|
Monday 23 January, 2017
Going further into A Wolf Among Us has been such an experience for me and I don't know that I can fully do it justice in words. It has been very enjoyable and refreshing seeing this medium paying homage to the styles of classic film and comic books and demonstrating such stellar writing quality, all while being such a great game in its own right. This is definitely demonstrating the true power in narrative of games and what potential the medium has in the clamor of the entertainment industry. This type of execution has to be the most powerful and effective means I have seen in sharing a story and I don't think I can ever get enough of it now.
The biggest thing I have seen however has been the game's effect on me personally and how engaged I grew to be in this story -- and I only made it through 2 episodes in the timeframe of this project. Not only have I grown extremely attached to all the characters but I have also been restarting scenes and chapters repeatedly because I expected a different outcome and/or wanted to make sure my intentions were clear within the confines and limits of the choices available. It was so strange when I thought, “Well obviously I don't want to hurt their feelings or have them misunderstand me” but then realized, “...These are fictional characters within a fictional world. They are not real. They do not have opinions of me and even if they did it would not have any effects on me. Also I'm playing as Bigby, not even myself, so why do I care??” Now I've always been a fairly empathetic person and really can't play bad guy in games usually. But in A Wolf Among Us especially, I was hellbent on caring for all the characters through Bigby's actions. I feel his duty and responsibility to them as if I were literally in his shoes, but at the same time not...I mean you see him in front of you doing everything and this game is obviously very stylized so it's not exactly pulling you in with realism. But the immersion comes through the whole picture, the characters feeling real but more importantly actually reacting and in many ways making you feel responsible for your actions. This is so valuable because it's reinforcing like “Hi, Player. You make the choice alright, but you certainly don't get to choose consequences.” That level of accountability is rare and actually playing though it is so effective and really gets you thinking about what choices and words will cost you. I don't really know how to describe this. But I can tell you that the moment in which Bigby arrived on scene to find Snow's decapitated head on the ground hit me so hard. So so hard. My mouth was literally hanging open and I was physically covering it with my hand wide-eyed. Like this was eliciting an actual physical reaction for me and legitimately made me feel as if I was coming across a corpse myself. THAT is how you tell a story.
I want to study these effects more and the accompanying jargon in psychology, because I think it's obvious that I don't have enough of a basis to discuss the nitty gritty details of what this game is eliciting in me or understand what exactly is going on behind why I as a player react that way. Or how the game developers are accomplishing any of this in the first place. I am looking forward to finishing out the game regardless so I can continue studying such a great work and try to find more insight in these areas myself. But I can't stress enough how much I've enjoyed this fresh experience and truly stepping into a new world for the first time in years.
|
