Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to) is a game that doesn’t defy description, it’s a communication interface in which anonymous people seeking advice receive advice from anonymous people who wish to dispense advice.

Since the use of dial-up Bulletin Board Systems, people have been going to the internet for validation, advice, or just to release some pent up emotions. And while anonymity has always been an option (by assuming an identity) communication has always been affected, as if on stage, because the platform is built by the company hosting the platform to attract an audience. If someone posts a problem in a forum under a pseudonym, and someone replies anonymously, both parties are still able to continual engage and go back and forth, with their every word choice influenced by the knowledge that they are under the scrutiny of an audience — one which is looking for any excuse to insert themselves into the conversation.

The difference with Kind Words is that the communication begins in the form of one-to-many, but instantly changes to one-to-one. A person identified only by the first letter of their name posts a short request to the community, often a call for advice as to how to handle something they are struggling with, be it relationship advice, issues with family or work associates or an issue relating to their physical or mental health.

Any user can flip through the live request cards and if they are drawn to respond they can. No-one other than the original poster can see the response, and they will only know you as the first letter of your user name. There is no ability to follow up on either side, other than to send a small gift (in the form of a sticker), though even then the person receiving the gift won’t know where it came from.

This removal of the performance element from internet communication makes for exchanges that are very intimate, while at the same time safe. Both parties can be completely candid without having their motivations subverted by either party wondering what the other “really wants” out of the exchange.

As a user of the internet it would be natural for you to instantly assume that the game must, by now, be completely trashed by the usual trolls and perverts. I was shocked to find that while there were one or two carefully constructed requests for communication from creeps looking for college-aged interlocutors, the rest of the requests remained sincere and polite. I kept checking back day after day expecting to be rick-rolled or to be exposed to the usual racial and political slurs, but Kind Words lived up to it’s name.

For the purposes of this review I posted a sincere request, after some contemplation as to what I might ask an anonymous audience, and fully expected to find my inbox full of solicitations for contact or abuse, or combination thereof. Instead I received three responses, all unique and helpful and the advice from those responses rang back through my mind in the following days, resulting in me making some changes in my life. (No, I have not joined a pseudo cult, at least not as a result of this game). Adding to the value of the responses, I knew that those that wrote them knew that I had no way of getting back to them, so I knew their advice was given without expecting any form of response or reciprocation.

Is this a game though? For someone like myself, who has studied communication and is an armchair psychologist, this rapidly became a work simulator. I churned out 17 responses in my first 90 minutes, writing clear and thoughtful responses, and received back a thank you sticker for each of them. The stickers are the player’s experience meter, and you can accumulate various decorations for your room.

As for the eponymous low fi chill beats, they play though your in-game radio and you can make playlists. New songs come through regularly, but they really are incidental to the game — their greatest contribution was to bring attention to what would otherwise be a very forgettable and generic game title.

The game has some other simple elements, but none outstrip what is a masterful and fundamental re-purposing of internet communication. The developer, Popcannibal, has created a platform platform which is limited only by the ability of the community to care for others.

• Phil Fogg

9/10