Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1915https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6561During my third play through, some complexity actually came up. I didn’t mention, but I chose to do an all-female prison. Two things popped into my head. First, what happens to those who don’t identify with the male or female gender? This isn’t an option in the game, but in real life I wanted to know what happens. Second, and this was the complexity, one of my prisoners arrived pregnant. I had never thought of this. So what does happen in this situation in real life? What happens when a women is convicted to prison, but she is pregnant or gets pregnant interim? I had to build a separate room for her. While it didn’t develop within the game, I wondered if the other prisons would dislike her for her treatment, and how that dynamic plays out in real life. This led me to my possible OPA question, which is: does Prison Architect downplay the complexities of prison aspects, and will the player take these for face value?Fri, 09 Feb 2018 09:53:46 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6561&iddiary=11583https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6561During the second play session, I continued to add on to my prison when funds became available. Nothing happened in terms of prison riots or anything of that nature. It made me skeptical as I feel that a real prison would have issues with its inmates. In other words, I feel that the game downplayed the complexity of a prison. Having only played for around an hour at this point, I posited that the game would add in more confounds as the game progressed. Unfortunately, I don’t have an additional 10 hours to spend on the game to see if that is how it plays out. Something I did find interesting was the medic boxes and their coloring. In class, it got brought up that a white box with a red cross on top is a symbol most players recognize as being health. This wasn’t the case in Prison Architect as the game used a green symbol. I looked into this and found this wasn’t always the case. In the past, they had used red crosses. The developers were forced to change this as it violated a Geneva Convention protocol. It is interesting to me that game developers are having to change their creations based on actual laws, making it harder for some to further their entertainment or story value within the game.Thu, 08 Feb 2018 11:28:33 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6561&iddiary=11582https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6561The first session of play came from building the prison. It made me wonder a lot of things, like: how much is actually involved in setting up a prison? Will this game really delve into what is required in a prison setting? How robust will it be in the problems I’ll encounter? At the end of the first play session, I only got to the point of opening my prison. The game doesn’t have a direct tutorial mode. Instead, it recommends that you go elsewhere to get your information. I didn’t like this. I compared the game to Roller Coaster Tycoon, which had a wonderful tutorial system for any age group. The developers have done many updates, which concerns me because a tutorial mode wasn’t apart of these.Tue, 06 Feb 2018 11:28:37 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6561&iddiary=11581https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6560I played longer and completed the game during the last session. I’ve finally discovered the brunt of my ethic argument. The game flashes you with history very quickly, but the building point in the end is the anti-western sentiment. I wonder if this was intentionally done by the developers to get players into the game, hooked, and then have them finish it out without them stopping 20 minutes into the game due to the anti-western notions. The events which take place in the game are horrific and it ends with a possible betrayal, but it ended so abruptly I didn’t know how to feel. In the future, I’ll be looking up the history of the Iranian revolution. I don’t know if this to was the intent of the developers, or whether they thought they gave you enough information during game play. With the anti-western attitudes involved, it made me feel mad against the actions of the military in Iran, but it didn’t allow me to see the entire connection between the Shah and the US. The dilemma I’ll be writing about for the next sections of the OPA will involve the relationship between western sentiment and the game. It will also branch out to seeing the bias of the game with how Iran is acting towards the US in current times.Tue, 30 Jan 2018 14:25:05 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6560&iddiary=11577https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6560For the second play, it went through more of the rallies the player went through. I felt like this point was drawn out. While important to embed the historical effects and give a history lesson to the player as they progressed, it did not match the progression of the first play through. I’ve experienced this in other games, but it was significant change and didn’t bode well. I found it synonymous to going 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, and then entering a gated community that only allowed for 10 mph. There are little squabbles thrown into the scenes, but they seem almost artificial. The game did end up returning to a faster pace, but it seemed to be either really fast, or really slow. With the ability to make choices in this game, it makes me wonder how much of an affect they have on the long term of the game. Am I just going to receive a backhand from my interrogator, or will this lead up to Reza’s death if I’m not careful? It also makes me wonder if the developers are willing to sacrifice historical inaccuracies for gameplay to the extent that people may die or act differently than what actually happened in reality.Wed, 24 Jan 2018 11:17:50 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6560&iddiary=11575https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=65601979: Revolution kicks off by immerging the player in the action. With timed options in many of the beginning events, the player feels connected with Reza Shirazi. While you are feeling sympathy for Reza, you are also uneasy with the setup with the game. I should preface, before writing more, that I spent most of 2015 and a good deal of 2016 deployed to the Middle East. Having seen how dirty war and revolution can be, the story hit my heart. I wonder if it does the same to