Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=1987https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6884For my second hour, I ran into several issues. The game definitely got more difficult! Firstly, I was informed by City Hall that I would have to lay off all my black cops due to rising racial tensions in the city. This felt uncomfortable to me for two reasons: 1) some of my best officers were black. Letting them go would be I'd have to hire a lot of new people, whose professionalism wouldn't be as high due to their inexperience. It'd be a huge hassle for me, especially since some of my black cops have stripes. 2) I just don't want to! After listening to the rationale behind firing the cops, I just wasn't convinced. While I understand these rising tensions were certainly significant, I didn't think it should be something that should effect the police force. Additionally, I'd have to fire them illegally, as I can't fire them on a poor performance or poor conduct basis. I ultimately chose to keep them, but they were less effective (probably due to distrust from the citizenry), and I received some flack from City Hall because of it. This was the first time in this game that I felt uncomfortable. I felt that pursuing what I knew was right was the best way to go, but I was punished for my decision as a result. While I didn't think either choice was without their misgivings, I almost felt like I was being shamed for my actions. This really made me reflect on how police officers (especially white police officers) are received by communities of color. This may have been one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in a long time.Wed, 07 Nov 2018 11:31:58 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6884&iddiary=12254https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6884This Is The Police is very interesting, having the player take control of a seasoned policeman who manages his team of officers to keep peace in the city. There's a lot of storytelling going on, which almost eclipses the game play in the beginning, but I thought it set the tone well and introduced all the pertinent names pretty efficiently. I really love strategy and resource management games, so I was having a blast dispatching my officers to different crime scenes, managing their schedules, and recognizing their talents when appropriate. The game starts out very simple, where the player always has enough officers at their disposal to handle any given call, even if they send their worst guys. However, each officer has their own personality and story, and just when I felt that things were going so smoothly, my best officer quit! Its these unexpected moments that keeps the player on their toes, and why This Is The Police is such an interesting game. The player can use the officer's professionalism score to somewhat gauge their reliability, but ultimately even the best officers can fail under harsh circumstances. It really forces the player to consider even minor decisions, where a wrong decision can mean the death of an officer. I really enjoyed the game so far, and I look forward the gradually raising difficulty curve. I think this game definitely has a lot to consider when it comes down to writing my essay, so I'm looking forward to what it has in store for me.Tue, 06 Nov 2018 23:38:37 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6884&iddiary=12238https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6827I've progressed further in Little Nightmares, and the creepy little game is actually growing on me. After learning that the creatures I had encountered wasn't a boss, and I progressed a little bit further, solved a few more puzzles and eventually cleared the first level! I surmised this when I earned the achievement "The Prison". Once I saw that, it was like everything snapped into place. Of COURSE Six was running around in a prison! Anyways, as I progressed through more of the game, I'm starting to put its crafty narrative together. In the prison and in the new level, it seems that children had been taken to this facility only to be trapped for some yet to be revealed reason. Six is almost successfully trapped, as an evil monster with very long hands seemed to have lured her into a cage with the smell of food. As we see the peckish Six teeter over into the cage to feast, the monster locks her in! Thankfully, escaping is easy and Six resumes her quest in no time. I take back what I said about this game not feeling like a child's nightmare. The more I learn, the more my opinions shift around, but I think I can confidentially say that I'm sold on Little Nightmares. The game seems to center around the struggle between the monster-under-the-bed type enemies who want to imprison children, and our cunning hero Six's goal to outwit and escape them. I'll definitely finish this game, as I don't think I've learned enough about this world to understand what sorts of ethical statements the developers are trying to raise. Having children involved is always touchy, so I'm excited to dig deeper.Thu, 27 Sep 2018 09:35:57 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6827&iddiary=12141https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6827Progressing further in the game, I think I came across my first boss! This monster had disproportionately long arms, and kind of reminded me of a baby with its awkward, teetering gait. This is definitely something I could envision a child being afraid of. Overall though, I think the aesthetic theme of a children's nightmare is sort of lost on me. Little Nightmares is definitely creepy, but I don't think its nightmare-ish. It feels more like a horror film. Anyways, I think I've deduced that Six is running around in what seems to be a prison. I've passed by various rooms, but saw little in the way of inhabitants. This prison seems to be occupied by these strange cone-head creatures. They're not malicious or violent (at least the ones that I've encountered), and seem to be attracted towards fire. They have yet to have had any serious impact on the gameplay, but I'm very curious as to why they're there. That's actually how I could sum up my feelings of this game so far: wanting to know more. I've received basically no explanation on Six, the setting, or the goal of the game. The puzzles thus far haven't been too difficult, although the controls don't give the player much room for error. I hope that by my final gamelog I'll have learned a little bit more about Little Nightmare's world, and Six's place in it.Wed, 26 Sep 2018 23:46:58 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6827&iddiary=12124https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6827Little Nightmares is definitely an experience. Within minutes of gameplay, the player is greeted with a successful suicide attempt, creepy creatures, and an odd world. It’s an unnerving puzzle-platformer that made me very hesitant to explore the world around me, for fear of jump scares. The world around you is shrouded in darkness, and the player only method to combat that is a small lighter. The player’s vision is limited to what’s around Six (the player character), which makes understanding your surroundings both essential and dangerous- it's so easy to accidentally bump into an enemy or trigger a game over. I find the objects the player needs to interact with in order to advance