08/04/16 - Responding to previous blog post

Blog post about Fahrenheit:


I played through two sessions of the game Fahrenheit, both for at least 2 hours each on the same day. I only planned to play it once, but for some reason the file didn't save so I decided to play it again. On my second encounter with the game I realized the my choices made in the game affected the game's story. In the first play through I was more cautious, trying to get used to the controls and learning what the game is like. When the police officer came towards the bathroom after my player had killed the other guy, I started panicking, not knowing what to do and realizing that this police officer was going to figure it out. I made the choice, unaware of it, to run straight out of the restaurant without paying my bill and the police man was chasing me. All of these choices I made, I had done differently in my second play through and I noticed the differences in the character interactions and the way the story was told. The story didn't change completely, the two police investigators still came to the crime scene and every main story path was still pretty much the same, but my minor choices in the game can affect the minor story nodes the and game play experience. I felt that this made a big impact on the game play experience in Fahrenheit because the freedom to act upon the situations given to the character within the game really immerses the player in the world of the game and it makes you feel like you are a part of the story being told.

In my previous blog post I commented of the choices presented in Fahrenheit Indigo Prophecy, but I did not link this to a reading which I have just found.

In the reading ''Storyplaying" by Sebastian Domsch, the choice situations in games is commented on, and this relates a lot to the choices presented in Fahrenheit because of the fact that they are affected by the passing of time.

"Choice situations can be either a-temporal or have a temporal dimension, which means that there might be a limited amount of time during which the options are available, or that – after a finite amount of time – not making any choices will produce an outcome that is different from the choice situation and that therefore constitutes a choice in itself."

The choices in Fahrenheit are presented to the player following the narrative of the game, and it is up to the player to respond to these choices efficiently as the time of the game is still ticking. The player can choose to do nothing and that choice could inevitably lead them to an end game situation where they get caught because their character just stood there doing nothing. The player can choose to act on these choices quickly, effectively making them less suspicious to police if the situation arises.

08/04/16 - Final Game Blog - Amnesia

Amnesia The Dark Decent is a first person 3D horror game set in a dark castle featuring the protagonist Daniel, who awakens with little memory of himself. The game is built in a way to immerse the player into this environment and take on the role of this character. The player learns very quickly that the character's sanity is an important aspect of the game to keep track of. Being in the darkness for too long can affect the characters sanity, along with seeing unsettling events or looking at monsters. The level design of this game has been built in a way to use the darkness of this large, spooky castle to create a feeling of claustrophobia as the player and the character work towards avoid being in the dark for too long. Amnesia's strong point would be it's level design in my opinion, as it was interesting and innovative at the time of release. The darkness was used to the game's advantage, as it meant that the player has to stick to the areas that were lit from either natural lighting from the windows, or by lighting candles.

In the first level of Amnesia, the player is introduced to the character Daniel, who wakes up groggy minded in a dark castle. The character has a flashback to an event prior to his awakening, in which he remembers that he passed out while trying to remember his own name. Daniel scribbles notes in his journal and these help the player work their way towards following the narrative such as 'follow the red trail on the ground'. The player is put in the same shoes as the character throughout the game, both the player and the character are trying to find out or remember why they woke up in this castle and what their goals are. The player progresses at the same pace as the protagonist as they both work towards discovering information and completing goals and puzzles.
The design of the game is made to feel like an experience rather than a play to win situation. There is little to no music in this game, only eerie ambiance to set the player into the role of Daniel in this castle. The only sounds that can be heard are the footsteps and breathing of the character, fires crackling, wind howling outside and and occasional unknown sounds beyond.

