Dear Agony Aunt

Dear Agony Aunt is a flashback to 2006 and Windows XP. Read peoples problems and submit a reply with advice (either good or bad), all whilst being surrounded by pure nostalgia. [b] [u]Pros[/u] [/b] [list] [*] Nostalgic [*] Lengthy emails about a broad range of topics from different age groups [*] Different endings [/list] [b] [u]Cons[/u] [/b] [list] [*] Unclear how to get all of the “good” and “bad” endings [/list] [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Dear Agony Aunt is a simple premise of choosing which emails you receive based on a vague email subject line. Then reading the content of the email and replying with one out of two predetermined replies. One reply will be the “bad” advice option and the other will be the “good” option. The game is a throwback to when emails were used in a more personalized matter and when text shorthand was normal. I was pleasantly surprised with the content of the emails and the broad range of topics covered. Ranging from workplace bullying to a young girl asking if she should go against her mothers wishes and shave her legs. Whilst the replies are comprised of a very short sentence, the email body itself is quite lengthy and even their replies back to me were a good read. You compose the replies for a trial week, and if the company is satisfied enough with your answers, you will get offered the job. These are the two types of endings you can receive, do a good job and get hired, or do an awful job and lose the opportunity. The game is designed to be replayed a handful of times, with enough new emails to maintain interest. I replayed to test what happens with all emails and all replies, doing a good/bad playthrough, however I still have not unlocked the achievement to achieve all the endings. It is not clear what I am missing here, but overall I enjoyed my playthroughs. [b]Playtime:[/b] 1.5 hours to read and reply to all emails in both good/bad ways. [b]Replayability value:[/b] For more than one playthrough, yes, but it is very short, only taking just over an hour to experience everything. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] From the Windows startup sounds, wallpaper, operating system to the funny spam emails, Dear Agony Aunt is worth your time if any of the above piques your interest. It is priced fairly at only $7.50 and provides a unique narrative-throwback experience. [quote] If you would like to see more reviews written by me, please follow my curator page and help support my work [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34936724/] Cookie Reviews[/url]. [/quote] EDIT 8/6/2023 - Developers have amended the achievement descriptions for clarity and are very quick and responsive to feedback. Thank you!

Dear Agony Aunt is a good little game where you have to answer to peoples problems by email them. A touch of nostalgia with a 2006 Windows XP interface, it reminds me some good old memories. It's a low price and I highly recommend it!!! ✉️💙

2016 nostalgia is for amateurs, let's go back to 2006! Back when the internet was young and the world still kind of hinged, you give people advice by email. Even problems were better in the old days! And here you get to use multiple choice, log off any time, and you have no IRL responsibility if things go wrong! LOL [i]I should probably disclose that I've become friends with the dev and wrote this review partially to support her. Thankfully that was easy, because I honestly loved the game! [/i] The concept is simple, but fun. The retro presentation is perfect, including a filter to simulate an oldschool screen (that can be turned off). Sometimes one of the two options you can choose between is hilariously terrible advice, sometimes it's hard to tell what would be more helpful. I got a lot of enthusiastic feedback and some not so satisfied replies, but I still got the job in both of my playthroughs so far. There's a wide range of "customers" with requests for advice. From cute to cringe, serious to silly. There are enough unique requests for 2-3 playthroughs, you choose 2 out of 4-5 each in-game day. IIRC you get feedback on how your advice worked out from everyone, so that's twice the replay potential if you want to explore all options. The achievements are fair and don't require you to play through everything. I didn't want to let people down by giving only bad advice, though (except Gotta Get Built dude and No Smoking dude, they can F off!). Some of my faves were: - Leave My Leaves Alone - Secret Crush - The Adventuring Elder - Coffee IMO a hidden gem especially for people who experienced the 2000's, are curious about them, and/or who have a soft spot for British English! [i]More cozy and combat-free recommendations? > [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45583336/]Treefrog wants to chill[/url] < [/i]

