Player Comments on The Covid Assignment

Purpose: This is an edutainment game, meant to entertain and inform. And it does just that! The story is a bit simple, but engaging enough that it doesn't feel like taking a test, and the math puzzles both keep your mind working and get you thinking about just how crazy large the numbers related to this pandemic actually are. There is a lot of real, interesting information here. I feel like by the end of it I know more about the virus and the reasons behind the rules we have. The characters and story do seem to play second fiddle to the informative aspects, but overall this game does a good job at meeting its intended purpose.

Writing/Grammar: The author clearly has an understanding of grammar and language. I didn't notice any glaring typos or mistakes, and everything written seems to at least make sense. Many of the scenes were very dialogue-heavy. Considering most scenes revolved around discussion, this isn't a surprise. Still, it may be beneficial to flesh out some of the other areas. Perhaps had some descriptive language to really pull readers into the setting, or spend some time going over the character's demeanor or expressions.

Plot: The plot here is pretty simple. While fun and definitely a lot better than some of the other Edutainment games I've seen, it still pretty clearly takes a back seat to the learning aspects. It does it's job, but I do think it would be cool to flesh out the scenarios a bit more. I did like the little scenes and conversations between characters.

Setting: There isn't a ton of description about the setting here, but what there is I did enjoy. There was enough there to form a picture in my head, though always a vague one. Of course people generally have an idea of what an apartment, D.C., or the back of a car might look like, but giving a bit more elaboration would serve to better pull people in.

Characters: I was pleasantly surprised by the characters in this story. People had little quirks here and there, and I never found myself thinking "Wait, which one was he again?" which happens far too often with one-note characters. Unfortunately, nobody here really gets any development. I fell that I learned quite a bit about the pandemic, but I'm not sure I learned alongside my character in the story. Since it isn't a character-driven piece this definitely isn't a deal-reaker for me, but seeing a character truely learn and change would have a bigger impact overall.

Branching: The branching here is pretty standard for a quiz game. Right or wrong answers have minor impacts on the story (a character corrects you, you feel like you were wrong, etc.) and the game continues on in the same general pattern. While this would normally be a bit linear, I think it actually works for an informative quiz-type game such as this one. Ther is enough change to show that there was some effort put in, and I think having a final score at the end is a nice touch. It may even encourage people to play through the game again if they care bout score, which is always a nice incentive to have for a learning game. The lack of true story-impacting choice isn't the usual ideal, but I do think it works in this context.

Conclusion: 5/8 Simple but effective! There would definitely need to be more added to turn this into something I'd reread for entertainment, but as an informative text it gets it's point across. It's a fairly good game for what it was made for.

This was a better edutainment game than I thought.

The quiz itself mostly consisted of mathematics and general knowledge related to the virus. The questions were challenging enough while not being too difficult. The second part was mostly about strategy in putting forth your ideas in a meeting, which was more difficult for me, but still made a lot of sense.

I really like how you tried to put a story into the quiz. It would be even better if you tried to have more variation of the endings you could get depending on your final score. There’s gotta be a difference in how the others view you, for example if you keep getting everything wrong and embarrassing your teammates, they certainly would not like you as much towards the end as you being knowledgeable and acting wisely in meetings.

This shows good potential, 5/8.

for sure worth the read, very interesting would recommend to others, 6/10

Very well explained. Even predicted the mutations!

It is a great game, you might need to use a calculator for some problems though! It helps you to understand why we took the steps we did when COVID first broke out. It explains why we should distance and why we had to shut down. Very helpful and you can tell it was well researched! Great job!

37/50
enjoyed it! - it'd be nice if all tests were as entertaining.
I did see some 'President Harris/Johnson' and other typos, but nothing too disruptive.
I also learned something. I can't say that about most stories out there.

I quite liked Covid Assignment.

An informative text disguised as a charming story game, it worked pretty well. I was able to understand and learn more about the virus sweeping the world, while still staying engrossed and interested in the plot. The information you pick up is more pertinent then ever in these uncertain times, and I appreciated that.
For example, the more complex idea’s behind social distancing and travel restrictions, as well as their functions with given examples.
In a sense, I was similar to the uninformed at the initial meeting, learning about the virus in the same way they were.
The occasional mental gymnastics in the form of mathematical sums and logical problems helped keep my interest alive and made me really mull over what was said. Though I do admit I may of redid the picking of choices a few times.
The score system made sure I stayed focused and really absorbed the information in order to get a better score, comparatively to other story games where one may skim and absently click on a random choice in hopes of passing onto the next phase.
However, I feel the story was a little bit rushed, and while there was character development, it wasn’t enough to connect with any of the characters, including myself.
I understand it’s more of an informative text to educate people in a fun way, and it isn’t necessarily meant to be too develop the characters too extensively, but I believe character development could’ve added some more meaning to what was being taught.
All in all, a great story game that’s great fun to play, held a lot of factors that kept the audience interested. Could’ve done with a bit more development to really push the information that was being given, 5/8 in my opinion.

The writing was decent here, and the information was presented more interestingly than I expect from a quiz-style game.