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Andrew_Herrera's Thomas Was Alone (PC)
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| [February 23, 2017 06:58:00 PM]
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This time around, the pixel cloud got serious and started picking off the members of Thomas' little group, and it was sad how they were gradually separated, one by one. First, Thomas, Second, Chris, Third, Laura, Fourth, Claire (John had wanted to be next, so that he wouldn't be alone), and finally, John was taken into the pixel cloud. That's when, suddenly and for the first time in many levels, a new character is introduced: James. James is probably a character that is the quadrilateral equivalent of being gay ("inverted"), because he falls upward and jumps downward, while being someone who's a social outcast and sorta bitter about it. It's not explicitly said to be that, but I get the feeling he's a representation of someone gay while avoiding outright saying it. He rescues Thomas and finds the red quadrilateral isn't so judgmental as other people had been and they get along. Depending on interpretation, this could be the introduction of a moral question, but I think it's better to just think of it as generic "diversity". Like people such as Shakespeare, the game is taking "weight" in the case of Claire, "oddity" in the case of Laura, "competitiveness" in the case of John, and so on, and transferring them into a different world that is distant from our own so it can avoid a strong reaction. The idea of AI seems to be rather adjacent to the rest of the game, instead of a core element. Unlike my experience with The Talos Principle, Thomas Was Alone isn't trying to talk in depth about artificial intelligence, and instead using it as a premise to a game.
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| [February 22, 2017 06:35:18 PM]
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Thomas Was Alone began to have a few more puzzle elements to it this play session, but the gameplay remained largely platforming-based. A new character, called Laura, was introduced who other characters could bounce off of, but at the same time has a very short and low jump, making her both an enabler and a burden. From her thoughts, she had been around others in the past, but they'd disappeared, and she is suspicious Chris, who immediately developed a crush on her, will do the same. A pixel cloud started to appear in the levels and be talked about in the narration. From what the narrator said, it's an entity that seems to destroy the quadrilaterals, and is the cause of the other ones "abandoning" Laura. The quotes introduced in the previous session continue and essentially say the pixel cloud is like a white blood cell: hunting down the "anomalies" that Thomas and his companions are. The game still doesn't have any ethical choices yet (except, debateably, whether to let the AIs die or succeed, if you were to think AI shouldn't exist and aren't people).
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| [February 21, 2017 04:46:11 PM]
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Thomas Was Alone begins with the title--being thought by Thomas, who is a rectangle in the game doing puzzles and obstacle courses of sorts in a program. Other characters introduced are Chris, who hates everyone else and is bad at jumping, but short and able to reach places others aren't. John, who is tall and can move fast and jump high, but is full of himself and lacks empathy. And, finally, Claire, who I only saw for a couple levels this session but she fell into water and realized she had the "superpower" to float in water, and so now thinks herself a super hero. The characters are all interesting and are a sort of ensemble, but So far the narrative seems to be talking about AIs, with quotes from articles seemingly written about the events of the game and what caused them, which is an interesting narrative device for showing perspective and suggesting that something more happens later. As of yet, we haven't talked about anything related to AI in-class--the closest being whether game content can be considered ethical--and there have been no ethical choices presented. Values represented so far appear to be teamwork, acceptance of others, and understanding each person is special in their own way.
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Andrew_Herrera's Thomas Was Alone (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 21 February, 2017
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