At first, I was apprehensive about playing Julius in the game. I wasn’t sure I’d know exactly what to do with the character. But, once I made my first move, I realized that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It wasn’t until playing the game as Julius that I realized the micro aggressions that John would perpetrate against him. I also realized that John’s behavior was not uncommon for the time. His way of thinking was meant to mirror the general mindset of white Northerners of the time. This mindset obviously affected the way in which John perceived and portrayed Julius. What mattered to me the most was that I was able to play Julius as himself and not Julius as John sees him, which is how he is received in the “Conjure Tales”. Being able to dictate what was going on in Julius’ mind was my definitely changed how I viewed the text. Instead of reading Julius’ stories and dialogue as just a part of the text, I read it as though I were personally telling the stories and was able to share his point of view. Adopting the mindset aided in my being able to understand Julius as a character more and to get inside his head. It really gave me a more in depth view of Julius and the story as a whole.

The biggest obstacles while playing Julius were deciding exactly what moves to make as well as figuring out in what ways Julius could respond to another character’s move without stepping out of the parameters of his character as dictated by Chesnutt. Instead of replying directly to any moves, I made each move in a way that it addressed the situation, but it was outside of the knowledge of the other characters. I had to maintain their relationship so that Annie or John would technically remain unaware of Julius’ real thoughts and feelings. Deciding the content of the moves and exactly how to make them also proved to be challenging at first. I didn’t want Julius to tell too many myths because he does so much of that in the “Conjure Tales” already. Instead, I wanted to focus on Julius as a character. This is why the story I did have him tell was based on his actual life instead of anything he had picked up during slavery. More than the stories, I wanted my moves to focus on Julius’ interactions with John and Annie in order to give some insight on how he truly felt about his relationships with them. I also didn’t want to completely take away his accent/dialect when writing the moves because I wanted him to retain his authenticity. I felt that making him too articulate would take away from the character too much. However, I made sure that within my moves, it could be easily understood that Julius was no fool.

If I were to play again, I would still choose to play Julius. However, I would supplement my moves with more research. I had some trouble figuring out things I could research for Julius’ character. Since the text already gave me so much material to work with, at first I wasn’t sure how to merge that with additional research. However, I eventually realized that the research was meant to supplement the move, not dictate it. I would also make at least one move that includes Julius’ wife and maybe even create a family for him. This would play into the flexibility of being able to create the character. Since we are given so much freedom within the game, I wish I had used it a little more. Perhaps I could have Julius’ family meet John and Annie and build a move off of the encounter.

As far as the interface, I would suggest a few changes. The first change I would make would be for players to be able to edit posts. There was a few times where I wished I could go back and make changes, only to be reminded that I could not. I would also make it easier to insert pictures as I had a really hard time trying to figure out how to add on to my post. Lastly, I would suggest some sort of discussion board or chat option where the players could interact outside of their moves. This would include the option to speak to the entire group, or to speak to a player individually. Since the game is meant to be an interactive one (between characters), it would make sense for it to be interactive between players as well.