As the player, do you interact with a character or an avatar
and how does this affect your involvement in the narrative?
Gomez is the main character introduced to the game, but h's a bit of both an avatar and a character. He is a character because he is an established citizen of his tiny town who already knows his neighbours, but he is also an avatar in that he is plain enough for the player to project their own characteristics onto him, even though we're given little. if any opportunity to do so, with most of the character 'interactions' being through Dot your 'guide'. The most emotion Gomez has to offer is an ecstatic 'happy' face when he accomplishes a goal, or plays with his fez/falls asleep on the floor in one of his long idle animations, showing off his childish personality.
Gomez suffers from a case of 'silent video game protagonist' and ergo, we cannot discern Gomez's thoughts on the possibility of his whole world and universe's imminent collapse. He isn't given the opportunity to express his own distress, confusion, or fear, or even any interest in starting an adventure. his emotions are instead left up to the player to project onto him and the player's motivations in the game narrative become his.
Gomez's status as 'character' from being an established character does not affect the game very much, as it is only a means to give Gomez a connection to Geezer who introduces him to the power of 3D game core mechanics. It's an underdeveloped bond between these two characters that stems from simply that the village, including Gomez are descended from the same people who were once gifted the view of 3D sight and that is the sole reason of connection, but Gomez is not aware of it yet. There is no further explanation as to how Geezer and Gomez know each other or why Geezer trusts Gomez with this power out of all the other villagers, but the brief backstory of a 'bond' simply creates an easier segway into kicking off the adventure, Gomez's identity as a character does not show much, nor does it impact the narrative of the game, since the village's identity is not very important to the overall narrative, as if the Fez was simply a magical artifact rather than a lineage-specific item any character could have been tasked with saving the world, descended from mystical village or not if the lore was changed so that anyone who had the fez could see the 3rd dimension, Therefore it is clear that Gomez is more of an avatar in nature, than character.
Thursday 31 March 2016
Thursday 24 March 2016
The Wolf Among Us
How does morality influence the choices you make in the
game?
Morality in the Wolf Among Us is easily distinguished between empathetic or apathetic responses. For example in the very beginning Toad complains about the hassle and complications of fables being constantly in glamour for the lower class, and you can choose to sympathize with Toad and tell him you'll let him off the hook, or you can reprimand him and threaten to send him to the 'Farm' the next time you meet. The primary response the game is trying to rope from us, is our desire to prove Bigby Wolf as a sincere individual to the townsfolk, a goal that is shared by Bigby himself as sated in the Book of Fables. Alternatively, we can flip this narrative and play Bigby as if he never changed from his old ways and gladly, even find pleasure in hurting others. The character's responses seem programmed to reprimand Bigby for every action in the game, trying to prompt you to redeem Bigby to them, however it can get tiresome and naggy at times.
You are expected to empathize with the denizens of Fabletown as they experience common lower class social problems such as never getting help from the government, the powerlessness of being essentially invisible citizens, thus their problems are seen as invisible, poverty, and government corruption. Even if the player has not experienced these hardships themselves, they are morally expected to sympathize with these very real world problems and attempt to try make life for the Fabletown citizens better. The game expects your first playthrough at least, to show that despite having the most supportive intentions and trying hard as you might to make morally right choices, life doesn't always go swimmingly and misfortune still befalls these people just like in real life, such as despite all the help you're offered to give Toad, the money, and promise of a second chance to afford a glamour and continue to live in Fabletown, through enforcement of law Toad is still forced to be evicted from his property with his son into the Farm, a place described as a prison. This disregard of moral choices affecting certain characters storylines makes it difficult to be properly motivated to make empathetic choices if all it's going to do is give characters false hope, thus my second playthrough of the game made it easier to be more stern and apathetic to Toad, in attempt to give him no pretenses that he would be exempt from the rules. The morality of following the rules as opposed to following your instincts is also challenged in this game, as multiple times if you do exactly what Snow White says in order to appease her, effectively the law, you're called her 'lap dog' and Georgie even wishes you'd 'come to your senses' if you choose to chase him first instead of the Crooked Man, where your choice to complete the specified, but not the most important objective, results in characters calling you an obedient dog sent to where it's told. Ergo this game encourages you to make moral choices over what path to take as opposed to the path you're explicitly told to take.
game?