are quite creative. For example, having to move a chair (that was presumably used in the suicide attempt) closer to a door in order to use the chair as step-stool so that Six could access to the handle. You can also hold onto things for fun, I was throwing paper airplanes around for a bit before I decided to continue on with the story. The world clearly fits what the developers described: it's totally a realm made up of children's nightmares. Some of the content is disturbing - I reacted particularly viscerally to the aforementioned suicide. I felt like I was experiencing this through a child’s lens, as there was no explanation provided or anything to create a sense of closure with this scene. Just a human, presumably a man as the head isn’t visible, dangling from the ceiling. There doesn’t seem to be an obvious narrative thus far- everything sort of blends together and it's hard to tell if there were any distinctions between levels. Either way, I can’t wait to play more of it tomorrow!Wed, 26 Sep 2018 00:37:22 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6827&iddiary=12095https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6725My final gamelog for Paper's, Please. What a journey. So, At this point I'm roughly 2/3rds through the entire game. My son is dead. I adopted a niece, but she died. My mother-in-law is gravely ill and I have to chose between keeping her warm or buying her medicine. There was one more family member, but I think they're dead too. I average around 5-7 citations a day. I'm still living in a class-8 apartment. I have no savings. All I want is for my character to die in a terrorist attack so I can stop playing this game. Ethically, this game is a mind-fxxx. Papers, Please forces you to make so many tricky decisions its almost unbearable. As the game travels up its difficulty curve, making enough money to pay rent becomes a real challenge, not to mention remaining true to your ethical compass almost becomes impossible. Of course, a lot of the stress is self imposed: had I not prioritized taking care of my in-game family, I could have focused more on processing immigrants faster. If I play this game again, I'd like to focus more on accumulating wealth, rather than trying to serve the other characters in the game. I'd imagine it'd be difficult to do, but I think playing with those goals in mind would hopefully allow me to enjoy the game. Finally, although this game is stressful, I'm 101% sure the developers of the game intended it to be that way. The heart of the game is decision making and weighing consequences, and this level of stress and speed makes every decision that much more painful and heart wrenching. Although I kind of hated every minute of it, this is a very tightly designed game. I'd definitely play through it again (without trying to save anymore).Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:48:18 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6725&iddiary=11939https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6725I had to restart from the beginning because I accidentally deleted my save! This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I was able to start off with a much stronger foundation in terms of processing speed. What I was mostly thinking about while I was playing Papers, Please is how it's the first game I’ve ever played that’s from the 2nd person perspective. I think this unique factor definitely serves to immerse the player even deeper into the experience, and really put themselves in the shoes of the checkpoint inspector. I think the 2nd person perspective was a strong choice design-wise, as having to face to people attempting to pass through the checkpoint head-on can make ignoring their pleas more difficult, adding more pressure onto the player’s decisions. The game also really makes you think about your values, what you’re willing and unwilling to compromise, and the priorities that motivate you. Even during my second play through where I started out very well, I eventually hit a day where I had to pay 55 credits due to penalties. This drained me of my savings, and rendered me unable to pay for heat or food for family. This put a lot of pressure on me the next day to not only to work quickly, but also accurately to ensure I make the maximum amount of profit to replenish my savings account. All in all, at this point in the game, the decision making is starting to get overwhelming, and I may have to start organizing my priorities if I want to achieve my goals in the game.Mon, 27 Aug 2018 21:13:55 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6725&iddiary=11903https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6725Playing Papers, Please is kind of like going back in time to Berlin Wall-Era Germany. The game takes place in the fictional country of Arstotska, where strict border control determines the lives of many hopeful immigrants and passerby. Some immigrants are fleeing persecution from their native country, some wish to sojourn until they get back on their feet, and some are trying to enter for a myriad of other reasons. You, the player, decide each person’s fate as the inspector each day, as new immigration laws are implemented almost daily based on in-game events. The player must keep up with these new laws, while also balancing their own morality and earning enough to provide their son, wife, and extended family. I played this game for about 2 hours. At first I found the gameplay tedious and a little difficult, as not much explanation is given. After a bit, I acclimated to the game’s language and started to catch on more quickly. One thing I found particularly difficult was balancing my own morality against the needs of my family- being able to help out the immigrants in a pinch was appealing to me, yet it gave me almost no margin for error. I found that if I chose to abide by their pleas, I would find myself drowning in citations and left with very little money to take care of my family. If that wasn’t hard enough, the sheer volume of ethical dilemmas I encountered in my first two hours of gameplay was almost overwhelming. I had to turn down a woman who lacked the proper credentials to immigrate, and forced her to return home- a veritable death sentence. This instance gave me more motivation to work with the other immigrants, so I was able to prevent a woman’s stalker from entering the country. But as the requirements for immigration become more and more complex, my best and fastest work barely allows me to break even. Although this is just a game, its very disheartening when I have to make a decision that compromises my moral integrity. Finally, I’d like to applaud the developers of the game for immersing the player so deeply in the position of border inspectors. Although I do find the gameplay tedious and stressful, I found also find that those features put the player in a position to empathize with the main character and others in his role. Having a job that constantly forces you to weigh survival and ethics many times throughout the day is incomprehensibly draining, an the fact that you make so little adds even more pressure onto every decision. This game clearly has a point of view and a message, and I want to further clarify what those are by the end of my third game log.Sun, 26 Aug 2018 00:18:35 CSThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=6725&iddiary=11890