Paul Beakley without getting into the old “is it a game” debate, TQY is as much a game as any other story-level play structure, like Microscope or particularly abstract games of Archipelago. Maybe even more than Microscope, because there is a definite end-point. You don’t play a unique character, but everyone plays the community as a whole, and it’s quite common for people to start to embody certain factions within the community over the course of play.

It does actually do a good job of simulating community, in my experience, especially the little resentments and distrusts that develop when people don’t agree…