Morality in the Wolf Among Us is easily distinguished between empathetic or apathetic responses. For example in the very beginning Toad complains about the hassle and complications of fables being constantly in glamour for the lower class, and you can choose to sympathize with Toad and tell him you'll let him off the hook, or you can reprimand him and threaten to send him to the 'Farm' the next time you meet. The primary response the game is trying to rope from us, is our desire to prove Bigby Wolf as a sincere individual to the townsfolk, a goal that is shared by Bigby himself as sated in the Book of Fables. Alternatively, we can flip this narrative and play Bigby as if he never changed from his old ways and gladly, even find pleasure in hurting others. The character's responses seem programmed to reprimand Bigby for every action in the game, trying to prompt you to redeem Bigby to them, however it can get tiresome and naggy at times.
You are expected to empathize with the denizens of Fabletown as they experience common lower class social problems such as never getting help from the government, the powerlessness of being essentially invisible citizens, thus their problems are seen as invisible, poverty, and government corruption. Even if the player has not experienced these hardships themselves, they are morally expected to sympathize with these very real world problems and attempt to try make life for the Fabletown citizens better. The game expects your first playthrough at least, to show that despite having the most supportive intentions and trying hard as you might to make morally right choices, life doesn't always go swimmingly and misfortune still befalls these people just like in real life, such as despite all the help you're offered to give Toad, the money, and promise of a second chance to afford a glamour and continue to live in Fabletown, through enforcement of law Toad is still forced to be evicted from his property with his son into the Farm, a place described as a prison. This disregard of moral choices affecting certain characters storylines makes it difficult to be properly motivated to make empathetic choices if all it's going to do is give characters false hope, thus my second playthrough of the game made it easier to be more stern and apathetic to Toad, in attempt to give him no pretenses that he would be exempt from the rules. The morality of following the rules as opposed to following your instincts is also challenged in this game, as multiple times if you do exactly what Snow White says in order to appease her, effectively the law, you're called her 'lap dog' and Georgie even wishes you'd 'come to your senses' if you choose to chase him first instead of the Crooked Man, where your choice to complete the specified, but not the most important objective, results in characters calling you an obedient dog sent to where it's told. Ergo this game encourages you to make moral choices over what path to take as opposed to the path you're explicitly told to take.
Sunday 20 March 2016
Thursday 17 March 2016
Fallout 2
Do the choices made in the game result in branching
narrative paths? If so, how? If not, how are the choices
meaningful?
Fallout 2 having the mechanic of modifying your character's traits to be more diplomatic or combat based allows for different styles of gameplay. However the beginning sequence of Fallout 2 is still rather linear, as the only way to unlock different dialogue options is to increase intelligence or other speech enhancing skills, and the only way to progress is to complete a linear mission. There is no alternative way to complete the first mission, However there are multiple pathways that can be completed in this open world. However only a few endings are considered 'canon' as a continuation of the series, thus there are only a few select events that truly have happened, that the player should set out to achieve. Likewise there are still only a few 'happy' endings and thus few of the endings are actually impactful to the overarching story of the series.
Fallout 2 having the mechanic of modifying your character's traits to be more diplomatic or combat based allows for different styles of gameplay. However the beginning sequence of Fallout 2 is still rather linear, as the only way to unlock different dialogue options is to increase intelligence or other speech enhancing skills, and the only way to progress is to complete a linear mission. There is no alternative way to complete the first mission, However there are multiple pathways that can be completed in this open world. However only a few endings are considered 'canon' as a continuation of the series, thus there are only a few select events that truly have happened, that the player should set out to achieve. Likewise there are still only a few 'happy' endings and thus few of the endings are actually impactful to the overarching story of the series.