Charming, heartwarming and fun, this is one of my favourite games I've ever received through Curator Connect. It took me an hour to play through three times and check out all of the initial letters plus some of the 'bad advice' endings - I was pleasantly surprised that some of the less brilliant advice still led to decent outcomes, while some of it led to well-deserved dressing-downs from the recipients! The spam emails were also a neat touch that put a smile on my face - I actually found myself wishing for a larger range of spam to browse in subsequent playthroughs! The diversity of the characters seeking advice was a major positive for me - I especially enjoyed that the physically disabled person's main issue was getting their tortoise cared for, rather than their disability or ableism being the core topic! The mix of achillean, sapphic and duaric relationships incidentally portrayed was also really nice. It was particularly uplifting to hear stories about young queer characters getting to live their best lives, with homophobia only being a plot concern for one of them. I also thought the handling of depression was appropriate and didn't blunder into the typical 'and then they fully recovered after a small positive bit of support' simplistic ending pitfall I've seen in many other cases. I also enjoyed the portrayal of a character who read to me as autistic-coded - I'm autistic and their email tone matched many of my own when I'm anxious about masking and navigating complex social situations. Finally, the brief acknowledgement that 'Agony Aunt' was being used as an ungendered job title made me very happy, as the protagonist's gender is never specified so you can play as yourself however you identify. With all that said, I was deeply saddened that the woman who wrote in about sexist bullying in the workplace about her presumed/actual menopause did not even try following the advice to make a formal complaint. I understand that in the real world an individual might not feel comfortable doing so, and that it would be their choice to make, but this is a fictitious character and the implications the narrative creates by making the formal complaint the 'wrong/bad' option are seriously problematic. It was deeply saddening and infuriating as a person who menstruates to try and give my sincere advice about fighting sex- and gender-based bigotry in the workplace only to be rebuffed, with the letter-writer only accepting 'go part-time' as a valid solution to her problem. Like, I get that she's uncomfortable raising the issue, but the Equality Act 2010 LITERALLY IS THERE TO MAKE THAT KIND OF BULLYING ILLEGAL, so USE IT TO GET JUSTICE, DANGIT. Now, if the character had at least attempted to make the complaint, only to be bounced back by sexist managers saying it was a non-issue and then discriminating against her because she'd made the complaint - which ideally we could then advise her is also illegal under the Equality Act 2010's provisions on victimisation, leading her to keep fighting - that would be a mixed-success outcome I could really get behind as a way of using the interactive narrative to build empathy and awareness in the player. I really hope the devs will consider changing this particular story arc. That one (admittedly substantial) issue is the only reason I've given this game a 6/10 instead of a 7/10. If it were addressed, I would gladly revise my review accordingly. The standard £3.99 price point might be a little much for folks who budget games based on replayability, but at time of writing the game is discounted to £1.99 (which it's definitely very well worth) so grabbing it while it's on sale could be the ideal compromise if you're on a tight budget. You can follow my Steam Curator page at [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35646443-Inclusive-Games/] Inclusive Games[/url]!

A cute, quirky little game about answering agony aunt emails. Very simple but a nice experience. The only feedback I have is that it would be nice to be able to resize the email windows since there's a lot of empty space on the screen

I have little nostalgia for the earlier days of the internet, so this could easily have been a meh experience for me. I quite enjoyed myself though. Dear Agony Aunt almost felt like a little trip back in time. It's pretty much a Windows XP email simulator where you read about people's small and major troubles and then how it's going after you make a simple choice for advice. Your agony aunt audience ranges from gamer kids to very British seniors, and the language used in their emails reflects that reasonably well. I found many emails to be a bit suspiciously well-formulated, but maybe people really were more articulate almost 20 years ago... I was a bit disappointed that I could only choose between two very short summaries of where my reply would be going. I often felt like I'd need more nuance to know which one to choose. It went reasonably well anyway, and according to the feedback my invisible longer replies ended up being very nuanced (: Some of the emails are more serious than others, with themes like [spoiler]depression, homophobic parents, sexism[/spoiler], but I found the overall atmosphere pretty lighthearted. Nothing like a silly spam email to brighten the mood :D Many of the requests made me laugh too, and some of the reactions to my advice were genuinely heartwarming. I think I was smiling throughout most of the game. Bonus points for the clever way the menu and credits were integrated! My (first) playthrough took me a bit over half an hour, plus a bit of spontaneous research on [spoiler]the odds that a woman who doesn't want children would change her mind[/spoiler] lol. You get to choose 2 out of 5 possible emails to reply to each time, so there's enough for 2.5 playthroughs with new content. I might well come back for more. * * * If you like chill and story-driven games, check out my curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35872486]Peaceful Adventures and Stories[/url]. You're also welcome to join the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/chilladventures]group[/url].

