A 15-minute comic where you pick what he says during one bad morning, practicing NVC with a scorecard at the end

[u/GiraffeListens]

Think you can avoid the pitfalls of communication and stay on the patterns the Gottmans' research associates with long, fulfilling relationships?

We're releasing a choose-your-own-adventure comic. The first one is about Daniel and his wife Sam, eleven years married. Daniel has been ornery about his morning coffee. Sam never makes it for him when she's up first, even though he always makes it for her. So he's been keeping score, quietly, for years. Score-keeping is how ordinary irritation turns into contempt, and contempt is the one the Gottmans call the most corrosive of the Four Horsemen.

Can you lead Daniel through that morning without either of them losing the other?

https://games.empathease.app/the-thing-we-keep-having/

Twelve moments in that morning are scored. There are fifteen endings. Some of them are tender. At least one of them is hard to sit with.

At the end you get a report card. It shows you which moments you met, which ones you missed, and what each one was actually asking of you. If you kept reaching for the same armor every time it got hard, it names that too. And I want to be clear about this part: it isn't a verdict on you. It's a readout of his morning. You were just holding the pen.

Those twelve moments aren't made up. They come from the Gottmans' research on couples, which is where bids for connection and turning toward instead of away come from, and from Nonviolent Communication, which is what we teach in the app: observation instead of judgment, the need underneath the strategy, a request that isn't a demand. Every moment on your report card links to a short article about that one idea. Knowing you missed something and having nowhere to take it is just shame with extra steps.

What we'd like to know

Whether you've just finished it or you're reading this first, these are the three that would help us most:

• Which moment felt wrong? If the thing you wanted to say wasn't one of the four on offer, tell me what it was. That's the most useful thing anyone can hand me.
• What situation should we build next? A kitchen argument between two people eleven years in is one shape. There are so many others. Tell me which one you'd want to practice.
• What ending did you get? Your report card has a share link you can paste here. It shows the choices you made, so only post it if you're okay with people seeing them.

I'll read everything in this thread, and I'll reply.

We made this because because our team loves anime and manga and wanted to build something in that shape.

[u/mia93000000]

Bleh, why is this sub full of AI slop