Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1825https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6349This game ruined my life. I am wrecked. WTF. I was not ready for the plot twist at all, but then it happened and I was sobbing like a baby. I hate this game and I'm swearing off all video games for the rest of my life because of it. Okay, not really, but I don't even play games and this is what I chose and what I am exposed to?!?!!? In all seriousness, I am really glad this was the last game I picked to play for the class. It had a wonderful storyline and was super creative in terms of the chapters. I seriously was not expecting that ending at allllll! *SPOILER ALERT* So, essentially BrotherS: A Tale of Two Sons turns into Brother: A Tale of One Son because the older brother dies!! LIKE WHAT EVEN HOW DOES A CHARACTER WHO HAS BEEN THERE THE ENTIRE GAME DIE?!!! ALL BECAUSE HE WAS STUPID AND WANTED TO FLIRT WITH A GIRL WHO TURNED OUT TO BE AN EVIL SPIDER BIATCH! The creators did a really good job of tugging at the heartstrings of players with the sad music in the background, and the way the younger brother cried in the rain and slowly walked with his head down while burying his brother. The first thing I thought of when the older brother died was how the little brother is going to swim now that his older brother isn't there for him to hang on to, so once the little brother got to a river and was scared and crying, again came the waterworks. I loved how the little brother then had to use the older brother's controls to do things on his own that he would have had to do with his brother in the past. Seriously so creative and emotional. I loved it and I hated it for doing that to me. So obviously in the end the dad survives... but at what cost????? The younger brother is definitely going to come out of that situation traumatized. He saw it all. He witness dead giants, hanging people, and a spider kill his own brother. There weren't really any ethical decisions that had to be made by players of this game, but it did do a good job at shedding light on Virtue Ethics as well as the Ethics of Care. Again, the theme of love and family is SOOO important in this game. If the players were impartial to all characters of the game like some ethical theories prompt us to be, then the game would not have been nearly as emotional and interesting as it was. I love how the entire game is depicted through just body language and gibberish yet it could still evoke such strong emotions. TRULY POWERFUL. 5/5. Definitely my favorite game played in this class and probably in life? Everyone should play this, but at the risk of feeling a bit sad after (like I am right now and will probably be for 5938 days to come. No one talk to me. Thanks).Thu, 06 Apr 2017 00:24:24 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6349&iddiary=11121https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6349I found out that this game was released in 2013, which explains why the graphics seemed unappealing in comparison to the Witcher III, which was released two years later. The background graphics of this game with its landscapes are pretty detailed, but there's just something about the way the characters are rendered that irks me. I realized after playing for about an hour and a half today that this game reminds me of the last one I played for this class, which was Thomas Was Alone. This is because in Thomas Was Alone, the AI characters must work together to advance through the stages and that also applies in this game. The brothers have to work together and each use their skills and capabilities to advance through the map. Today, I finished the chapter with the trolls or ogres or whatever those creatures are and now I am currently at the chapter where the brothers have flown to a castle looking thing and are inside it, but it is falling apart. This new chapter requires a lot of coordination because the brothers are tied to each other and need to swing from their brother to catch on to things. It's challenging at times because I was holding down four buttons and had to remember which button to hold and let go of without having them fall and die. Again, what was apparent throughout gameplay today is the theme of love and cooperation. It's interesting to note that even though there is no English spoken in the game (just gibberish), the body language of the characters help to illustrate what is going on. Even in the trolls who aren't human, we see that they are capable of care for each other and for the brothers, seen when the troll gets the brothers to the cave and finds its lover. In addition, the brothers face countless dangers such as the wild wolves, the malfunctioning airplane, the waterfall, and the evil troll and come near death, yet their will to find the cure for their father does not falter. I think this ties along with the Ethics of Care greatly. So far, this game isn't like any other videogame I've ever played. I like the storyline and the map, and I like how users must use their brains and cooperatively play both sides of the remote as both brothers at the same time to advance through the game. It's not too difficult, but it isn't a breeze, so the difficulty is perfect as well in my opinion.Sat, 01 Apr 2017 21:57:16 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6349&iddiary=11081https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6349I played today for about an hour today. The first thing I noticed about the game is the quality of the graphics. Compared to the first game I played for this class, which was The Witcher III, the graphics are quite poor and seem a bit outdated. At first, I was really frustrated with the game because there weren't enough instructions given in the game other than press L2 and R2 to interact with the little and big brother. I was stuck at this part where the brothers have brought the dad to a wooden platform that rises, but I didn't know how to get platform to rise and ran around confused forever until I finally figured that the brother could kneel near this one wall so his little brother could