Alan Game
From The Extended Group
The Alan Game marked the creative culmination of a longstanding assault on Alan Vo. Despite the singularity of the name, the Alan Game was actually a series of Hypercard games whose shared objective was to kill Alan in the most merciless and ultraviolent fashion imaginable. Originally initiated by Jeremy in 5th grade, the game soon attracted collaborators in Brett, Jason, John Chang, and others. Much of the work on the Alan Game took place in the early morning computer labs, during which many group members were lab attendants.
The First Alan Game
The original game had a multi-stage premise, each stage crudely tackling a separate gaming genre. The first stage faintly resembled a point-and-click adventure and took place in Alan's house. As the level progressed, the player was greeted with various esoteric Alan paraphernalia , such as the rollerskates that Alan's dad had forbid him to wear. Clicking on an incorrect door or object leads abruptly led to a game over screen in which Alan (voiced by John Chang) taunts you.
The second stage was a rudimentary first-person shooter that took place in Vietnam. Much of the level involved the slaughtering of countless Alan henchmen, in addition to several innocent villagers and always included a cartoonish explosion of blood. The level culminated in a battle against a tank, which proudly displayed the Vietnamese flag (a plaid shirt - in reference to Alan's then wardrobe), and the total annihilation of Vietnam.
Level three had a war games premise in which the player, acting as general, commanded an army against a Godzilla-esque Alan who terrorized an unnamed city.
The final stage was an RPG-themed round which, in adherance to RPG conventions, pitted the player against a final boss of several escalating forms, including Racecar Alan, Pianist Alan, and finally Dinosaur Alan. Given a variety of basic commands to choose from in a turn-based format, the player was required to exploit the various weaknesses of Alan. For instance, in order to defeat Racecar Alan, the player needed to choose the "paper clip" command to pop his tires - an homage to the Paperclip Incident.
Analysis
The Alan Game saga highlighted a disturbing era in Sunset-centric group history, dating as far back as 4th grade, during which certain persons were singled out for mass ridicule and ostracizing. Relationships between Alan and the group gradually mended themselves over the course of middle and high schoool. However, the question of why Alan was chosen as a target, both of the game and in general, remains disputed, though some believe his vague communist roots may be partly to blame.
