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Common Ground

by Stephen Granade profile

Slice of life
1999

Game Details

Off-Site Reviews

IF-Review
On Common Ground
Stephen Granade's "Common Ground" is a short, friendly game, more character-piece and story than puzzle. By giving you the perspective of each of three protagonists in turn, it sketches in the relationships between members of a small family, showing you both sides of each point of conflict. — Emily Short
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IF-Review
Puppets
Even as it is, it's not bad. It's rather short and what is in there is done fairly well. It makes use of stereotypes in ways which, if not new and refreshing, are at least unusual and interesting. Download it and play it; it won't take more than half an hour. While it's not the sort of game that will leave you feeling happy after you're done, I felt strangely satisfied after making the choice at the end. It wasn't a great game, but it wasn't mediocre either. It was, well, good. — Jonathan Rosebaugh
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Play This Thing!
Common Ground is about perceptions and misunderstandings: the player experiences a set of events from the perspective of three protagonists. Their respective ideas of what is going on (and why) dovetail together in sometimes-surprising ways, and the result is a story about communication and expectation in an ordinary family.
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SPAG
The point actually isn't to adapt a Rashomon-style trick to IF, wherein incompatible stories are told and the truth lies somewhere between them, if anywhere; figuring out the truth is less the objective here than understanding the characters and why they do what they do. The result is susceptible to a variety of interpretations, in a few respects--the player's sympathies may rest with one of the characters, or all, or none, depending on what he or she makes of the various exchanges. That aspect of Common Ground is particularly skillfully done, in fact: playing the various characters gives a more nuanced look at the situation than playing one character might, and an honest look at the story more than likely leaves the player neither canonizing nor demonizing any of the characters outright, which is as it should be.
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Brass Lantern
Reviews by David Glasser, Eric Mayer, Iain Merrick and Mark Musante.
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Page Update History

  v.9: 29-Jun-2020 18:39 - Zape (Current Version) - Edit Page - Normal View
Changed external review links
v.8: 29-Jun-2020 17:33 - Zape
Changed external review links
v.7: 24-Feb-2013 10:12 - Edward Lacey
Changed external review links
v.6: 04-Oct-2009 16:16 - Eriorg
Changed author
v.5: 29-Apr-2009 16:47 - Dave Chapeskie
Changed download links
v.4: 17-Aug-2008 06:33 - Emily Short
Changed external review links
v.3: 05-Apr-2008 13:26 - Emily Short
Changed external review links
v.2: 21-Oct-2007 12:01 - David Welbourn
Changed cover art
v.1: 16-Oct-2007 01:48 - IFDB
Created page