jump up using the big brother's knee as a step. I like how the brothers have to work together to advance through the map, but I wish the beginning had more of a tutorial about the game mechanics. Currently, I am at the part in the game where the brothers are in some type of underwater cave. It's pretty fun how you have to find out smart ways to advance. For example, before this I had to pick up a sheep and place him in a wheel so that both brothers could cross a drawbridge and to get around this spinning wheel thing, the brothers had to pick up a heavy metal stick and place it into these revolving wheels so that they can stop thing metal thing from spinning and walk across it. What I've noticed is that these brothers will do anything for their father and for each other even if it means doing dangerous things that endanger their lives. The brothers obviously care a lot for their dad that they are putting their lives in danger to find a cure for his disease. They also care for each other as seen when the older brother lets his younger brother climb on his back while he swims because the younger brother does not know how to swim. I think this ties in greatly with Ethics of Care and a theme of caring for family as well altruism because the characters are working together and sacrificing their time and energy to benefit their dad.Fri, 31 Mar 2017 01:14:49 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6349&iddiary=11079https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6299Played the game for a really long time today and made it to level 8.10. At the beginning of my gameplay I was really frustrated because to me the levels were extremely challenging and required a ton of coordination. There were two stages especially that made me really mad and almost caused me to quit the game because they were nearly impossible. One of these was when John and Claire had to reach the right side of the screen while avoiding the incoming spikes on the left side and the other was with these moving platforms where Sarah had to jump upward to real the portal at the top. Since last time, a ton of new characters have been introduced. James and Sarah are the last two to join the group of the 7 Architects. Gravity is backwards for James so he sticks to the top of the mazes and jumps downwards. Sarah is really small and has the ability to jump again while she is mid-air. After the Emergence Event, characters such as Gray, Paul, Jo, and Sam. The character development I witnessed during my gameplay today was quite extraordinary. Thomas became self-aware while in the simulation and there was a "networking error" that allowed him to connect to the internet for 12 seconds which opened his eyes to the rest of the world and made him want to become a creator of his own world. So together with the other 6 AIs in his group (who all eventually reconnected after being eaten by the pixel cloud), they decide to help each other free the rest of the AIs. I got really sad towards the end of my gameplay. All the AIs have their own personality and realized that they have to sacrifice themselves to help the rest of the AIs "above". They become selfless and gain a do or die mentality because they want to free the other AIs. The characters that were previously self-conscious now realize that their quirks make them special. John who used to be conceited now realizes he can help others realize their worth. Claire still thinks she's a superhero and will do whatever it takes to help the others escape the simulation. Together, all 7 AIs, form the Emergence Event. I think this part of the game is really powerful because it ties to real life. There is strong symbolism here as the creators are showing that bad personality traits and low self-esteem can be shed and lost in growth. This game got really interesting because after the architects are gone and new grey characters are introduced, it becomes apparent that these new characters can now acquire the powers of the 7 original AIs by jumping into floating rectangles of that color. For example, blue means they can float in water, purple means they can double jump, and pink means they become a trampoline. I really like how the creators added dialogue and gave names to the squares so we know that when a grey character hits a blue powerup thing, they have acquired Claire's power. Rather than being just a puzzle game, this game makes you feel close to the pieces, which is strange because I never knew how much little shapes could be personified until now. Although this is my third log, I will continue to play the game some more. Where I'm at, Gray has betrayed Paul and wants to finish the simulation himself, but Paul is determined to warn the others about Gray. I don't know if the original AIs will make a comeback, but hopefully they do and hopefully in the end all of the AIs live in a world without simulations.Thu, 23 Feb 2017 02:52:47 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6299&iddiary=11023https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6299Today, I played for about an hour. I'm not at my console right now so I'm not really sure what stage I got to. So far, we have some pretty interesting developments. It turns out that Laura's usefulness is that she serves as a sort of trampoline so that the other characters can jump on her when they need a boost onto other platforms. Interestingly enough, Chris has fallen in love with Laura, which is odd because Chris is normally pessimistic, and I can't see him liking anyone. At first, I was getting kind of annoyed with Chris because of his negativity, but once he showed some emotion towards the other characters such as Laura and Thomas, I figured he can't be that bad. For some reason Laura has an ominous black pixel cloud that follows her around, which makes all the AIs in the game (other than Chris) wary of her. At where I'm at in the game, the black cloud eventually eats Thomas and Laura. I have a theory that the developers of the simulated world have programmed the cloud to remove AIs from the simulation when they've become too self-aware or have become