Kind Words is the massive multiplayer game primarily about being nice to people
Games Features Games
The internet, and its ability to connect people across the world, is one of the most impressive marvels of human achievement. But if the equally impressive list of slurs I’ve been called by teens over Apex Legends voice chat is any indication, it’s also kind of a toxic waste dump. The online gaming community is one of the most potentially radioactive niches on the web, as anyone who spent any time anywhere in the vicinity of the internet during the height of the Gamergate controversy could attest. So as a counterpoint to that potential for rampant toxicity, the popularity of the recently released game Kind Words (Lo Fi Chill Beats To Write To) by Popcannibal is a wonderful surprise.
Unlike other popular recent games, Kind Words isn’t focused on deathmatches, running raids, or playing the role of a goose that is an asshole. It’s a massive multiplayer online game entirely focused on writing nice letters to real world strangers. That’s it. And it’s amazing.
I’ve been playing games for the vast majority of my life; I’ve put tens of thousands of hours, literally years of my life, into gaming. But as cool as beating the most grueling games feels, nothing will match my recent feeling of accomplishment in Kind Words, when I was able to use the experience of several friends who had recently come out as trans to give advice and encouragement to an anonymous trans teen who didn’t know how, or if, they should come out to their parents.
Here’s how Kind Words works: Upon booting up the game, you’re given the option to either make a request for nice letters from other players, or to respond to other players’ requests for same. When you make a request, you write a short letter describing what you’re going through in life, which is then sent anonymously—you’re only ever identified by your first initial, and are encouraged to not share personal details—to everyone else playing the game. When you choose to respond to people’s requests, you’re given a stack of messages from other players that you can choose to respond to with advice or affirmations. There’s also an option to send a message on a paper airplane to everyone playing the game, which they can choose to read or ignore. These often contain positive messages or encouraging quotes.
Unlike other online games, there isn’t really any sort of level of progression or reward system in Kind Words, besides a small sticker book you can fill out by sending messages back and forth. (I filled mine within about two hours of play; it’s all very casual.) You’re also given a new low-fi song to write to for every day that you boot up the game.
Open spaces on the internet are usually the target of trolls (see the message board 4Chan’s prank on Mountain Dew’s Dub The Dew campaign as a particularly noteworthy example). But somehow, Kind Words manages to be basically troll proof. The game’s community is dedicated, and you’re encouraged to report any letters or responses that aren’t kind. Beyond that, since the letters are anonymous, and your only option after receiving a response from a player is to send them a sticker as a thank you, there isn’t any real reward for spreading negativity. Your only path in the game is to encourage positivity, and the only score you’re awarded is the feeling that you did a good thing for a stranger in need, or receiving genuine encouragement from strangers when you’re in need of a pick-me-up. I posted in the game a few days ago about a comedy show I was particularly nervous about doing; within minutes, I received dozens of nice affirmations from strangers that honestly helped ease my worries a ton.
Kind Words is also a hit: After the game’s release in September 2019, it had hundreds of thousands of letters sent by players in less than a month. It has a Discord, subreddit, and a growing community of fan artists drawing sketches inspired by the game’s few characters. It even made several 2019 “Game Of the Year” lists. In an entertainment genre filled with so much negativity, it’s heartwarming that a game this wholesome can be a success.
As a man in his 30s with a time-consuming career, I’ll probably never have the opportunity to beat Red Dead Redemption 2 with 100% completion. I’ll never be a competition-level Smash Bros. player. But I can afford to spend 30 minutes every so often to give nice advice to strangers while listening to chill music, and that’s a pretty good trade-off.
77 Comments
For me, the idea of video games needing to be nicer to women or gay people or people of color is small ball to becoming Better: I’ll be impressed when they find a way to be interesting and fun when they start making significant numbers of major-budget games that do not rely in any way on Violence. No swords, no guns, no punching. And if the thing you’re about to say in response to this is, “But that would be so boring!” well that’s exactly what I’m talking about.
Great review Joey, it sounds like a fun game!
What if they need tough love?“Quit whining. Life can be great, but it’s not fair. Quit stealing grandma’s pills and get a job. I don’t even understand how gender is now defined as something other than genitalia – just like who you like – nobody who matters cares. I don’t care what the YouTube guy said, eating Tide Pods makes you look stupid.”
A brief message, without context, can seem insulting. That’s why they specify *a letter*, rather than *an e-mail*.
And if I need to give tough love, I would give it assertively, not aggressively. “Quit whining” and “nobody who matters cares” are aggressive. Cut the message to the quick, and deliver only the messages, and your tough love will *be* kind.
Still trying to understand why eating Tide Pods is a “thing.”