Monday 14 March 2016
Thursday 10 March 2016
Final Script of Bugger Off/The Bug, by Lauren. To be used to develop storyboards
THE BUG
BY Team Meemers
CUT IN:
1 INT. STUDY
The room is cluttered with boxes and papers, and a
solitary desk lamp lights the room.
LOW ANGLE SHOT:
PERSON is sitting at the desk, hunched over a pile of
papers, scribbling away.
The camera refocuses, shifting the focus from the PERSON,
to a pile of soaked napkins, and a dripping bottle of
soda, sitting on the edge of the desk. The split drink
pools on the floor.
PAN DOWN AND ZOOM IN:
MIDSHOT:
Under the table, we see a large BUG scuttle forward,
curiously peering at the split soda.
BUG stops and sips the liquid, perking up in delight,
peering around.
BUG begins to scurry around the floor.
TRACKING:
BUG runs about, jumping from box to box, peering around,
until it stops, paused in delight, staring intently at
something in the distance.
CUT TO:
LOW ANGLE CLOSE UP:
Sitting on the table, we see a full bottle of soda, lying
on its side - the source of the original puddle.
Light glows from behind the bottle, giving it an ethereal
look.
CUT TO:
POV SHOT (PERSON’S):
The BUG jumps onto the desk, scurrying towards the bottle.
PERSON raises up their book, and slams it down violently
on the BUG, splattering it across the desk.
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 2.
There is a small pause, and the splattered mess reforms
itself into four, smaller versions of the bug, all staring
up at the PERSON.
CUT TO BLACK.
BY Team Meemers
CUT IN:
1 INT. STUDY
The room is cluttered with boxes and papers, and a
solitary desk lamp lights the room.
LOW ANGLE SHOT:
PERSON is sitting at the desk, hunched over a pile of
papers, scribbling away.
The camera refocuses, shifting the focus from the PERSON,
to a pile of soaked napkins, and a dripping bottle of
soda, sitting on the edge of the desk. The split drink
pools on the floor.
PAN DOWN AND ZOOM IN:
MIDSHOT:
Under the table, we see a large BUG scuttle forward,
curiously peering at the split soda.
BUG stops and sips the liquid, perking up in delight,
peering around.
BUG begins to scurry around the floor.
TRACKING:
BUG runs about, jumping from box to box, peering around,
until it stops, paused in delight, staring intently at
something in the distance.
CUT TO:
LOW ANGLE CLOSE UP:
Sitting on the table, we see a full bottle of soda, lying
on its side - the source of the original puddle.
Light glows from behind the bottle, giving it an ethereal
look.
CUT TO:
POV SHOT (PERSON’S):
The BUG jumps onto the desk, scurrying towards the bottle.
PERSON raises up their book, and slams it down violently
on the BUG, splattering it across the desk.
(CONTINUED)
CONTINUED: 2.
There is a small pause, and the splattered mess reforms
itself into four, smaller versions of the bug, all staring
up at the PERSON.
CUT TO BLACK.
Never Alone
Chosen question
Do the story nodes in your chosen game(s) work well to support gameplay and gameplay objectives? Why or why not?
Story nodes in the beginning of Never Alone take the form of cut scenes and exposition.
The initial cut scene introduces the world and the characters, however keeps it very vague, as we the players are constantly encouraged to explore deeper into Inuit mythology by the owl giving us the option to view certain clips and images to explain the mythos. However, as the developers understood that not every player would be as invested in the mythos and providing so much information could be distracting from game play, the choice to make this information optional is much appreciated.