Amnesia's narrative is structured into levels as the player progresses through the game, each getting more interesting and complex than the last. At the start the player is introduced to a basic feeling for the story and is given simple goals to follow as they learn what the game is about. As they progress through the game and finish each level, new aspects of the game are introduced such as information about what the protagonist had done previous to erasing his memory and why, and also along with what is in the castle and what is hunting him. Puzzles are introduced throughout the levels which get more interesting as the game progresses. For example, the player has to gather ingredients for a chemical recipe to destroy a wall made from a strange organic substance in order to progress to the next area. In the Rules of Play reading by Salen and Zimmerman, they discuss this aspect of game play.
"Level or mission structures allow players to feel the details of a story while the game designer maintains control of the larger narrative experience. A game's goal, or series of goals, is part of the narrative context that makes up the game. When goals are well-designed to support the narrative play, a player's interaction with the game world becomes consistently meaningful."
The levels in Amnesia are structured in a way to give the player a sense of immersion within the story and it's narrative, playing as the character and discovering why he is there and his purpose while progressing through the levels. The game designers developed the levels in a way to keep the player feeling immersed within the narrative and the world of the game.


References:
Salen and Zimmerman. 2004. Games as Narrative Play
Page 387

02/04/16 - Game Blog - Fez

As a player do you interact with a character or an avatar, and how does this affect your involvement in the narrative?

It doesn't take that long to play through Fez to understand the world that the main character, Gomez lives in and to find out what is required of you, the player. The narrative in Fez is quite simple, which I can also say the same about the main character and the supporting characters. There is a lack of depth within this game's narrative, the only thing that makes it uniquely interesting would be the ability to rotate the world to find and collect the objectives of the game, and solve the hidden puzzles.
Regarding the question of whether the player is playing as a character or an avatar can be debatable. In a sense, Gomez could be both a character or an avatar. The lack of depth within this character's personality, background story and life allows for the player to project themselves onto this blank slate of a character and potentially play as themselves within this world. At the start of the game the player is introduced to the character Gomez in his house and is briefly shown his village, a few village members and how to interact with a few objects. The main character doesn't speak, and neither do most of the members of the village. Only the necessary plot points will show characters and/or objects that you can interact with, and even so, these characters will not say much and they will only repeat the things they last said if you talk to them again.
To think of whether or not Gomez is an avatar or a character, a quote from the reading 'The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies' discusses this thought.
'Rather than using the terms “avatar” and “character” interchangeably, some scholars have sought to locate them on a continuum wherein avatars function primarily as projections of their players, while characters may take on strong, fictional identities that are recognizably separate from those of their players.'
Referring to this argument and comparing it to Fez, it could be argued that Gomez is simply an Avatar, because his identity as a fictional character is quite weak and therefore the player doesn't feel that they have to take on this fictional characters personality in order to play the game. This lack of identity allows for the player to play the game without worrying about how the character would act, rather than themselves.

References:

Jessica Aldred. 17 Dec 2013 ,Characters from: The Routledge Companion to Video Game Studies Routledge. Accessed on: 26 Nov 2015 https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9780203114261.ch44

25/03/15 - Game blog- Banner Saga

Do the choices you make in the game contribute to the sense of meaningful interactive moments?

Banner Saga is a turn based strategy game which also incorporates text based storytelling through frequent narrative cut scenes. The game I feel is heavily sided with storytelling through these cut scenes which sometimes allows you to choose an answer from a small selection of choices. These choices don't seem to have a major effect on the story and the game play early within the game, as I didn't make it too far through the game. The story fragments are split up through game play scenes where the player is thrown into a strategic turn based battle against the enemy. Through these battles the player has to control his men, deciding where to move the characters and whether or not to attack the armour or health as it depends on who you're using and who you're facing.
The choices you make within the battle don't seem to have any affect on the actual story within the whole game, as you could let your characters be killed but it doesn't affect the outer story at all, the character will still be alive and the story will continue. As long as you can defeat the enemies, the story will continue. In regards to the dialogue in the cut scenes, the selection of choices given to the player seem very minor at the start of the game, they don't really affect the overall story that much. Later on further into the game this might have more of an effect, but I would have to play it through multiple sessions to find out.
The choices in this game also don't have any time limit, during the battle scenes the player has as much time as they want to make a decision to progress the battle, so the choices made aren't made out of reflex they are made out of thinking and strategy. This also applies to the dialogue cut scenes, the characters will wait for probably an infinite amount of time for the player to respond to the conversation.

