I had played through the walking dead game before, but it was a long time ago and so many terrible things happen throughout the rest of the seasons that it was nice to get a refresher on the first episode. In the first season, you play as a guy named Lee who finds a little girl named Clementine. I won't spoil anything, but later on in season 2, you play as Clementine and the decisions seem to get harder by having to choose from a child's point of view. One of the biggest arguments I think that this game makes doesn't happen until the very end of each episode. After you play through, it gives you a poll of what percentage of player chose what decision in each pivotal moment in the game. It also marks the decisions as either red or green to indirectly show what is morally "wrong or right". To be able to see the most popular choice from actual people is really trying to send a message about what kind of morals people really have. Although it is just a game, the game is very narrative and immersive so I think there is some truth to those results. For example, when Lee was required to choose to give the woman the gun or not, the end result would end up the same in the game, but the difference is what is considered "morally right" with the rest of the characters who remember the decision that you made. I think that this game is an example of Bogost's procedural rhetoric because there are many functionalities of the game that aren't outright explained to you that affect how you make your decisions in the game. One example of this is that each time you have to make a decision, whether it is simple dialogue or saving someone's life, the choices are timed with a bar that compresses on the bottom so that you have to think more quickly. Another example is the question marks on the top left of the screen that show when people make note of what you have done. That kind of makes you more conscious of helping the other characters too instead of just yourself. Overall, the game is a large morality test that makes you question what kind of values you and the people around you have which is very powerful for a video game.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2016
Categories |