Sunday is caused by accidental watering of plants with plastic. Before you dump, read this week’s best articles on the game.
On The Guardian, Rick Lane watched Terry Pratchett’s relationship to the Thief series, his favorite game, via Pratchett’s post on a Usenet newsgroup. It’s interesting to see how Pratchett is embedded in video game forums.
There is a common lineage between Thief’s unnamed city and Pratchett’s own work in the Discworld novel. Both take popular fantasy stories and transform them into a more human world, unafraid to explore the weird edges of fantasy. Thief’s grumbling, grumbling guardians share certain traits with Pratchett’s squishy city watch. Pratchett was captivated by Thief’s rich and distinctive atmosphere. “I wonder what the quintessential ‘Thief’ quality is? Feeling ‘there’? Feeling free to explore? ”, he thinks in 2003.” The Thief moment was me walking dreamily from beam to beam across that great hall at the Bank, while below me were patrolling guards. No other game offers that, although Deus Ex has had its moments. ”
For Into The Spine, Emma Kostopolus wrote about use puzzles in survival horror. An academic angle that makes you think.
Survival horror allows us to examine the specific relationship between developers and players that plays out in this genre – even if the emotional experience can be seen as negative, since one has to stand and Faced with the feeling of helplessness and suffering that accompanies it, we get positive things from our successful efforts. But I do believe that thinking about what puzzles in a horror game can do for us is to help us consider the author’s intentions for a media and those intentions in themselves. can have implications for the way we experience the media, beyond how they are translated into the content itself.
For Eurogamer, Edwin Evans-Thirlwell wrote about play video games carefully. A touching piece about playing games for others as a form of care. For entertainment and sharing time with others, no skill is the main attraction.
What if we thought of playing the game as a careful act, rather than a skillful act, whether we were playing for others in a professional setting or alone? It’s an idea that I tried to put into practice in hands-on (remember?) events with the developers present. When I play an unfinished game with one of its creators watching, I want to show them the best side of their work. I try to frame each scene because it has to be framed and explored at a pace that allows the surrounding detail to grow. I try to behave like my character will and give proper reverence to random dialogue instead of rushing through a trigger event. I wanted to entertain the viewers, to catch them in their own net, to reassure them that it was all worth it. Look at this amazing thing you’ve done! See how it sings and dances even in my clumsy fingers. Be in awe of the softer or at least, more coherent and purposeful reality you hack and conjure out of the random problems of this poor, aimless planet. Please don’t cling to the fact that I missed a hint somewhere and spent 15 minutes trying to open a single door.
For The Guardian, Alison Flood wrote about The last letter of Mary, Queen of Scotland, locked with a paper folding technique. I didn’t know folding was such a thing and I decided it was fun, cheers.
Earlier this year, they read an unopened letter written in 1697 that hadn’t broken its seal, using X-rays to view slices of the inside of the document and create a 3D image. Now, as part of research that has seen them look at 250,000 letters, they have discovered the “spiral lock” technique, used by Elizabeth I as well as Mary’s executed cousin, along with with politicians, ambassadors and a reporter for Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s cameraman.
This week’s music is Calm Down by the Mammals. This is YouTube link and Spotify Link. Good for a lazy day.
Is me. Have a nice Sunday everyone!