How many have you eaten? That could hinder understanding.
It isn’t. Lots of people joked about doing it, some people did it to get attention, as idiots throughout history have done stupid things to get attention, and that’s pretty much it.
It isn’t. It never really was (until a few dumbasses actually did it thanks to the media’s moral panic over it). It was just a dumb meme about how tide pods kind of looked like candy that got taken way out of context and hyped up by the media, like they do.
It’s not and never was – it was an inside joke with Gen Z kids that GenX/Boomer journalists took seriously because “crazy kids these days” stories are always good hate-clickbait.
I don’t think it ever was anything but a media scare tactic during slow news time. “Omg, here’s what these idiot kids are doing now, we have to protect them from their stupidity”
Because local news stories or urban legends about one group of dumb kids get picked up as “national threats” now. It’s the kind of story that, were it Ron Burgundy reporting on it, people would realize is just stupid overblown nonsense that happened to MAYBE 20 total people.
So, every couple of months, every teen in America gets to say “wait, what?! NO! Holy shit, mom, you’re fucking gross” yet again.
Just like the “Knockout Game” that was the next big thing that really wasn’t, which got everybody riled up.
Because sweeps came around and TV stations needed something that sounded stupid yet plausible to scare parents.
It never was.
They look and feel delicious. There’s a beautiful texture differential that you only get over after you taste it on the way up.
It’s a thing because people keep bringing it up.
Wait, is this “Kind Words” of “Kvetching Boomers”?
The only tough love I acknowledge is multiple stab wounds. Anything less than that is kind of saccharine.
Tough but fair.
I mean the game is called Kind Words. The words you used are not exactly kind.
There’s enough of that out there already. Let us have our one place where people aren’t allowed to shit all over others’ life decisions.
Very well said.
If you think you can judge from a 7-line request that someone needs ‘tough love’, you should not be playing this game.
your tough love is bordering on transphobia 🙁
nah. It’s more like “There’s lots more to you that just that one thing. Don’t obsess over it. What else makes you happy?”“Transapathy?”
Then they should look for a game called “tough love” rather than “kind words”. Of course a lot wouldn’t (but don’t think no one would; there are people out there selling tough love and finding enough willing buyers). People might misjudge what they need, but they have to discover that for themselves, you can’t just decided that for them.
They still should stop stealing grandma’s pills and get a job.
Genitals are biological, gender is social. Hope that helps.
I can see “Um. There’s been a hitch in the DNA. We’ve got a little from column A, and little from column B…” is easy to understand as transgender – but that’s still about genitals.
But “social?” All this is about clothes? Barbies vs toy guns? That doesn’t seem right either. ———————Is it about people’s personal feelings about their own genitals?“Eh. It’s fine.” = cisgender“This thing’s really not what I had in mind.” = transgender———-
But then you get into other areas which seem to be getting lumped in with the new “gender” definitions of late.Transvestites aren’t transgender. They’re just (often) straight dudes that get off sexually on wearing women’s clothes as a fetish. (ala Ed Wood)Drag isn’t transgender. If anything, it’s the opposite. Drag is really about making fun of horrible women via elaborate caricatures. (Sarah Palin should be their queen.)———-I am honestly not trying to be difficult. I’m just trying to understand what we’re talking about.Adolescents used to realize they were gay/lesbian/bisexual. Now increasingly it seems like they are writing their own little script, “Oh, I’m can’t be lesbian. I must really be a straight boy in a girl’s body.” Possibly because simply being gay has become sorta pedestrian nowadays. It feels like it’s just another way for awkward/shy kids to seem more interesting.
Sigh.
Here’s the deal, dude. It’s not up to you to judge people’s experiences of themselves.
Realizing that will go a long way toward giving you a full and happy life.
[shrug]I’m not judging anything. I’m just trying to understand what has changed. I’m not convinced anything has.
You are trying to simplify things with black & white thinking. Stop.
Your statement is black and white thinking.
imagine still going on about tide pods in this, the year of our lord two thousand and twenty
You don’t know what they need. These are strangers.
Maybe they just need a little joke.
I have been looking but not really able find any information on whether this is being looked at for mobile? I love to idea of having this type of game when I am feeling down at work, or traveling and feeling like I need a little connection. Have their been any announcements?
That is an excellent question. Especially since music seems so integral to the experience, it feels like a mobile app would be the natural home for something like this.
I’m not sure the game is something I’m interested in, but the music is on point! Found it on Spotify and loving it.
When I need kind words of encouragement, I just come to the AV Club comments.
You smell like microwaved trout, ya big jello-brained dingus!
Me love your username, speaking of words of encouragement.
