Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1914https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6681As I've been playing this game, I've started to wonder the 'correct' way to play it. There is a heavy emphasis placed on characterization of the main character--a sixty year old, soon to be retired police chief named Jack. Jack frequently has monologues and soliloquies reflecting on his mental state, how he feels about work, his home life, and his friends. All of these tie into gameplay. I'm trying to play the game strategically, all while taking Jack's life into consideration and acting accordingly. So he's a hardened police chief. Maybe I shouldn't let off coworkers so easily when they ask to call off sick. How should I feel about the mafia asking me for favors? Well, Jack's best friend asked for a cover before fleeing town. As Jack, I should be interested in maintaining the word I gave to my friend, as well as keeping my own family safe. Understanding Jack thoroughly has added another level of dimensionality to the game. In the opening sequence, he offers thoughts on his own moral lens. He has wild impulses, but keeps them restrained, for the most part. Mediating play between my own moral code, and Jack's has been an interesting one. Sometimes, I will make strategic moves such as purchasing names of workers who plan to testify against me, which I personally would not do, but Jack might. Other times, I decide to let workers off for a day because of a weak excuse, which Jack would not allow. Playing this way has made for an interesting experience that has lead me to consider my own thoughts on morals, and how others see the world around them.Sat, 31 Mar 2018 23:27:36 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6681&iddiary=11831https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6681I've started to get into the nitty gritty of gameplay, and things have gotten much more strategic. I have to weigh my options between sending in an officer who is too tired to do a job or send backup for him and risk not having the resources for another call, and when to just let a call go. Not to mention, the mafia who the main character is also working for, requests that I leave, or throw calls. This has been especially difficult for me because when I do throw calls, the mayor's office cuts funding to the police office and I am forced to fire an officer. The gist of the game is--how much do I want to care about retaining my job, my relationship to the mafia, or to my coworkers? I spent several in-game days attempting to reach a happier balance with not a lot of success. When cops ask for a day off, I usually give it to them. Despite that, I have fired cops that are threatening to testify against me for something or another. I also try to act efficiently when it comes to calls, but the mafia is frightening enough that I will not respond to a call or send a less qualified officer to respond. There's a careful balance that the game demands that I feel reflects life well. There is always a lot happening that is contradictory. I can only respond as best I can, sometimes aiming for the least negative outcome, instead of some sort of win.Fri, 30 Mar 2018 22:56:42 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6681&iddiary=11828https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6681* note: I know this assignment is late, so I will start it today (3/29) and add two more logs, ending on (3/31). I have a lot to say about this game, because it is already pretty convoluted only 45 minutes in. I'll focus on one thread that interested me: distancing oneself. The game begins by introducing the main character who is a police chief set to retire in 180 days. He narrates a bit about his morals while entering a strip club (ironic) that he frequents. He mentions how he has some decency and doesn't just hire a prostitute like the younger officers, and only spares passing glances at the girls. This is similar to gameplay. Nearly none of the strategic gameplay involves much decision making or attention to crimes. I merely dispatch officers I think will do well and await their report, like how the main character only gets a glance of the girls. I am given a brief report, and must act just off of that information alone This mechanic was intentionally implemented to make work as a police chief feel rote and repetitive/boring. Story happens outside of work - dispatching officers is just something to be done in the meantime. The crime reports are often shocking as well; "a man at the park taking pictures of children", "strippers caught in a barfight", all of which are handled with just a few clicks of my mouse--not to mention, with a soundtrack of upbeat swing music in the background. I think the purpose of this is to allow players to realize that to some police officers, this is routine work which may lose significance over time. Breaking up strippers fighting at a bar is just another day on the job.Thu, 29 Mar 2018 18:29:12 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6681&iddiary=11812https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6576Today, things got very interesting. The main character has been welcomed (see: coerced) into the resistance because of his photography skills. Abbas, one of the important leaders of the group was stabbed during a photo-shoot minigame and he insists that my films have captured who betrayed him. I am inept enough at this game that I messed up the film development and could not pin down a subject. Yet, Abbas still asked me to accuse a man. I chose Jafar because he had done nothing but attack and insult my character. Most importantly, there was not a "I do not know" option here. I had to pick a suspect, and they would obviously be hurt or killed. I later learned that my pick, Jafar, was innocent--found beaten to death in a shallow grave barely covering his bloodied face. This felt very real, and yet I saw it coming at the same