Each cut scene and narrated segment we are given provides an objective, and dictates the mood of the scene. 'The girl was devastated' at the destruction of her village or 'The owl man was delighted' to have his drum back. It's a bit like taking a walk through this linear story book, only you can feel real tension in tense areas of the story because you, the player are capable of failure and dying, unlike in a story book where the survival of the main character is presumed to be guaranteed. However I feel as though narrated events where the player is still able to move, such as the bear den, could be better narrated to support game play rather than 'it is not easy to outsmart a bear', as this is a bit of trivial commentary basically telling the player 'here is a puzzle, you're on your own.' The moment the antagonist is chasing the girl is also narrated as 'he was more enraged at the sight of the bola' which tells the player blatantly the objective of the antagonist, and his emotion. However I felt like this was a bit too expository, and could have been better shown as later in tat same chase he cries 'stop, give me that bola!', essentially showing the same thing twice. These cut scene, or event nodes work well to keep the story in focus, but do not otherwise add much to the game or the game play itself. Overall, Never Alone uses nodes well, but not exceptionally so.
Do the story nodes in your chosen game(s) work well to support gameplay and gameplay objectives? Why or why not?
Story nodes in the beginning of Never Alone take the form of cut scenes and exposition.
The initial cut scene introduces the world and the characters, however keeps it very vague, as we the players are constantly encouraged to explore deeper into Inuit mythology by the owl giving us the option to view certain clips and images to explain the mythos. However, as the developers understood that not every player would be as invested in the mythos and providing so much information could be distracting from game play, the choice to make this information optional is much appreciated.
Each cut scene and narrated segment we are given provides an objective, and dictates the mood of the scene. 'The girl was devastated' at the destruction of her village or 'The owl man was delighted' to have his drum back. It's a bit like taking a walk through this linear story book, only you can feel real tension in tense areas of the story because you, the player are capable of failure and dying, unlike in a story book where the survival of the main character is presumed to be guaranteed. However I feel as though narrated events where the player is still able to move, such as the bear den, could be better narrated to support game play rather than 'it is not easy to outsmart a bear', as this is a bit of trivial commentary basically telling the player 'here is a puzzle, you're on your own.' The moment the antagonist is chasing the girl is also narrated as 'he was more enraged at the sight of the bola' which tells the player blatantly the objective of the antagonist, and his emotion. However I felt like this was a bit too expository, and could have been better shown as later in tat same chase he cries 'stop, give me that bola!', essentially showing the same thing twice. These cut scene, or event nodes work well to keep the story in focus, but do not otherwise add much to the game or the game play itself. Overall, Never Alone uses nodes well, but not exceptionally so.
Thursday 3 March 2016
Her Story
Chosen Question
How does your chosen game(s) tell its story? Is it successful?
Her Story starts off with a search engine inviting you to initiate gameplay, and prompts to search up the term 'murder'. This quickly establishes a mystery element that intrigues the player, as they are invited to solve this mystery on their own path and own queries, based on evidence from the first 5 clips each result turns up.
A story unfolds as you play the clips left to right, sorted by date, which was possibly intended for linear storytelling, but allows the player to watch them out of order if they so wish.
The story unfolds by providing tangential stories to the case at hand to drop subtle clues and big name drops for the player to follow like a bread crumb trail to find their next relevant search term. A good example of this could be 'Hannah' mentioning names and places like Peter, Helen, Florence, Glasgow, the attic, the cellar, the mirror several times in several clips. Allowing for broader search terms to still eventually lead to the same revelations. It's up to the player to pick up on suspicious, or new details to progress the full story. The first term 'murder' already sets up Hannah, or at this point in time 'the woman', as a suspicious figure, wherein the last video she asks to speak to a lawyer, saying that all the previous details we have yet to uncover are merely 'stories' and there was no concrete evidence, thus setting her up as the immediate suspect. Due to the 'stories' comment, her accounts from this point forward are taken with a grain of mistrust, and installing a suspicion on falsehood in her words.
There is no clear instruction for the next search query, but going off what little information the prompted search gave us, I looked up 'Simon' and find out about his work history.
Interestingly enough, these videos the woman speaks of Simon in present tense, suggesting that nine days before the 'first' clip, Simon was alive.
We're then introduced to more characters, Peter and Helen, as well as a location Rockington Arms 'The Rock'.
