Firewatch Liveblog – Day 1

On my “first day” in “Firewatch,” I experienced frightfulness, engagement, and annoyance. At the beginning, I was excited to go over to where the fireworks were and scream at the people who had lit them up. As I found the rope and got closer, I encountered the hill. As I was repelling from it, the rope broke and for I second I thought I was going to die. When I got up, I kept walking and finally encountered the teenagers in the lake. I attempted to swim toward them, but sadly that was not an option. I then was told go back to Two Forks Lookout. I actually enjoyed having these commands pop up; something that didn’t come up neither in “Gone Home” nor “Dear Esther.” However, it took me a long time to get back because rocks were surrounding me and it was challenging for me to find my way back. When I did, I realized they had vandalized the place and got a little frightened. All in all, however, I am enjoying the game and am excited for the “days” to come.

Firewatch Liveblog – Beginning

The beginning of “Firewatch” really caught my attention. I found it interesting that I was able to choose what I wanted to do. This also made me wonder what my classmates were choosing. I was very excited that I got to choose a dog, and I chose the German Shepherd because that was my first dog. As the intro went on, I liked that it was a mix between being able to choose how the story went, and walking through the woods. As of right now, I am excited to see what this game brings and I have a feeling it’ll be a little different from “Gone Home” and “Dear Esther.”

Dear Esther Free Write

My first reaction while playing Dear Esther was that it was going to be exactly like Gone Home. I thought that I was going to need to be picking up objects and waiting for journal entries to come up. So, the first thing that I did was head into the abandoned house and look around. To my surprise, I wasn’t able to pick anything up, I was only allowed to walk. after a couple minutes of walking through the mountain, something similar to a journal entry from Gone Home came up. I kept on following the paths in the hopes that I was heading the right way. In the end, although I definitely enjoyed the sights more in Dear Esther, I was able to understand Gone Home’s story better. The problem I had with Dear Esther was that sometimes the “journal entries” were too far apart from each other, so sometimes I could’t quite remember the last thing he was saying. Also, the entries would just go away, you weren’t able to replay them which made it hard to piece everything together. 

Gone Home

With rain, thunder, and dim lights, Gone Home gives off an initial tense mood. During the first five minutes of the game, I walked around the porch trying to figure out what I was expected to do. All I knew was the date and time: June 7, 1995 at 1:15 AM. Then, ten minutes later when I finally found the key of the front door, I was able to go inside. When I walked through the door, everything was dark and at that moment I regretted my decision to play the game at night, alone. Whenever I walked into a new room, I would turn all of the lights on because for the first hour of me playing the game, I was waiting for something to jump onto the screen and scare me. As I stood in the foyer, I was a little annoyed. This was like no game that I’d ever played before. I had no gun and no zombies nor army men were trying to kill me. My first reaction to the game was boredom. I knew, however, that my task for the night was to play through the game, so I proceeded to play.

I walked around the foyer and as I opened all the drawers, I started finding letters and listening to voice messages. This is where the game started appealing to me; I was starting to understand what I had to do. I walked from room to room, picking up crumpled up papers and unlocking safes. I started finding secret passages and my Gone Homeinterest in the game grew. I wanted to know what was going on between Sam and Lonnie, and every time a journal entry came up I would become even more engaged in the game. I thought that the journals were an essential part of the game. Gone Home did a great job at transmitting what the characters were like and what was going on between them. Sam, for example, is a teenager who is into punk music and video games. Through journal entries and crumpled papers, we find out that Sam is a lesbian and is currently going through a rough time with her parent’s acceptance of who she is.

In the end, I didn’t quite catch was going on with Sam and Katie’s dad, but I did catch on the fact that Oscar had abused of their dad. This is one of the reasons why this game is interesting, not everyone has the same experience while playing it. I, for example, am sure that I missed some of the clues that were about Sam and Katie’s father which is why I wasn’t too clear on what his occupation was or why he wrote the books that he did. However, to my surprise, I ended up enjoying the game, at least more than I thought I would.Gone Home

Gone Home

With rain, thunder, and dim lights, Gone Home gives off an initial tense mood. During the first five minutes of the game, I walked around the porch trying to figure out what I was expected to do. All I knew was the date and time: June 7, 1995 at 1:15 AM. Then, ten minutes later when I finally found the key of the front door, I was able to go inside. When I walked through the door, everything was dark and at that moment I regretted my decision to play the game at night, alone. Whenever I walked into a new room, I would turn all of the lights on because for the first hour of me playing the game, I was waiting for something to jump onto the screen and scare me. As I stood in the foyer, I was a little annoyed. This was like no game that I’d ever played before. I had no gun and no zombies nor army men were trying to kill me. My first reaction to the game was boredom. I knew, however, that my task for the night was to play through the game, so I proceeded to play.

I walked around the foyer and as I opened all the drawers, I started finding letters and listening to voice messages. This is where the game started appealing to me; I was starting to understand what I had to do. I walked from room to room, picking up crumpled up papers and unlocking safes. I started finding secret passages and my Gone Homeinterest in the game grew. I wanted to know what was going on between Sam and Lonnie, and every time a journal entry came up I would become even more engaged in the game. I thought that the journals were an essential part of the game. Gone Home did a great job at transmitting what the characters were like and what was going on between them. Sam, for example, is a teenager who is into punk music and video games. Through journal entries and crumpled papers, we find out that Sam is a lesbian and is currently going through a rough time with her parent’s acceptance of who she is.

In the end, I didn’t quite catch was going on with Sam and Katie’s dad, but I did catch on the fact that Oscar had abused of their dad. This is one of the reasons why this game is interesting, not everyone has the same experience while playing it. I, for example, am sure that I missed some of the clues that were about Sam and Katie’s father which is why I wasn’t too clear on what his occupation was or why he wrote the books that he did. However, to my surprise, I ended up enjoying the game, at least more than I thought I would.Gone Home

Siberian Tiger Avatar

My avatar, as it is clear, is a Siberian tiger. I chose this because tigers are my favorite animal. Everything about tigers appeals to me; with their beautiful orange color and their prominent strength, tigers are astounding animals. Siberian tigers are the world’s largest cats and, to me, they are an inspiration. I long for the day when I have the personality that resembles that of a tiger. Not scared of being alone, but instead able to thrive due to my own accomplishments and hard work. So, I decided to make my avatar a Siberian tiger, not because it’s a reflection of who I am, but rather it is a representation of who I want to be. I wrote “Niky” on the image to be able to start believing more in myself and working on achieving my goals with the personality of a tiger.

Photo Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jinterwas/5224323360/in/photolist-9gwrab-8XE2jG-p2fuyZ-baArB2-aahDwv-mhqHUm-beu1ze-aK1T6D-efoHM4-bSx28Z-9Ty55e-kAAVYa-efusay-opaaeE-Cvbb2r-7qQam9-d1N1xs-d1N1F5-bDCfVf-bSwWj6-aj7Lvw-bSwYMR-aj7KKw-9MA8eS-bSwWLz-vkRfvm-KqXiCm-LdArgm-KWzxJC-Ks4J3y-opaodV-bSx24T

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