Freniere, you asked, "I can't even being to imagine what female players would feel like. Even if they strongly identified with Allison or Kathryn, the story is still told from Michael's point of view, and then there's the whole "viewer" thing added to that"

Having recently finished TLC I can give one woman's answer. I primarily identified with Dr. Turner who had asked at the beginning about giving the whole situation a "fresh eye". Secondly, of the characters in the story, I most identified with Michael. At least in my version, his behavior seemed consistent and made sense. Katherine's seemed a bit nutso, sometimes professional, sometimes not so much! I never could figure her out. Michael seemed caught in the stiutation and trying to cope with his guilt about both Jody and Allison and was ambivalent about what was best for Allison. To add to his stress, he had contradictory feelings about Kathryn.

I read and listened to everyone's journals and even at the end, what Michael was going on about made sense and tied into something he related in his computer journal.

pimpmonkey2382, in my version I can agree wtih you about Kathryn being manipulative, but Michael seemed to behave like a man under increasing stress and slowly being driven to the edge by Kathryn and past events.