others. The game very quickly delves into the interrogation of Reza. It is violent, and you instantly gain sympathy for Reza. No matter what he says, he is oppressed. It reminded me of being in the Middle East and how others are treated along the same lines or worse. While the events in the video game are based on actual events but may not have been the reality of what happened, it still made my gut wrench. Reza is reminded of his friend and the scene and chapter change. Things are more light-hearted, but Reza is handed a tape and told its contents are important. It is here that he is introduced to the revolution. The story illustrates that he was living a normal life until the tape started to change things. What I did enjoy about this section was how it outlined historical events that occurred during the protests. While it was important, I felt more connected to the torture portion because of how horrific it was. (This entry has been edited1 time. It was last edited on Tue, 06 Feb 2018 11:28:14.)Sun, 21 Jan 2018 20:46:28 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6560&iddiary=11571https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6514For my final play session of Shadow of Mordor, I continued the main story quests and aided the rebels. They were trying to obtain explosive powders to use against the orcs. I was quickly reminded of an interview I watched with an ex-CIA operative said in regards to the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars. She said that insurgents think of themselves as the Rebel Alliance fighting the Empire. They often compare the US to the Empire. While there are drastic differences between our country and tyrannical hegemony, others outside the US might not see it this way. Shadow of Mordor’s rebel groups reminded me of this and made me think of it in a similar light. I also wondered whether it had the same effect as Star Wars on US citizens and non-citizens. Do US players play through the game without any consideration as to similarities and just capitalize on the feelings of vicarious glory? Are non-citizens playing the game and thinking of the orcs as the US and themselves as the rebels, rallying to overthrow them? The game likely would not have the success it did if the term “rebels” had been replaced with “insurgents.”Thu, 18 Jan 2018 09:09:43 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6514&iddiary=11540https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6514For my second play session, I delved into some of the side quests available in the game. Those I ended up playing revolved around freeing slaves and captives, both orcs and humans. This reminded of John Brown and his actions as an abolitionist. I found it really cool to have the ability to free slaves and fight alongside them for a greater cause. The developers even went farther than just freeing slaves, and having arcs built around this. I hope to see this in future games as it gave a sense of pride. This pride came slightly from freeing the slaves, but more when I realized it was similar to the history of the United States. These actions also illustrated a mental picture on what might have happened during the events leading up to the civil war. By this, I mean missions could have paralleled those encountered in the game. An example would be freeing slaves, then overthrowing a war chief. This could have been similar to freeing slaves and overthrowing the plantation owner or something of the like.Wed, 17 Jan 2018 10:09:44 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6514&iddiary=11488https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6514Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, while pleasing to in many aspects, contains several ethical dilemmas that may cause some to put down the game before even progressing past the first 20 minutes. The protagonist, Talion, is introduced in an enigmatic realm between life and death. There are bodies surrounding him, and blood trickling from their fresh corpses. If the player isn't squeamish around blood and continues to play, the game builds a bond between the protagonist and his wife and son. It is only minutes into the game when all three are captured. Here, the player is introduced to a very graphic scene. The enemy has captured all three and makes a blood sacrifice of each of them. To build the Talion’s motivation, flavor, and emotional ties with the player, the developers have the orcs kill off his son, wife, and then him. Talion pleads with the enemy before they slit each throat, but no mercy comes to his avail. While the game does not show flesh opening, this game could be a lot for the mind to handle. Another note of interest is how quickly the developers have Talion’s family killed. If they had waited and built the connection with the two more, would it have a more disastrous effect on the player’s mind? Shadow of Mordor is soaked in violence. It is easy for the player to feed their bloodlust, if any, because they are killing another species, orcs. If these were humans getting killed, there might be a feeling of guilt with each death and the polished graphics could add this. While not directly translatable, Lieutenant Colonel (retired) David Grossman highlights how in reality people enjoying killing. It isn’t until the adrenaline from a fight wears off, and the dead are examined that a range of negative emotions flood the killer. The game doesn’t favor examining faces and other parts from a first person view, the closest is the over-the-shoulder ranged mode, but this could have a detrimental effect if the enemies were human. On Killing details how a person’s empathy creates guilt after a kill. It is difficult to find the likeliness between human and orc, but other games utilize humans as enemies. These games require the player to differentiate between reality and the game or the player could be overwhelmed with guilt. After doing some research on the game, I found the game had done sponsored advertising without announcing it had done such. While there has been controversy whether game reviews have a significant effect on the sales of games, the positive reviews could have only bolstered its sales. The developer, Monolith, ended up being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission who found Warner Brothers Home Entertainment violated the Federal Trade Commission Act. They received a slap on the wrist judgment and were told they had to mention their sponsor advertising in the future.Tue, 16 Jan 2018 11:43:18 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6514&iddiary=11447