time. This was a quick, uneducated decision I had to make, and I faced consequences. Today during class (2/13), we brought up the value of a human life. In this case, each life of the accused had the ability to be ended by the tap of my finger. The interrogator at Evin prison (where my character is while he is not flashing back to previous events) mentions this. He says that he and my character are both the same. That we are both killers. I answered negatively, saying that I had not killed anyone. Then he showed me the picture of Jafar's body. This made me consider killing from another perspective. While I was not the one who killed Jafar, my actions clearly lead to his death. Is this enough to hold my character accountable? I believe it is, in this case.Tue, 13 Feb 2018 21:55:39 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6576&iddiary=11625https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6576I played four more chapters of the game today, only expecting to play three-- this is a very interesting game to play. Quite a lot happened that I will not go into, as I will be focusing on in game ethical issues. While I do not know the exact scope of interactivity when it comes to dialogue options affecting gameplay, I have had a lot of opportunities to be violent in game, which characters have remembered and brought up with me. The first instance of violence came up as a street protest turned violent after the main character's cousin instigated violence with the Shah's soldiers by throwing rocks. He then pressed a rock into my character's hand and asked if "I wanted to make a real change". Dialogue options are fast paced and sometimes difficult to choose due to distracting voice acting or background noise. Several times I had the chance to throw this rock: my cousin brought up the argument that the soldiers had the choice to follow orders or not, while my friend argued that they needed to carry out orders in order to be paid and support their families. This was an example of a false dilemma argument, that there can only be /this/ or /that/ and no other reasons or choices in between. While I believe neither my friend or cousin was entirely correct, I do try to follow a practice of nonviolence as closely as I can. I found the nonviolent motives of the protest to be something I resonated with, so I sided with my friend. The same friend later brought up another interesting argument when taking the main character to see some protestors at their headquarters. He said "At some point you have to pick a side, Reza." This was interesting to me. I wonder if I have played in a way that has kept my character choices neutral, or this is simply a line that is spoken in any instance. Another character, an interrogator at the prison where I have been caught later in the game (it is played through flashbacks) mentions that we both have different causes, and his is the just one. I think this is a case where relativism comes into play. There are many different sides to this revolution, but part of the reason it is so volatile is that these sides cannot see through a relativistic lens to realize that one's own cause is not special simply because it is theirs.Sun, 11 Feb 2018 14:39:44 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6576&iddiary=11589https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6576Before I began playing 1979 Revolution, I was immediately drawn to the high reviews for the game. For such a dark topic, the reviews reflected that the developers overcame a potentially difficult topic to cover in a game. Upon playing, it was clear to me why the game received high praise. Even though the topic is not one I am familiar with, the character building, settings, and dialogue littered with explanations to why the character I am playing as is treated as a terrorist. For some context, here is what I have learned from my first three chapters of gameplay: Iran is in a tumultuous political reform, recovering from a monarchic regime, and is swept by protests. The main character is a photographer whose friends are part of the protests. The story is nonlinear, revolving around flashbacks while the main character is being interrogated for crimes against the government. So far, I feel this game could have very similar ethical issues to Super Columbine Massacre RPG! it is based off of real events, and even shows real, sometimes graphic pictures of protests, real people who have been injured in said protests. This is no different than the situation in the Columbine game: is depicting these real events in a 'game' setting something that should be done for the sake of creating a dialogue about the events? I think in this case, it is effective in opening a dialogue for players like me who know little to nothing about the political history of Iran. By offering actual pictures to match the pictures taken in the photography minigame and detailing what actually happened at these events brings a strong documentary aspect to the game that I feel validates having such shocking gameplay at times.Sat, 10 Feb 2018 16:29:05 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6576&iddiary=11584https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6538Today I continued on the campaign mode of Prison Architect and was faced with somewhat different circumstances this time. The kitchen caught fire and my inmates were not able to eat for a day or so. The CEO who serves as somewhat of a tutorial character informed me to first hire more guards after the fire was extinguished. This surprised me. I could have started building a new kitchen and dining area right away to make sure that the inmates were fed and then hired guards, but the game forced me to instead make sure that security was priority. After I figured out how to deploy guards, my prisoners were already very unhappy. So far, Prison Architect has suggested comfort first for the prisoners. The CEO often mentions installing a nicer