Textual Analysis: Week 06

How were game mechanics used to immerse the player into your chosen game's narrative?

The convincing physics of the interactable elements in Amnesia, immerse the player in the narrative very effectively.

To open doors in Amnesia, you click on the handle and drag the cursor down, nearly identical to the method you would use to open doors in real life. The same method goes for closing doors and opening chests and drawers in the game, to a point where even the trajectory and speed of which you move the cursor is reflected in the animation of your interaction. The behavioural mimmicking at play immerses the player in the narrative by making interactions feel like they do outside the diegesis so accurately.

When the player enters the dark they may light up their lantern, which they discover earlier in game, however, like real lanterns, it runs out of gas and this mechanic relies on the player looting through the environments to discover refills to keep it lit. The realistic urgency the game replicates makes the management of the lantern paramount. The versimilitude of this mechanic immerses the player into the narrative through the bridging of this famliarity.

This freedom makes the play feel meaningful for the player as although their interactions don't always necessarily effect the narrative plot, they still effect the game world in a believable way giving a great sense of immersion.
The combination of what appear to be trivial details actually enhance the experience immersing the player through having their agency reflected so accurately to real life and the range of diegetic elements that are interactive also make the players presence very prominent.

Textual Analysis: Week 05

Was environmental storytelling used in an effective and interesting way in your chosen game(s)?Why/why not?

The environmental storytelling used in "Outlast" was effective and interesting as it set the eery tone for the game very clearly.
At the start of the game, the outside of the building appears a well kept solid structure with some development taking place as suggested by the scaffolding. The Victorian styled detailing in the doors and furniture, along with the dark night make the setting feel nearly Gothic.
As soon as the player gets inside, the rooms appear typical, but as you progress deeper through the game it gets much darker and grittier, hinting at how the state of the mt massive asylum came to be. The game achieves this by littering documents for the player to find at their own will that describe the story, like documents and graffiti about the mysterious "Walrider" project, or when the player discovers a profile about a character called, Doctor Wernicke, only later to find his name in an obituary in another document later in the game. This, in addition to the decrepid voices behind surgical curtains calling out Wernicke's name, results in the player making the connection to previous clues while forming more questions about the asylum.
Environmental storytelling is most effective when they reveal just enough so insignificant details in environments the player had already explored may connect together to make them significant, creating exposition. Having the player actively make cognitive connections makes them feel rewarded and keeps their interest. Outlast accomplishes this several times through the littering of documents, and ephemeral context on the walls.
The revelation creates an eeriness as well as more interest to find out what really happened in this blood soaked environment.

Textual Analysis: Week 04

Does your chosen game's design of the avatar character help to immerse you in the story? Explain your answer.

Niko Bellic is a very strong avatar in grand theft auto 4, as the relationship that is developed with the player through progressing the narrative proves extremely helpful in immersing the player into the world of liberty city.
Niko, like the player, appears as if they are new to the city and don't quite belong in the world. This provides a connection between player and avatar straight away, and as the story develops and Niko completes missions [like collecting money for Vlad or taxi missions for his cousin Roman], he is rewarded with money and more luxurious living situations. The player then gets more attached to Niko as they journey the grind to the top together.
This relationship between player and avatar grows further as exposition is revealed to the player about the vague and mysterious avatar Niko as they progress the game accomplishing missions together. The revelations of which [like his hardships fighting in the war or mob bosses from his home country who are out to get him] make the player feel empathetic towards this character whom if his backstory was presented early in the narrative, before the attatchment/relationship to Niko was developed, would not have nearly as much significance to the player.
This strategy of developing a strong world for the player to believe in, then having this empty vessel for the player to progress the game and develop some form of an affinity to, then dropping this vessel's exposition into the equation is a very effective way to make the player feel immersed in a game and invest emotionally/mentally, achieving optimal enjoyment out of the narrative.

Textual Analysis: Week 03

Discuss the in-game design and implementation of decision points in your chosen game[s] (i.e. the actual way conveying choice to the player looks and functions)\

In my chosen game,"The Banner Saga", decision points were presented in situations where the player must make a choice that influences the game, be it on a micro or macro level.
 These decision points were presented by sliding a list of options up from the bottom of the screen for story decisions and conversations, most commonly between battle segments.
 The Banner Saga is heavily text based and to acquire the players motivation I believe requires heavy attention to the plot which, because is text driven, can feel very hard to immerse the player into the world as the heavy amounts of texts can feel intimidating and some lore can be confusing if you miss or cannot connect the diegetic pieces together from prior knowledge to similar themed narratives.

Because of this I found many early game decisions to be meaningless and uninteresting and although I have some sense of agency over what the character responds, not understanding the context entirely makes them feel hollow.
 In a text section where the Dredge are invading a small village, amidst the panic your character can choose to send his ally to safety or to let them fight along side you in battle. After prompting my choice to send her away I found myself in battle and outnumbered resulting in my defeat. Understanding the consequences of the decision and having it reflect in the following gameplay so dramatically made the decision feel meaningful, compared to a conversation segment where I got lost by the language and lore which made me less interested in the decision.
In this heavily Text based game, the decision points were implemented seamlessly into the flow of the gameplay but whether the text kept my attention or not would reflect on the amount of agency I felt making those decisions.

Textual analysis: Week 02

Did Linear Storytelling in your chosen game(s) engage and excite you as a player? Explain why or why not.

In my chosen game, "Prince of Persia The Sands Of Time", the linear storytelling managed to excite and engage me with its intriguing cinematics and clearly presented production elements that reflect in game actions.
As I progressed into the gameplay which would take me to different parts of the world to achieve certain tasks, the game provided context through the cut scenes and gave incentive to follow the provided path to see what comes next. An example of this is when the player discovers a shrine/tomb in which a shining dagger resides elevated high above, and your character narrates its majestic appeal to him. I found myself compelled to progress the designated path despite its puzzling nature which after solving gives great satisfaction. Upon discovering through a later cut scene that the dagger is a central plot device for the entire game makes the task feel extremely significant.
In essence the task is often to get from one point to another but solving the correct way to get there can be just as rewarding as getting to the end itself. By having the cinematics reflect your success of a certain task in the narrative makes the sense of reward exponential and encourages you to progress further.
Even though the narrative is linear, I was able to find myself engaged and excited to progress through it because of its interesting and well presented story which reflect in game elements giving the player a great sense of agency despite the story's end being predetermined. 

Textual Analysis: Week 01

Does the chosen game(s) make user input feel meaningful in terms of story direction and progression? Why or Why not?

The text based computer game "Zork", did not make the user input feel meaningful in terms of story direction or progression , as complying to the correct language proved difficult at times.

Being unfamiliar with text based games, I found complying to the games syntax challenging and what i believed to be logical responses or inputs were often invalid and halted my progression several times. After literally describing that “It is possible to climb down into the canyon from here.” I input, “climb down canyon” in which the game responded, “I don't know the word canyon.” Having the game stop my progression, even though I entered what I believed to be a valid input, took me out of the story and left me frustrated.

This resulted with me entering safe inputs that I knew would have an effect on the game, like go west, or, go north etc. Typing primitive and archaic commands for my avatar made the experience very bland and I didn't progress anywhere beyond reaching points where I “cannot go any further East.”

I did not feel any progression in either the story direction or gameplay, aside from accomlishing the trivial task of transporting to a slightly further area from where I originated, because the game language was foreign to me [despite being in english], and what I believed to be logically sound inputs did not register within the game world as anything/or anything significant halting any progression through the story, losing all desire or pleasure to play it.