An excerpt from Sebastian Domsch's reading Storyplaying also explores the concept of time during game play, and is further explained in the article.
'These are the games whose concept of time is at least partially turn-based, that is, the passing of event time is restricted to the making of a turn, which does not necessarily have an equivalent passing of play time.'

Sebastian Domsch -Storyplaying

17/03/16 - Week 3 Gameplay Blog - Fahrenheit

Do the choices made in the game result in branching narrative paths? If so, how? If not, how are the choices meaningful?

I played through two sessions of the game Fahrenheit, both for at least 2 hours each on the same day. I only planned to play it once, but for some reason the file didn't save so I decided to play it again. On my second encounter with the game I realized the my choices made in the game affected the game's story. In the first play through I was more cautious, trying to get used to the controls and learning what the game is like. When the police officer came towards the bathroom after my player had killed the other guy, I started panicking, not knowing what to do and realizing that this police officer was going to figure it out. I made the choice, unaware of it, to run straight out of the restaurant without paying my bill and the police man was chasing me. All of these choices I made, I had done differently in my second play through and I noticed the differences in the character interactions and the way the story was told. The story didn't change completely, the two police investigators still came to the crime scene and every main story path was still pretty much the same, but my minor choices in the game can affect the minor story nodes the and game play experience. I felt that this made a big impact on the game play experience in Fahrenheit because the freedom to act upon the situations given to the character within the game really immerses the player in the world of the game and it makes you feel like you are a part of the story being told.

Week 2 Game play blog - Never Alone

Did linear storytelling your chosen game engage and excite you as a player? Why/why not?

Never Alone is a unique side scroller platform game that involves a lot of storytelling through narration and videos embedded into an accessible library. These videos are unlocked as the player progresses through the levels and would like to learn new things about the game and it's relation to the real world it's based off. I found this new way of telling a story through game play quite interesting, as it clearly shows you it's relation to a real world culture and landscape and they effectively built the game to make you feel immersed in this realistic environment. The only thing I didn't find as engaging was interrupting the game play to watch the videos that taught the player about various aspects of the culture/environment and the animals. I felt that it dragged me away from the immersion everything I came back I was slightly disorientated.

Do the story nodes in your chosen games work well to support game play and game play objectives? Why/why not?

I think that in a way, the story nodes really compliment the game play because it gives you a lot more information about different aspects of the game. For example when you receive the bolas a video is unlocked telling you the history of the bolas and how they were used in their culture. This extra information about things you are using in game gives you more knowledge that I don't think could have been explained that in depth if not for the educational videos. I think that this extra knowledge that the videos give you make you feel more immersed because you have a better understanding of the world inside the game and I think that it definitely supports this game and it's style.

02/03//16 - Week 1 Gameplay Blog

This is my first blog post for our weekly game play questions.
Today I decided to have play the game Facade. Facade is a game about a married couple, Grace and Trip and they invite you, the player to their apartment one night. It becomes apparent in the game play that this couple is having problems and you can choose what to say by typing on the keyboard how to reply to these characters. What you say changes the narrative of the current game play session, and each time you play you can affect how to two characters talk to you, and what parts of their story get uncovered.
In my first play through I discovered a lot about Grace, but the other character Trip started to think I was taking sides, but that's because I was only listening to what she had to say. She had been very unhappy with Trip and at the end of that session she ended up leaving. The second time I played the characters stopped responding, I think I broke the game. The third time I played I discovered that Trip had cheated on Grace, and that resulted in him leaving because he said that their marriage is over. Fourth play through I uncovered their insecurities, but I did not say anything and they made me leave.
Depending on what you say you can change what happens in the story, uncover information in the hope that maybe you can repair their marriage the next time you play.