The game is interesting in that it can clearly play out in a non-chronological order, that everyone's play through can be different if they pick up on different words or cues. To ensure similar pathways are taken, a lot of the cues relate to each other to flesh out certain details, like the events on a certain weekend, encounter, or relation to a person, for example Hannah and Eve's relation to Carl.
Interestingly, if the player chooses to pick up on seemingly random cues and word drops, as I like to call the deliberate dropping of a name in the middle of an otherwise unexciting sentence like the word 'palindrome' early on, a good portion of tension building gameplay can be skipped, right into the reveal that Hannah has a twin sister named Eve, as both women have palindromic names.
This open pathway leaves the risk for a particularly observant player simply missing half the story, and potentially missing the child's name, Sarah completely.
However I took a step back to look up less important details to get a more complete story. That's an excellent detail about mystery games such as this, even if you reach the ending, and find the correct conclusion, the mystery element of the game compels the player to find all the details, to find out all the secrets and see the story in it's entirety. There is nothing driving the player for 100% completion other than the simple satisfaction of knowing. However after a while of 8 second clips about what Hannah/Eve did at a party or something equally menial, one could get tired and end the game early on, especially if they did unearth one of the 'big' reveals earlier than intended.
The game assists the player in taking certain queries by giving visual or audio cues to crucial information, such as screen dimming, and distant siren wailing upon the 'pregnancy' reveal, or 'twins' reveal, or 'infertility' reveal, or Simon's ultimate death reveal, or even Eve's 'confession' video.
These cues are clearly meant to tell the player to pay particular attention to the current clip to pick out further search queries from.There are also musical cues with silence, and tracks changing upon certain videos ending,
Her Story uses repetitive clips and name drops to prompt progress, 'dropping' specific details like 'silver mirror', to bring detail to the time taken to specifically describe this object so that players can search up the term 'mirror'. Unusual behaviour such as Hannah tapping rhythmically on the desk is further presented as suspicious by following it up with the entry of the interrogator causing Hannah to sit up and ask to leave, calling further attention to the clip.
Her Story is successful at setting the mood for the story, and prompting further inquiry into relevant plot details, and succeeds in compelling the player to search more just for the pure satisfaction of solving the complete mystery. However I feel after all the main mysteries have been solved the trivial details lose their allure and get simply tiresome after a while, a simple collect all the clips chore and fails to hold my interest. This open path game play allows all players to reach the same conclusions through all sorts of paths, however I feel that if so much of the story can be skipped, is that really a a successful story? I feel like this story could have afforded to 'cut the fat' a little in some places, kept clips relevant and improving on the crucial clips to tell the story better. The two part song was a nice touch, but also added no extra search results that I could pull up, as the story of Hannah almost drowning Eve is all but unimportant seemingly, only revealing Hannah's earlier symptoms of instability. Also looking up the song will only get you the second half of the song, which is irrelevant if you've already managed to piece together all the detail the song outlines such as the blonde wig, and jealousy.However I suppose if you ran across the song first, your 'case' or mystery, would revolve around the song, rather than the song simply being a nice touch.
I like the game for setting up the story that compels you to play for the simple satisfaction of knowing, however I do not like that so much of the game can become redundant over a particularly observant search inquiry of smaller details.
How does your chosen game(s) tell its story? Is it successful?
Her Story starts off with a search engine inviting you to initiate gameplay, and prompts to search up the term 'murder'. This quickly establishes a mystery element that intrigues the player, as they are invited to solve this mystery on their own path and own queries, based on evidence from the first 5 clips each result turns up.
A story unfolds as you play the clips left to right, sorted by date, which was possibly intended for linear storytelling, but allows the player to watch them out of order if they so wish.
The story unfolds by providing tangential stories to the case at hand to drop subtle clues and big name drops for the player to follow like a bread crumb trail to find their next relevant search term. A good example of this could be 'Hannah' mentioning names and places like Peter, Helen, Florence, Glasgow, the attic, the cellar, the mirror several times in several clips. Allowing for broader search terms to still eventually lead to the same revelations. It's up to the player to pick up on suspicious, or new details to progress the full story. The first term 'murder' already sets up Hannah, or at this point in time 'the woman', as a suspicious figure, wherein the last video she asks to speak to a lawyer, saying that all the previous details we have yet to uncover are merely 'stories' and there was no concrete evidence, thus setting her up as the immediate suspect. Due to the 'stories' comment, her accounts from this point forward are taken with a grain of mistrust, and installing a suspicion on falsehood in her words.
