I don't think a lot of people don't see the value in Mountain, and when people do they tend to simply overcomplicate the game for what it is. It's not meant to be a 'game' exactly. The developers of the game purposefully say this originally: "Leave it open - it's designed to run in the periphery of your life. Only interact with it when you feel like it. You can play Mountain while playing other games. If you are not playing it, it will play itself. ". Again Mountain is just mean to be left open and you can return to it when you feel like it. You might not see the aspect of it originally but you can find it later… hopefully. But then again, what are the standards of a 'game'? Are we to simply segregate Mountain simply because it is possibly outside of the norm? On the contrary! Different experiences lead to different viewpoints which make you more open-minded. So can people truly state that Mountain is not a game but a screensaver? There are many ways to view Mountain and seeing it as a screensaver is one of the more popular demoralizing viewpoints to which many have so acquired. So one can only view Mountain as simply a standalone and not compare it to more contemporary issues. Or one can compare it but by doing so one loses the face value of the game itself. I think I've settled for now the dispute that this 'game' might be a screensaver or simply not a 'game' at all.

On another note, the developers stated this: "If you're having an annoying storm or boring night, play a melody (using your keyboard) and time will accelerate." Mountain is there for you when you decide to return to it and play it. I think that is a common misconception. It's not as much meant to be a 'game' but rather a subsidiary and supporting game next to you. Yet there are many ways to view Mountain as with any form of issue in life. But the Way Mountain was constructed, at times unappealing to the eye, allows it to show you a different path and possibly one you may not have seen before hand.

But you don't have to follow what the developers say. A 'game' is meant to be played whichever way you feel like it. If you feel like you've been cheated off by buying this game, then take two steps back and think about the aspects of this 'game' and the elements. Perhaps you begin to notice that wonderful ambient sound that plays amidst the night, or perhaps you fall in love with the way the streaks of the sun touch your Mountain. But you might not have to like all these things to truly enjoy the game. Perhaps you have all these games and you developed a love for the game. Or perhaps you try to ridicule the game but in turn you've actually Grown accustomed to the game. I for one cannot answer that question of whether a gamer should like this or not, but it is all up to the gamer who buys it, and whether he is willing to open up his heart and mind.

Now is the Mountain truly your Mountain and your own property? I think that is in the conception of the gamer alone for the gamer can make notion whether the Mountain truly is a self embodiment, or the player truly controls the Mountain. Does the Mountain not speak to us and tell us of its thoughts? Or is it conveying a hidden message to where we might be its own spawn and it is the master. Whichever way you see fit, there are quite a lot of ways to see Mountain, as with any game. Mountain might not have a storyline, no shooting, no love triangle (unless you begin to make one up between somehow the items, the Mountain, and the sky in which case you probably might have gone a bit too far), but Mountain contains a moment of solitude in which you might notice things in games that can be recurrent in Mountain. Perhaps Mountain might contain all these elements in which you create the story. Mountain can always be a storyline in which you, the gamer, is going along a path with the Mountain to a destination into your subconscious. There is much to do in Mountain and blocking your imagination and logic will only hinder it. But if you so choose to do so than you have not hurt no one but yourself in denying the possible powers in the 'game' itself. This review cannot display my neutrality toward the game but I only wish to explain to the gamer that Mountain can only be accentuated by only the gamer.

And another thing many question is the role of the keyboard in the game. Although at first it may seem like the keys simply advance time and increase it in a way the human eye can perceive, Mountain is inevitably omnipresent and time is of little importance to him. Binding ourselves to this thought, we can perceive the passing of time as not one full of dread and dreariness, not one full of change and a different scenery, but becoming part of the universe and its infinite realm of possibilities. What we perceive as a minute can seem as nothing more than what has occurred to the Mountain. What we perceive as the future is simply the happening in the Mountain. What we perceive as the past is imply seen as the done by the Mountain.

And another question still remains as to what is the value of the items that the Mountain contains and at times loses. Are those pieces of our memories or life lessons that we must cope to accept? Or are those as somewhat like to put it as simple items that simply 'fall' on the Mountain. No they are granted upon the Mountain and delivered first hand to the Mountain or possibly to you. And what is of this item leaving our grasp and floating off into space? Have we broken your heart, Mountain? Have we done some unforgivable act too which I've lost my pony? That alone can be answered only by the gamer and his affiliation with the mountain.

And what of this inevitable destruction that reaches the doorsteps of the Mountain ever so often. Are we to simply ponder over the oblivion of the Mountain or sputter key notes to protect the Mountain? Or can we observe the Mountain and it's destruction in all its gloom and tidings of change too which a new Mountain is brought forth to bring new waves of joy to the gamer, too which the cycle is repeated. Why do we have the ability to protect the Mountain or is it even in our ability to protect it? Is it predestined that we protected or is it by our own free-will? That is something that neither I can answer you and only you can resolve either by justifying it or believing in something.

This setting that surrounds the Mountain is quite serene and yet the darkness around it is quite opposite. Is this serving as a contrast between dark and light? The battle of how light destroys the darkness. Or perhaps the story has been switched and light is simply a harbinger of this cycle of death that is ever so dreaded upon. Again, I am not in any sort of ability to answer that question, and it alone can be sought through the Mountain.

So if you ever feel hurt or saddened than perhaps a tune on the fashioned keyboard can mend your heart. Or perhaps a stressed out day simply requires a concerto done by your own imagination. And maybe in the end when you've discovered the infinite combinations on the keys that by which you alone and the Mountain as well contains in the hidden locks of memory, you realize all this and then come to think in terms of the Mountain, and how time is not congruent, but simply an assortment of things by which we alone can process and that by which we alone can control. Mountain is infinite and it is up to the gamer only to perceive the game as he wishes.