Moral Philosophy: The Flash Game

August 23, 2013 5:28 AM

Can you defeat some of history's greatest philosophers, discover the true nature of morality, and escape the afterlife armed with only the Socratic method? You can if you are Socrates Jones: Ace Accountant Pro Philosopher!
posted by narain (34 comments total)

I played for a few minutes but it still wasn't clear how many cookies I needed to buy a time portal.
posted by aught at 5:43 AM on August 23, 2013 [6 favorites]

So. Slow.
posted by unSane at 5:48 AM on August 23, 2013 [4 favorites]

Based on the first 5 minutes I could stand, this has negative utility wrt student engagement.
posted by reverend cuttle at 5:52 AM on August 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER once you get past the initial 5 minutes.
posted by corb at 6:03 AM on August 23, 2013

Socrates Jones would probably gain cred points for arguing this with me - but grammatical mistakes in the text really ticked me off.
posted by kariebookish at 6:08 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

I made it to when the salesman guy was taling and not finding anything to speed up the text I quit. I hate scrolling text it should pop up in pages immediately and not scroll by letter by letter.
posted by koolkat at 6:08 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

For those who have having problems with the text, clicking next will speed the text up and have it all print, rather than just moving on to the next one, if you do it while it's coming out.
posted by corb at 6:15 AM on August 23, 2013

I'm getting a JRPG vibe here. Should I be expecting panty-shots of blushing philosophers or is this more like encountering random interlocutors in the cities of antiquity, ultimately being killed off for corrupting the youth?
posted by Foci for Analysis at 6:17 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Most of it takes place just debating philosophers. I have seen no panty shots thus far.
posted by corb at 6:42 AM on August 23, 2013

You get the platonic ideal of naughty tentacles later.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 6:43 AM on August 23, 2013

I think my students would get more out of a gif dance party set in Raphael's School of Athens.
posted by Beardman at 7:10 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Back to the top. Clearly, I'm missing something here!

This can't be a game because I don't think you can lose, you just keep going back to the beginning of the argument. And it's not a training exercise because it's not telling me what I'm doing wrong.

This is less a let's play like you're a philosopher game and more like let's reiterate the very specific arguments that were made thousands of years ago, in a manner that was not made by said philosophers ... thing?

It'd be fine if it didn't require a very specific word track to get to the argument you want, not just the one that you have an available button for.
posted by Blue_Villain at 7:13 AM on August 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm very much missing a "begging the question" button.

Also, I'm stuck on Kant. Annoying little man.
posted by brokkr at 7:30 AM on August 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

It's sort of fun so far, even though it seems a lot like "guess exactly what path the designer wants you to take and then take it" early in the game.

They should make a version where you're arguing with Internet trolls and half the game is jut typing all upper-case epithets at your opponent.
posted by codacorolla at 7:44 AM on August 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

Kant took a while. Are you past the first argument? If so, then remember the first argument when you are choosing the second.
posted by corb at 7:47 AM on August 23, 2013

The game uses the same mechanics as the Ace Attorneys, yeah. Like those games they end up very much like old school "rub every item on every item" adventure games, but with a credibility meter to encourage you to guess correctly.

By the end it almost parodied itself by repurposing arguments from earlier so they triggered dialog that kind of sounded similar.
posted by LogicalDash at 7:50 AM on August 23, 2013

This game appears to mostly be a "how often can we get the user to exasperatedly click the 'next' button" game
posted by ook at 8:04 AM on August 23, 2013

Chapter 1: NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT NEXT
posted by ook at 8:08 AM on August 23, 2013 [4 favorites]

Speaking on the basis of historical authenticity, shouldn't this be Socrates Johnson, not Socrates Jones?
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:26 AM on August 23, 2013

I'm just past the first person (who has a Greek name I'm not going to bother attempting to spell) and I don't think I can put up with the scrolling text and constant next-clicking any more. If this was laid out in a menu that I could browse at will, then I think it'd be a great game, but the current format just isn't for me.

It's a cool idea though.
posted by codacorolla at 8:28 AM on August 23, 2013

what the hell was that? horrible "game"
posted by mary8nne at 8:35 AM on August 23, 2013

Phoenix Wright clones don't often understand what makes the Phoenix Wright games great.
posted by painquale at 9:18 AM on August 23, 2013

When I discovered the space bar advanced text, the game became a lot more tolerable.
posted by cyberscythe at 9:23 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

The philosophy in here is a lot better than I had thought it would be! It's still very clunky in many places, and a lot of the terminology is not used quite correctly, but it's mostly competent. I've thought about whether it would be possible to make a philosophy-themed version of Phoenix Wright, and this is not a half-bad attempt.

Still, the move you use to finally take down Kant is not at all a legitimate criticism of Kant. And I really hate the skepticism of the conclusion.
posted by painquale at 10:48 AM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Finally defeated Kant and then breezed through to completion. Love the skepticism of the conclusion.
posted by brokkr at 11:19 AM on August 23, 2013

A philosopher said, "Video games are a pointless waste of time!"

I said, "Objection! You haven't played Socrates Jones, Pro Philosopher!"

The philosopher's assertion was not refuted.
posted by straight at 1:12 PM on August 23, 2013

If this was laid out in a menu that I could browse at will, then I think it'd be a great game

I seem to remember a philosophy forum with an unusual interface which forced users to tag individual components of their statements (such as premise 1, premise 2, x therefore y, and you could specifically click to argue on those)? I fail at Google. Damn.

This is no Katawa Shuio but what a great idea.
posted by yoHighness at 1:17 PM on August 23, 2013

Yeah, Euthyphro - I get the circular logic problem, but I don't get the right order to pick from these stupid menu options problem...
posted by stenseng at 1:24 PM on August 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's a bit cheesy but there are no negative consequences for asking questions, only for posing incorrect challenges. (And if you want to be *really* cheesy, you can just rub challenges on statements, resetting as necessary, until you get ahead..)

You can click the 'next' button or push space to flick through the dialog.

I got to the end after a little frustration and really liked it (as a non-Philisophy student). Thanks!
posted by Drexen at 2:38 PM on August 23, 2013

Yeah, I got the mechanics sorted out after a bit. I just handed Hobbes' ass to him... on to the Pursuit of Happiness!
posted by stenseng at 2:54 PM on August 23, 2013

Aww, just beat it - that was fun! Spacebar is a lifesaver, as others have said.
posted by stenseng at 4:43 PM on August 23, 2013

You can click on the cog and set text speed to 5.
posted by ersatz at 5:35 AM on August 24, 2013 [1 favorite]

this was very good. I finished it way past my bedtime, which meant I had to cheat on the last argument. I liked it!
posted by rebent at 5:59 AM on August 24, 2013

That was fun.

yoHighness, I know the web site you're talking about, but I can't remember the name of it.
posted by Sleeper at 9:17 AM on August 25, 2013