floor, or maybe some windows in the buildings I'm making. This was the first decision in game (aside from putting a prisoner to death, which is obviously not a comfortable thing to do) that made me wonder if this was a decision real prison overseers had to make. Aside from the fire happening, two inmates are now squabbling over wether or not they will inherit the family business of running a gang. There's also reasonable suspicion that their sister is bringing in narcotics. There's not much reason given for me to feel bad for these particular prisoners, but I still do. They ran large, hard drug rings, which in my eyes is a good reason to be jailed. I'm more concerned with the standard of living they'll be having at my prison. The CEO left me with a decision to make today--I could work with the prisoners' needs, or disregard them and assume total control.Thu, 18 Jan 2018 08:51:05 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6538&iddiary=11538https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6538Today I figured out how to get the campaign running after struggling to build a prison from the ground up again. The campaign mode examines a certain dilemma that could occur in a prison. The first focused on a man who killed his wife and her lover who is up for the death penalty. This already paints a grim picture of what is to come in this chapter of the game. The story is primarily shown through flashback cutscenes to what the characters did to get them to this point. After killing two people, the man immediately goes to a church and asks for forgiveness from a priest, who says that the right thing to do is to turn himself in. While he will be punished by the state, God will forgive him, the priest says. As the man is escorted to the execution room, the chief of security discusses with the priest how it was okay that he would die. The priest argues that had he committed the crime out of the city, he would only serve a life sentence. I think this was done to have players sympathize with the prisoners. While there is "nothing we can do" according to the CEO of the prison, the game certainly prompts players to think about what could be done for a man who sincerely regrets his actions. I certainly think this game could influence player behavior because of that scene. It feels different to be in control of a character's death instead of passively watching on TV or in a movie. While it was certainly uncomfortable to play this chapter of the game, I feel that in order to get the message of the game across it was what had to be done. Influencing player behavior in this case, was the desired effect and what had to be done to achieve that was a graphic (in some senses) storyline that the player controls.Wed, 17 Jan 2018 12:53:29 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6538&iddiary=11493https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6538The start of Prison Architect was somewhat rocky for me. This was either due to the fact I can sometimes be technologically inept or the game was having some trouble running on my unfortunate macbook pro (which usually only has to run art software or text editors for coding). I found the beginning of the game to be quite abrupt, I enjoy being thrown into the midst of things and Prison Architect did not disappoint. The tutorial involves building a new room for a prisoner who is going to be put to death: you are called by the CEO who states rather bluntly that this prisoner needs this room "for his big day". Said prisoner is in jail for double murder, but I can check his information to see that he has a wife, two children, and a living father. I also am the one in control of the electric chair that I've built- having been given the ability to turn it off and on. I ran into some issue with the game here, where I could not successfully designate rooms to be a cell or an execution room. I ended up restarting the game after attempting to figure out what was wrong for the first fifteen minutes. I was then thrown into a blank slate instance of the game where I had to build everything from scratch. So far, I feel the most notable part of this game is the player needing to consider everything a prison would need in a real world setting. I've realized that I will likely need to write out a budget for this game and do some difficult thinking on where to allocate resources. While I want to do as little harm as possible, this is a maximum security prison and some prisoners will be put to death as part of their sentencing. While they're just bits of information on a computer, I feel empathy for them and want to make their digital lives comfortable while also somehow managing resources. This game has certainly changed my way of thinking in order to adapt to playing. It's blunt with what must happen in order to maintain a virtual prison (poor living conditions, killing prisoners, etc.) and could be considered by some to be unethical for possibly altering player behavior to contradict beliefs. I think this is a bit of a stretch because so far it has not been gratuitously gory or anything of that nature. The game feels very corporate and impersonal. Players do not have to look at prisoner stats on their lives if they do not want to. It makes me think about how difficult it must be to manage a real prison with real people! I think that is the true ethical commentary of the game. While the game itself seems pretty typical for a simulator (though dark in nature), players inevitably consider how real prisons are managed and how the people in them are being treated. This aspect of the game interests me quite a bit because so far Prison Architect has been very difficult! I will look deeper into possible ethical issues within the game itself when I play again, but from the surface, Prison Architect plays like I would expect a prison simulator to be like.Tue, 16 Jan 2018 20:19:49 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6538&iddiary=11462