to one a level or two lower than you. This leads to another issue, which ends up being balancing, and an ineffective combat system all together. In the games I played trying to figure out what attack best worked with what comment, I would lose after four, maybe five trolls, the latter if I was lucky. However, while taking a break in this review, I went ahead and played as the Rogue and, for the sake of curiosity, just kept spamming the enter key over and over. By doing so, not only did my character take down a foe six levels higher with four hits, but this was the longest battle waged, having reached the tenth troll. This means nine enemies, four of which sub-bosses, were decimated by spamming one single button, and the only reason the character was defeated was because the Troll Warlord boss knocked down nearly all of the three-fourths filled sanity bar in one shot, leaving very little chance for my warrior to survive.

As far as the gameplay itself goes, you basically just choose a text prompt until you win or loose. While this aspect does stick with the traditional J-RPG template, but, the game is literally just that. You can take the high road with facts, block, share your foe's statement to your followers, or just attack by degrading yourself to insults, repeat until you defeat the enemy, immediately fight the next. Having a choice of topics to fight for so players can choose something they may be passionate about, or perhaps choosing their own text instead of just an attack name with the next scripted set of lines coming up, would have allowed a little more variety outside of staring at the eight-bit zombie-looking slacker you don't care anything about. Maybe if you could customize him (her?) beyond the name input would help build the slightest bond to your character.

But the final nail on the coffin for Social Justice Warriors is the inability to play as the troll. You are committed to just being the good guy in a game about opinions, meaning you should be allowed to play devil's advocate as well. This would further push the theory that we're all just spinning our wheels in the mud by bickering about these topics to assert who's penis (literal or metaphorical) is bigger, all the while landing attacks that basically counter the point of your character. If anything, this title airs more on the side of preachy by focusing only on the positive, helpful, or beneficial aspects of the arguments that your character alone makes, and tearing down any the opponent might have that actually may be factual or far more grounded in reality than our faceless main character. Even the most spiteful on-line arguments can sometimes have a middle ground, one specific thing people can agree on to end things amicably, which isn't any sort of option in this game either. Instead, we are left with a "I'm right and that's that" debate anyone stuck in a religious discussion will immediately find themselves wanting nothing more to do with this title.

Social Justice Warriors offers very little to the player overall. The gameplay is weak and as basic as it can possibly get, there's no real variety whatsoever except the same animations on a loop (though the troll slamming the monitor onto the desk is humorous the first few times you win a fight), and, what's more, it kind of misses it's own point. You could argue that Nonadecimal Creative is trying to show even the most well intentioned keyboard warrior is, in fact, an internet troll or bully him/herself. After seeing the depths some of these people go to pick a fight in the name of "justice", even when there's no need for it, they have a point. However, the game isn't presented this way. Instead it's a boring, depressing to look at game or incredibly basic RPG fundamentals, some of which are pointless, and generic topical battles you more than likely won't give a damn about at all. A few plays in and you'll start to wonder what exactly the developer was trying to achieve with this title that is so minimalistic that it actually loses it's gimmicky replay value after your first few deaths.

Horrible. Just horrible. Ridiculously repetitive, no variation. The concept had infinite potential, but the execution was a failure on every level. Not to mention the RIDICULOUS amount of Tumblr-bias. It's PAINFULLY clear that they tried desperately to paint the SJW's as the hero, despite the fact that Some of the things the "troll" says come closer to reality than your character does.

I would honestly rather play Air Control.

Not a very good game, especially at the going rate of (currently) Six dollars USD. More thought could have been put to it. Challenging enough as it is, but I would have like to have seen different variations of specific conversations, and more choices of how to react (also specifics of how to react) instead of just a cut and paste 4-6 of the same choices for each level "Troll" in the game, and 4-6 choices for each class specifically played.


Also the lack of difference in skins between the player and the "Trolls" was a shame. Not sure if funding ran out or what, but a colored shirt and pants on the player could have made it seem less bland between character skins. The SJW classes had different outfits, why not the player/trolls?

In the end, this is, unfortunately, a Game I couldn't recommend. I had some hopes for it, too.

The game is brilliant satire and a funny little distraction but it seems better suited to Newgrounds and the like than $7 on steam. It costs too much for the value you get from it.

I was looking forward to this, but it is repetitive and hard to discern how points work. I wish it was a system where you could pick a reply and based on how that reply is weighted, your attack would resolve or you would lose points. But it just lets you pick the same options that are not clear what they do. There's very little substance to this game. It should be free if the only point it wants to make is, "see you fight people on the internet like it's a supremely crappy RPG or something!". I doubt I'll play it again and I think I was ripped off.

EDIT: I see that updates were made to the game that added achievements and more dialogue I still do not care to play this game because of the gameplay. Like I said in the review, I threw money at something and expected a good game, so I just wanted to restate that I am reviewing based on what the game is, not how dissapointed I was.

EDIT 2: Okay so like, a super long time ago I found out what an SJW was sometime after playing this game, never got the chance to explain my opinions on it but jesus christ are they all fucking cancer.

TL;DR:
Repetitive and boring, was hoping for a free roam where you venture the internet in a midevil themed world. Sadly, I just threw money at the screen when I saw it was about the internet and you got to fight trolls. Would be positive if it was free, because it seems like a F2P.

For the $6 I paid for it, and I was stupid enough to see that it had something to do with the internet and then proceeded to throw my money at the computer without doing research. I had some fun at first. I loved the concept of battling trolls without actually battling them so you wouldn't lose real sanity.

I was dissapointed to find out that trolls are the only things you fight. On top of that the dialogue is very repetitive. I was hoping to fight other things on the internet like feminazis, bronies, furries, but all depending on what fandom your character is in if he is even in one in the first place. For example, if you say that your character is a brony, then you would most likely only fight trolls. If your an anti brony, you would focus on bronies, while fighting others. I was also hoping for a free roam element where you could go to amazon which would be the merchants where you could buy items to fix up your sanity levels or your PC. It could also have quest too.

Sadly, this game is just battling a few type of trolls, from the popular trolls to the rabid trolls. It gets boring real fast and doesn't really have much replay value. Character customization is really bland, and you only get to choose from a paladin, mage, rouge, and an archer. They all have their own perks, but it doesn't really matter what class you choose because the games pretty easy. You can use parry to regenerate sanity and almost never fail the action.

On top of all of this, according to the disscussions, the developer is calling people who dislike the game, "trolls". I hate trolls, but I guess that i'm one of them in the eyes of the developer.

I suppose it's my fault for not doing research on the game and throwing my money at it. Although since I did purchase it, I thought that I might as well tell people and my friends my opinions on it. Overall I give it a 2/10.

You would hope for it to be a you vs extreme SJW and Trolls.
But this game definitelly picks a side in this neverending fight.

Also, it gets dull as fuck after battling 9 trolls + it feels like everything is 90% random 10% your own choice. You level up but there are to skill points or anything. Some old-school RPG statistics would have been nice. It would have been even better if you could incarnate a troll too.

I was expecting something similar to papers please. I met something qualifyable as "tumblr bias: the flash game"

Not to be bought unless an update shows the other side of the coin so you can experience the internet conflict in all it's extension.