Thursday 30 August, 2018

Part three of my “Little Nightmares” playthrough will again follow the same format as my first two entries in that I will first talk about the gameplay experience itself and immediately after address an infrared/literal ethical issue involved in the game. Overall this third playthrough was more so lackluster than the other two. That’s not to say that it was bad by any means, it was just not as interesting as my other two experiences with the game. However, despite that, I still intend to make it as interesting as possible.

The game began unfortunately not where I had logged off but instead the puzzle right before I logged off and although this was slightly annoying I was able to breeze throughout in less than a minute so it wasn’t a big deal. Moving forward from that situation I ran down the hall being chased by the long-armed figure until I reached the elevator that got me into this mess in the first place. After hiding in a box on the elevator I proceeded to make my way through two rooms that were mostly forgettable. The game started to get interesting again when I entered a room with the long-armed figure assessing his toys. I don’t really know the meaning and I’ve found it difficult to really make an inference but this room is scattered with roughly a hundred dolls. Maybe they are taxidermied little people but it didn’t seem realistic enough to be the case, they looked like simple handmade toys so as to there meaning I haven’t yet figured out. After proceeding past this room I had to sneak past him in a room full of clocks which were quite easy since the sounds of the clocks distracted him significantly. Once I snuck past him I made my way into what seemed like his library… I found this extremely odd seeing as the long-armed figure is blind. Despite that, I had to traverse his library and make my way out of his “lair.” Once I made it out there was one final part of this stage in the game. I was stuck in a room with the door nearly collapsed and the figure is trying to reach around the room and grab me. After more thinking than I should have needed, I pull pieces away of the cage holding the door open and it collapses slicing off both his arms. It was at this point that I ended my third playthrough of “Little Nightmares.”

Now to talk about ethical issues that I found prevalent. Trying to decide what to talk about for this part of my journal was many times harder due to the sheer fact that the events that took place weren’t as distinctive as the other two playthroughs. With that being said, what I’m about to say may be a stretch but I think it’s at the very least worth noting. What I’m referring to is the idea that you’re the bad guy in “Little Nightmares.” To increase perspective think about it like this: You’re playing a little character who is running around causing trouble for these “figures” which are more humanoid than not. So as expected they set traps and chase you down until they finally catch/kill you. Yes, maybe some of them do odd things after they capture you but the idea remains that you are in some ways vermin similar to a rat. Now I think this idea could possibly fall flat when you consider the fact that the character you are playing appears to have human consciousness. But nonetheless, there is still an argument that could be made that even with a human level of consciousness your character is still in the wrong.

In conclusion, the experience of this playthrough was slightly lackluster and could have brought forth more thought-provoking events, however, despite that I still enjoyed this playthrough. In regards to the ethics, I think that the idea of right and wrong is so arbitrary to the individual in most instances that a lot of people would like to assume that whatever it is they are doing is what’s right. This is especially so if it aligns with whatever morals they have adapted from their upbringing. So whatever the case I would say that understanding both perspectives is vital to having a healthy understanding of ethics as a whole. So, as a closing remark, try your best to consider the possibility that maybe something you think is wrong is in fact not and vice versa.

Great job Tanden! You bring up a lot of interesting points, and one thing I want to point out is that any topic you bring up is probably fair game for discussion. You mention a couple times that you're not sure if the issues that you're bringing up are ones that the game is intentionally trying to address, but intentional or not on the developer's side the fact that you thought of them makes them relevant issues. I find it interesting how you consider the possibility of you playing an annoying "vermin" character who is in the wrong. Is there a always a clear answer to whether or not you're in the right or wrong?