There is no clear instruction for the next search query, but going off what little information the prompted search gave us, I looked up 'Simon' and find out about his work history.
Interestingly enough, these videos the woman speaks of Simon in present tense, suggesting that nine days before the 'first' clip, Simon was alive.
We're then introduced to more characters, Peter and Helen, as well as a location Rockington Arms 'The Rock'.
The game is interesting in that it can clearly play out in a non-chronological order, that everyone's play through can be different if they pick up on different words or cues. To ensure similar pathways are taken, a lot of the cues relate to each other to flesh out certain details, like the events on a certain weekend, encounter, or relation to a person, for example Hannah and Eve's relation to Carl.
Interestingly, if the player chooses to pick up on seemingly random cues and word drops, as I like to call the deliberate dropping of a name in the middle of an otherwise unexciting sentence like the word 'palindrome' early on, a good portion of tension building gameplay can be skipped, right into the reveal that Hannah has a twin sister named Eve, as both women have palindromic names.
This open pathway leaves the risk for a particularly observant player simply missing half the story, and potentially missing the child's name, Sarah completely.
However I took a step back to look up less important details to get a more complete story. That's an excellent detail about mystery games such as this, even if you reach the ending, and find the correct conclusion, the mystery element of the game compels the player to find all the details, to find out all the secrets and see the story in it's entirety. There is nothing driving the player for 100% completion other than the simple satisfaction of knowing. However after a while of 8 second clips about what Hannah/Eve did at a party or something equally menial, one could get tired and end the game early on, especially if they did unearth one of the 'big' reveals earlier than intended.
The game assists the player in taking certain queries by giving visual or audio cues to crucial information, such as screen dimming, and distant siren wailing upon the 'pregnancy' reveal, or 'twins' reveal, or 'infertility' reveal, or Simon's ultimate death reveal, or even Eve's 'confession' video.
These cues are clearly meant to tell the player to pay particular attention to the current clip to pick out further search queries from.There are also musical cues with silence, and tracks changing upon certain videos ending,
Her Story uses repetitive clips and name drops to prompt progress, 'dropping' specific details like 'silver mirror', to bring detail to the time taken to specifically describe this object so that players can search up the term 'mirror'. Unusual behaviour such as Hannah tapping rhythmically on the desk is further presented as suspicious by following it up with the entry of the interrogator causing Hannah to sit up and ask to leave, calling further attention to the clip.
Her Story is successful at setting the mood for the story, and prompting further inquiry into relevant plot details, and succeeds in compelling the player to search more just for the pure satisfaction of solving the complete mystery. However I feel after all the main mysteries have been solved the trivial details lose their allure and get simply tiresome after a while, a simple collect all the clips chore and fails to hold my interest. This open path game play allows all players to reach the same conclusions through all sorts of paths, however I feel that if so much of the story can be skipped, is that really a a successful story? I feel like this story could have afforded to 'cut the fat' a little in some places, kept clips relevant and improving on the crucial clips to tell the story better. The two part song was a nice touch, but also added no extra search results that I could pull up, as the story of Hannah almost drowning Eve is all but unimportant seemingly, only revealing Hannah's earlier symptoms of instability. Also looking up the song will only get you the second half of the song, which is irrelevant if you've already managed to piece together all the detail the song outlines such as the blonde wig, and jealousy.However I suppose if you ran across the song first, your 'case' or mystery, would revolve around the song, rather than the song simply being a nice touch.
I like the game for setting up the story that compels you to play for the simple satisfaction of knowing, however I do not like that so much of the game can become redundant over a particularly observant search inquiry of smaller details.
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