I checked the spelling of quandary on Google today.  The first link is a game.  A flash game about empathy and morals, I think. Naturally I have to explore this.  There’s a little game I like to play called Dismantling the Intent Behind Preachy Allegory.  Not really, but my cynicism compels certain behavior and it’s useful to know how far off the center I am at times.  The artwork is a rudimentary version of those Children’s Bible Stories I read in fancy doctor waiting room.  It’s like a trigger, or something. 

I Allow Now the flash plugin and am immediately whisked away on a fantastical journey to a distant planet called Braxos.  An Old Maid deck of characters is laid out before me and it’s my job as Captain to help settle disagreements in the new human colony.  I’m not sure why any of this is taking place in space except that it allows for some abstraction of the generalized concepts and, well, space is cool.

Step-by-step I was guided through the process of making hard decisions for a diverse group.  I don’t think I totally grasped the idea of the simulation because halfway through I’d managed to piss off just about every villager.  I’m scrambling to make everyone happy so I can “win” the situation.  Turns out the game isn’t scored on whether the villagers like you.  You earn points for being aware of what everyone’s feelings are – not controlling them.

In the two scenarios I played there were enough solutions to offer a paper-fortune-teller’s worth of different resolutions.  I’m not sure if some have higher scoring potential than others but from my perspective it doesn’t seem like every will ever agree completely.  Just like real life.  If only every person in a community could speak and be heard equally.  If only any person in charge would listen.