Barely anyone seems to write (personal) e-mails anymore, so it's nice to have an e-mail emulator. First I found the choice of two short answers per mail a little restrictive, like, I wanted to respond in detail, but obviously that's technically impossible - perhaps I should take that as a push to write some people in real life! My favourite part where the (often in depth) responses that sometimes took a few days to arrive, which made them appear more realistic and unexpected. I helped someone! Great feeling.

As a Malaysian, I always looked forward to the Dear Aunt Thelma column in the local newspaper, The Star, and this game appeared a few days ago in the 2000s Nostalgia Bundle — that’s why I grabbed it immediately. It’s 2006 — the golden era of Windows XP — and you’re checking emails on Microsoft Outlook as an Agony Aunt working for a famous lifestyle magazine. What should you do? Just select two new emails each day to help people in need, and there’s an automated response system where you've to choose wisely (or not). The senders will write to you as distressed adults, Y2K teenagers, or even some stray children (you’ll get to know them sooner or later). It’s a good game for anyone who wants to become a counselor or mentor and offer the best advice they can. 9.5/10

Dear Agony Aunt, Today I played a fun game about giving advice to a variety of interesting, unique characters by choosing between two possible responses in the style of a mid-00's email client. The graphics did a good job of simulating an old PC and making the UI easy to use. The variety of writing styles that were on display, and the follow-up responses received from each character, kept the game interesting and engaging - clearly a lot of thought went in to how each character was written. I only wished there were more response options for some of the situations, as the binary response was a little limiting. The game was short but sweet and gives plenty of chance to replay and choose to see different stories that I didn't see on the first go, as well as to choose the better response for the ones I messed up! I guess I chose too many wrong responses as I got fired from the job - so, dear Agony Aunt, whoever replaced me and is reading this email - I hope you can do better than I did! But what do you think I should do now? > Give up - you clearly don't posses the skills needed. > Try again, you'll do better this time! Thanks, Ex-Agony Aunt

Gracias al "The 2000s Nostalgia" bundle me encontré con Dear Agony Aunt, un juego muy reminiscente de otros tiempos que consiste en dar consejos a gente que lo necesita. Lamentablemente forma parte del colectivo de indies que pasan por fuera del radar y, como vi que todas las reseñas están, como era de esperarse, en inglés, no me pareció mal sumar otra en otro idioma. En Dear Agony Aunt tomamos el rol de una aspirante a Agony Aunt: una figura anónima de una revista británica cuyos lectores le envían correos pidiendo consejo en base a un problema determinado. Los vibes nostálgicos del mid-2000s con Windows XP son fuertes! En total hay 24 correos que tratan sobre diversos temas (vínculos, salud, mascotas...) pero es imposible abarcar todos en un solo playthrough, ya que sólo se puede contestar dos por día en un lapso de cinco días. El juego nos permite elegir una de dos respuestas posibles: una "buena" o una "mala". A mi parecer, en la mayoría de los casos es bastante obvio cuál es cuál, pero eso no afectó la experiencia en lo absoluto, ya que es un juego de pura lectura y fue entretenido leer los diferentes casos. Si la mayoría de los consejos que elegiste tuvieron una resolución positiva, al final de la semana obtendrás el trabajo. Para llegar a contestar todos los correos (si es que uno quiere leer todos), se requiere poco más de dos playthroughs, lo que sería alrededor de una hora/hora y media de tiempo en total. Dear Agony Aunt es super corto y no hay mucho para hacer, pero su fuerza radica tanto en la inmersión como en el writing, cosas que me parecen muy bien logradas acá... es un love letter, entre otras cosas, al viejo internet. Aunque apela al inglés británico como lenguaje tanto como cultura (algunas referencias, para outsiders como yo, se escapan), me parece que es muy entretenido de todos modos. El juego es muy barato además así que creo que uno no pierde nada con probarlo. En fin, recomendado!