Just to save all of you some time, let's just get right to. Arkadium's Gossip Girl: Social Climb for Facebook is downright confusing. Based on the hit TV series on the CW Network surrounding rich 20-somethings living in Manhattan, Gossip Girl inundates you with text and question from the moment you log in. First, it's a series of profile questions to determine your nickname. Then, it's a list of mundane questions based on hoity-toity events you'll attend in the Big Apple.
And this is the majority of Gossip Girl: pressing miscellaneous buttons and answering questions based on your own morality (if you want to call it that). The game is deeper than that, but not by much. Find out why after the break.
Social Dashboards
While the game certainly looks gorgeous, I'd imagine that's not difficult when there are few actual pieces of artwork in the game aside from the intro upon logging in. After creating your profile, you will be invited to your first event and given your first mission. But really, neither are important--it's the process of the event itself that matters. Once you're at an event found on one of the four quadrants of the Manhattan mini map, you will be given access to a series of abilities that will raise a "Scandal Bar" in reference to an event progress bar. If you fill the Scandal Bar before the event is over, you will fail at socializing at this event. The goal is to keep the bar with in the sparkly box for the duration of the event, which is done by waiting for the bar's progress to decrease over time.
Do this correctly and you'll be presented with morally challenging scenarios that will affect your progress. Well, if you call the choice between taking advantage of a drunk girl at a party or giving her a glass of water morally challenging, then this game is absolutely for you! Frankly, choosing the options that most sane individuals would consider humane scores you less Spotted Points to buy new outfits with. Basically, the goal of the game appears to be as belligerent, catty and asinine as possible to score the most "Scandal Points" to climb up the social ladder.
Events
Oh, and the game runs on real time, meaning you can only attend events that match your time in the real world. It's basically Arkadium's answer to Energy in most social games, but this system will likely inspire you to crawl right back to the Energy mechanic. There are several achievements to collect for leaning towards different ends of the social and moral spectrum in events and ways to compete with friends. But generally speaking, this game is downright confusing and, if socialites truly act like this, terrifying for all of us. (And given Arkadium's pedigree, this does not hold up to their modus operandi.)
Then again, I'm likely not included in its target demographic. Gossip Girl, from as objective a viewpoint as possible, is a functional social game with an attractive presentation. From a perspective littered with disdain for this type of behavior in the real world, no. Just no. If you happen to be one of the millions of fans of the series, then give it go for sure. Just don't expect much praise for your taste in social gaming.
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