🙂 Used to have an avatar of the ol’ Power Broker looking extra cranky, but it got Kinja’d and I haven’t gotten around to re-uploading
I would encourage you to upload it. I get a lot of enjoyment from people’s icons.
I’m going to use this for my boss! Thanks!
You jest, but this place does help me with my sometimes very severe depression and anxiety. I have had complete strangers give me some kind words here for no reason other than to make me feel better and that’s why I love most of you.
jesus, what a fuckin’ pussy.
Fuck you,asshole.
Malodorous toffee-nosed pervert!
And you, what, just invert each comment you read?
Listen, Madptarmigan, you didn’t come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya? Now get your ass out there and do the best you can.
Yeah, fuck this and fuck you.
This needs to come to mobile. I’d use it constantly.
Right? I’m disappointed it’s not.
Been “playing” this for about a month. Feels good to respond to the people who sound like they’re going through similar struggles to what I went through in high school and my 20s and can offer some advice/uplifting words, but sometimes I go through the first 10 requests and I’m just like, “All of these people are in a dark place I can’t even reach,” and have to turn the game off. It’s both a giant den of depression and a source of encouragement, and I have to be in the right state of mind to read about people who’ve gradually become depressed and isolated from their friends and family and stopped finding joy in life, lest their desperation rubs off on me.
I picked it up in a Steam sale and logged in, all interested to see what it was about, and all I had were requests from people who needed more help than just a simple note of encouragement. I closed the game and haven’t gone back in. :/
Yeah, I always get giddy when I see something like, “I’m new in town and don’t know how to make friends as an adult; high school/college just kinda made that automatic before now and I’m bad at this,” or, “I want to get back together with my ex, even though we made each other’s lives objectively worse,” or, “I’ve accepted that I need to do more with my life than just get home from work and vegetate until it’s time to work again, but I don’t know how to establish new routines.” Those are problems I can speak to. Other people, it’s just…=/I do appreciate that these are one-off interactions. At three different times in my life (two of them during high school), people have wanted me to talk them out of committing suicide, and I had to teach myself at the age of like 16 when somebody’s problems are too much for me to even try to help. There’s something much more safe about only being identified by a single initial, with the only possible response they can send back being one of 10-ish stickers. Instead of, “Please help me; I’m in crisis mode and am about to resort to self-harm,” I get a picture of a boat.
Sounds like the game could use some kind of system to identify letters like that and send the person information about crisis helplines or things like that.
There’s a menu within the game with phone numbers/websites for mental health resources. But I wonder how many people just find it easier to submit anonymous letters to strangers when they should be going for the better solution.
Thats how I feel about certain Autism message boards on Facebook. Theres only so much of the same sad story that I can take, even if it is something i can totally relate to.
The internet and its ability to connect people across the world is one of the most impressive marvels of human achievement, period. It’s the people being connected that are often a toxic waste dump. Teens on Apex Legends voice chat are basically self-selected for the worst that humanity has to offer in the interaction department.
Thanks for bringing this back to my attention. I read about it when it came out, and it sounded interesting, and then I forgot about it. Seems worthwhile to check out.
I got it as part of the Humble Bundle Choice Trove.
Yeah, it’s great now. But soon the theorycrafters work out the kindness meta and people start flaming you for not using the correct “words of encouragement to inspirational imagery” ratio.
Needs a mobile version.kthxbai
Soooo…Post-secret: Steam edition?
Probably has less of the performative angst that’s been trending on PS lately, but that was my first thought, too. Very similar in tone to the old PS app.
Man, I bet I would totally kick ass at this game, not like all the other dumbass worthless losers who are playing it.
The headline of this article reminded me of playing Glitch, which was largely about being kind to people while doing strange things to chickens and butterflies. Gosh, I still miss that game.
Kids these days, with their empathy and positivity and genuine attempts to connect with others in uplifting ways. Back in my day, we would viciously berate anyone who showed the slightest human tenderness, and you know what? I’m not crying, you are, shut up.
This is a really cool idea but I would debate that it’s actually a game.
I liked this game better when it was called “Circle Jerk Valley”.
A better place to do this is called “real life.”
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This is almost as annoying as those “inspirational phrase” posters.
Reminds me of the Whipser app, you can post up any anonymous note/message, and have anonymous people reply publicly, or privately. Its all location based and you can set how far to search nearby for the notes/messages.I’ve had some kind people reply to a few of the things Ive posted, simple typing it out and putting it out there can lift a lot of weight off ones shoulder, then to occasionally have some positive feedback
of course, over time, it got infested with hornyness and the search for sex
Thanks for the review! Will try for sure.