Author: Jake

Firewatch Day 77

A lot has happened since my last blog post. Firstly the plot took a turn that      I had not anticipated as I thought originally it’d be about the two missing girls and what had happened to them. However, it turned out to be another mystery story where we don’t necessarily construct a narrative but we get pieces into a mystery story. As the game progressed I also felt a continued sense of paranoia knowing that someone is listening to me and someone is watching me. The line that Henry states that really struck a chord with me was “is this all in my head”. I am hoping in the back of my mind there is a mind blowing twist but what I do really enjoy about this game is how in touches upon loving someone with mental illness. Whether it’d be Julia with Dementia or continued paranoia the game does a good job at humanizing these  I am close to the game’s end and hopefully will be able to get another blogpost before midnight don’t want to be up too late.

Day 1 and Day 2 complete

After starting fire watch I knew this game would definitely stray from the other walking simulators we’ve played thus far. The intro was very unique as you made choices about Henry’s relationship with his soon to be wife Julia. The intro similarly resembled the film’s Up intro where your given a life story and you see unfold before your eyes in a short period of time. Upon starting the game it felt comforting that you were given tasks and had some sort of objective as opposed to gone home and dear Esther. At this point in the game a story is starting to develop as Henry is tasked with finding whose been up to the latest shenanigans in Yellowstone including cutting the telephone and vandalizing the ranger tower. I am gonna take a short break and get right back to exploring.

Free write

While Gone Home allows you to create your own narrative by drawing assumptions from various notes and objects, dear esther differs by drawing assumptions straight from the text and images given to you. The basis if Ball’s historical argument lies in the fact that in Gone Home your not given a story but have to discover pieces of evidence yourself and use them in order to puzzle together your own depiction of the family. Similarly, historians look at various pieces of evidence in order to construct an accurate historical account. Dear Esther acts much more like a literary text as you are given the narrative and draw assumptions based off the main character’s passages. Both games definitely have the same eerie feel with the main objective to explore in order to gain more and more parts of the story. What I believe makes gone home better is the historical argument that Bell is making. You, the user, has to actually act like a detective finding various pieces in order to construct your narrative.

How Gone Home redefines perspectives and narration

When you dropped into a game in media res its hard to get your bearings what to do and what your task actually is. Combined with the creepy backdrop of an old mansion and earth shattering thunderstorm, when I first started the game I was immediately overwhelmed and originally thought this was some indy horror game where there’d be multiple jump scares. I started off hesitant not knowing where I should go literally feeling the gloomy ambience rattle through my bones. However, within 10-20 minutes I had finally gotten the hang of exploring the house and finding clues to pice together the story of Lonnie and Sam. Not only does this game challenge the LGBT issue head on, but introduces a unique narrative where we continue to dive into the emotion of Sam, the protagonists little sister.

Upon revealing the first couple of audio clips the user got the sense that Sam was a typical 90s teenager. She was into the new video games, rejected the ideals of her parents, and was obsessed with grunge a punk rock. However, what really sheds light on her situation is when you start to infer that Sam is lesbian and has feelings for her best friend Lonnie. This quick;y explains why Sam had all these girl magazines scattered around the house and why she thinks Daniel is so weird even though he probably was a nice guy who enjoyed playing nintendo. It was entertaining to see the love story develop between Lonnie and Sam and also how they snuck around in order to see each other. At the end true love prevailed cause even with the disapproval of Sam’s parents and the stigma with LGBT couples at the time Sam goes off to live with Lonnie. IT brings relevance to a large issue but also reintroduces that not long ago the LGBT was really discriminated against.

What also has to be said about this title is the idea of perspective as we, the user, construct the narrative of the game. It reminded of classic noir films of finding clues, similar to the directing style of David Lynch. In video games the protagonist the user controls already has a general sense of self and the user simply watches without control. However, Gone away puts the digital protagonist in the shoes of the user or vice versa as both people are in the same situation. Neither the user nor protagonist know anything about the relationship and it takes both people in order to uncover the mystery.

 

 

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