a roadblock. I doubt that is the last we've seen of these characters, so I'm excited to see where they show up next. I still don't know how I'm going to relate this game to topics we've learned in class so I'm still hoping that as I continue playing that this makes itself clear. I have a feeling that if I finish the game, it'll reveal why the AIs are where they are and what their purpose is. The puzzles are getting harder and harder and more frustrating as I advance through the stages so hopefully I can finish this game or at least get to a point where I have enough material to write about. I really like the concept of the game though thus far. I like how the creators have managed to add humanizing traits to these little shapes. It is really important how the AIs must depend on each other to get through the stages. This adds usefulness to each and every character, which helps to portray values of friendship and selflessness to the player. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Mon, 13 Feb 2017 15:36:59.)Mon, 13 Feb 2017 15:31:02 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6299&iddiary=10972https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6299I played this game for the first time today. My session lasted about 45 minutes and I got to level 3.2. So far I'm really enjoying the concept of the game. It is quite unique and I like how it's more of a puzzle game where you have to use your brain rather than a role playing game like the last one I played. So far I've been introduced to Thomas, Christopher, John, Claire, and Laura. I like how each AI character that is introduced comes with their own personality and abilities. Thomas is an introspective character who hates being alone, Chris is a negative square who can't jump that high and would rather be alone, John is tall and extremely athletic but also positive and helpful, Claire can float in water and thinks she's a superhero, and I'm not sure yet what Laura's skills are. My initial thought was that I like the music playing in the background. I also like how the narrator has a British accent. The idea of the game is quite intriguing because the characters all have to depend on one another to get through the portals and stages. I have grown to be fond of these colored blobs through the narration because I've gotten to know them as the stages have advanced. I thought it was so cute when all the characters had to get on top of Claire during one of the stages so that she could float them across the toxic water. So far, I'm not really sure how this game relates to the class. I have a feeling that as I keep playing more aspects of the game will make this apparent as I find out more about the simulated environment that these AIs are in and why they're there in the first place. Level 3.1 also had a mention of splitting entities and a hint of danger and caution through Laura's dialogue so I'm sure more interesting things are to come. I am excited to see how this turns out once I play some more.Sun, 12 Feb 2017 03:01:36 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6299&iddiary=10970https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6222Today's session went A LOT more smoothly than yesterday's. The objective I was stuck on yesterday was to "Follow the Nilfgaardian soldiers' tracks using your Witcher Senses" in the "The Beast of White Orchard" quest. For some reason, I kept going to this same location and getting killed by wild dogs. So today when I started off, I decided to follow a different objective of the quest first which was to "Ask the herbalist about buckthorn". I followed a map and talked to an herbalist who told me about where I could find a specific herb, buckthorn, in order to lure a griffin that has been harassing the village of White Orchard and killing people. I then gathered the buckthorn and then decided to try again on the first objective I was stuck on and surprisingly I completed it pretty quickly. Next, rather than luring the griffin right away, I decided to do some side quests to gain more experience and level up. The secondary quests I completed were very interesting and showed more depth about the game and the game's creators. One of the quests I completed was "Twisted Firestarter". The context of this quest is that there is a dwarf/blacksmith in White Orchard named Willis who accepted money from the Nilfgaardian soldiers and helped craft their armor and weapons. As a result, Willis believes this made the villagers angry as they have shunned him and his forge was burned down. Willis asked me, Geralt the Witcher, to find out who set fire to his forge. When I discovered the arsonist, he was very drunk and angry and was shouting derogatory things about dwarves and how they are selfish, stingy beings. Again, we note how the creators of the game have incorporated a theme of class levels and discrimination into their game although they used fictional groups such as Witchers, dwarves, and the Nilgaardian soldiers as the people who are discriminated against. The arsonist tried to bribe my character with gold into not turning him in. I like how the game let me make the choice of whether I would take the money or whether I would turn him in. This allows players to make decisions of what they think they should do and the game is influenced by this choice. After I chose not to take the bribe, the game let me choose whether I wanted to fight the arsonist to bring him to Willis or to be calm, put a spell on him, and say "No, you're coming with me." When I chose the second option, I gained experience points, which was cool because it's like I was rewarded for making the less violent choice. This encourages me to perform in a moral way when playing the game in the future so I can be rewarded with more experience points. I was surprised at how the dwarf handled the case of the arsonist though. Rather than talking it through, Willis called over the Nilgaardian soldiers who took the arsonist away to be hanged on a tree! I was shocked and chose the dialogue option, "That seems harsh" to which Willis seemed completely justified and said that it was justice.... Makes you wonder.. like the quest description says, "Harsh justice - or maybe just harsh?". Another secondary quest I completed was "Missing in Action". In this quest, I was asked to help a peasant from White Orchard, Dune, find his brother who enlisted to take up arms against Nilfgaard, but never returned from battle. We went to the battlefield and searched around until Bastien's (the missing brother) dog caught onto his scent and led us to a hut where we found Bastien fraternizing with a soldier. Geralt asked them what was going on and Dune was quick to assume that the soldier had taken Bastien hostage (again.. theme of discrimination and stereotypes appears here). Bastien replies that the soldier saved his life and that he needs a place to stay. Dune is hesitant about taking in a soldier but then I was given the option to choose between telling Dune either: 1) "You're right. His smell will put off the others and draw too much attention" or 2) "C'mon. He saved your brother". I, of course, chose the morally correct option 2, which convinced Dune to take him in. He paid me for helping him then I was on my way to kill a griffin! That is where I currently am at in the game. I tried to kill the griffin twice but died both times so I'll probably continue to play when I'm free and level up with other side quests before trying again. I am liking the game a lot more now after my successes today. I also learned more about collecting items to making potions and go to craftsmen to have armor and weapons made, so I will be using that knowledge to my benefit in the future.Fri, 20 Jan 2017 00:00:40 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6222&iddiary=10876https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6222Not much happened in today's gaming session. I basically just ran around the map the entire time still trying to figure out how to accomplish my current quest. The quest was to go to the site of the murdered Nilfgaardians and use my witcher senses to try to gather clues. However, I kept running into wild dogs and then they kept killing me so I'd have to start over from the most recent saved state. So that was annoying. So, in yesterday's log I said I felt guilty when I had to slay the wild dogs, but honestly... after today, I got so frustrated and the dogs were so mean that eventually killing them did not evoke that emotion for me. I noticed something interesting though when the hunter took me to the site where the Nilfgaardians were murdered. He seemed very distraught about their death whereas Geralt's character was unphased. All he said as a response was that "life moves forward. They were just Nilfgaardians" to which the hunter replied something along the lines of "Nilfgaardians are like the rest of us. Except they wear black armor." This shows that even in gaming worlds, class and racial disparities are present. To further illustrate this point, the loading screens of the game shows a scene from the game as well as little hints and sayings at the bottom. One of the times when I had to restart the game, the saying said something like, "Humans and non-humans don't get along. Often times, when they are together, a massacre occurs." This shows how the creators of Witcher tried to portray real life issues in their game which could encourage ethical reflection by players.Wed, 18 Jan 2017 23:50:20 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6222&iddiary=10846https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6222I played this game for the first time today. I expected to play for around an hour, however, I spent more around 2 hours to get to where I am at in the game. This is because the tutorials and opening intros and storyline took quite a bit of time. I currently am not too entranced in the game right now.. the map is really frustrating to follow and there are a lot of controls to remember. I do like the visuals though. The movie scene at the beginning where Geralt is tracing the footsteps of a girl is very beautifully drawn out and makes me feel like I'm watching a movie. The quest I have just completed is asking the Nilfgaardians about Yennefer and now I am trying to kill the griffin in the town to get more information from the commander of the "black ones" about Yennefer's whereabouts. So far, what I've already noticed about the game is that it contains common motifs seen in video games such as a strong male lead, violence, and sexualization of women. We play a character named Geralt who is currently on the search for his love, Yennefer. It is unclear where she has gone or why she is missing. At the beginning of the game, Yennefer is shown in Geralt's dream butt-naked and the view mainly focuses on her behind. Geralt is also shown naked in a tub, however we are never shown his butt. There is also a scene where an adult joke was made about a unicorn and how Geralt and Yennefer used this unicorn as a bed (I'm not really sure if this was sexual?? this part was vague and lightly touched on). The topic of rape was also brought up nonchalantly a couple times because soldiers in the game rape women when they come through villages. This sort of representation of women and rape seemed so casual that I can't help but to wonder if the people playing the game have learned to become desensitized to these sorts of things. Something else that is interesting to note is that Geralt has two swords. In the tutorial, it states one is a silver one to slay monsters and the other is steel to kill humans. I noticed for some reason that I did not feel guilty when killing monsters or angry guards, however, when killing wild dogs, I felt a little bit guilty. Why does this difference in emotions felt occur? Is this normal? Should I feel guilty about attacking both humans and dogs since they're more realistic? Am I not feeling guilt about killing monsters and angry guards because they're not pure and innocent like most dogs? I think that is what I'll use as a justification for my evoked emotions.Tue, 17 Jan 2017 21:17:35 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6222&iddiary=10834