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Feb 13th, 2018 at 16:09:56 - 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (PC) |
1.5 hours > 1979 Revolution: Black Friday
So, after playing a lot more of this game today, some things pop out at me immediately, especially after having done an OPA already.
This game is doing a really good job of keeping the character out of the main thread of events in the revolution, by which I mean not that he isn't there but that he isn't really a "player" in the grand scheme of things. Yes, the devs give you choices that effect things, but you aren't ultimately deciding the fate of the revolution. The devs made the choice to leave the actual history untouched and your actions don't seem to change things (for example, today I saved after making a choice to try and save one dude from gunfire over another, and then went back and tried the other option to see what would happen and the same end result happened.) The developers have gone and done a great thing in giving the player the appearance of deep choices but in actuality these choices don't effect the story too heavily but rather seem more like an open challenge to the players principles and morals. Is it more important to save your brother who is a police officer or to save a revolutionary leader? They make you feel like you are picking a side but really you aren't changing anything big. In doing so they remain their neutrality as a developer but allow the player to explore the consequences of their emotionally driven choices! This is great ethically. The developers don't impose their own opinion of who was right and who was wrong onto history but rather create an "environment" for players to explore the muddled affair that is any violent revolution.
Love this game.
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Feb 12th, 2018 at 16:22:07 - 1979 Revolution: Black Friday (PC) |
1979 Revolution Black Friday -> 30 minutes
So I have never played a game like this before. I've known about games like the tell tale series, but haven't actually played any of them, so this sort of pick your own story kind of deal is new to me, and honestly seems really simple, but I really enjoyed it today. I have a fascination with the region and it's history (I have spent over half my life living in the Middle East due to my fathers work as a diplomat) so when looking through the list I saw this and was like hmmm maybe I should give it a go.
Anyway. Wow. I can tell right off the bat that this is going to be a game that gives me choices that have subtle outcomes, but I get the feeling my choices won't really effect the events of the story too much since it is based on history. Beyond the choices it seems that I am to play the photographer and take pictures of famous (and probably real) events and incidents. I am gonna love this.
The first thing that comes to mind with this game is whether or not the developers remain neutral in the sense that, is this game biased towards the side of the revolutionaries or the Shah? I know a lot of the history regarding this revolution and after my first 30 minutes it does seem slightly anti-shah but also anti-revolution. That's just my first take away after being interrogated by a post revolution goon who works for the revolutionaries.
Excited to see what the devs decided to do as far as handling the political aspects of this game and whether or not they can tell this story in an interesting manner whilst remaining neutral.
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Jan 17th, 2018 at 16:36:07 - Prison Architect (PC) |
Prison Architect. 50 minutes
This game is harder than I thought. Turns out that even though it doesn't necessarily get more complex or add new mechanics like some other sim games do, things do start to pile up. Combine that with the problems some of my more... unruly inmates are causing, and you have the recipe for the soon to be disaster of a prison that I have made!
Imminent failure of my prison aside, I learned that I don't really have it in me to create a prison with a death row on it, so I never bothered to research that, and instead decided that I would try and rehabilitate my inmates instead.
Apparently rehabilitating high security inmates isn't always super effective. Seems like some of these virtual criminals love being criminals.
The game is really good at pointing out all the grey area that can exist within an issue that you were sure was really black and white. In my case, I came into this game thinking that the game was either going to be one that trivialized an issue like the prison industrial complex or it would be one that highlighted the issue by pointing out the inefficiencies and corruptness of how the PIC works. I was wrong. The game instead has shown me that it's apparently a LOT more complicated to run a prison. I still firmly believe that the prison system within the united states needs reform, but I know recognize both my former arrogance and current ignorance on exactly how to do that.
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Jan 16th, 2018 at 14:33:45 - Prison Architect (PC) |
Prison Architect. Day 2. 45 Minutes
Today in class we first talked about bad arguments and then went on a rampage of coming up with ideas to make arguments about and then examples of arguments themselves. So coming into the game today I had my mind in the right mode to pick up where I left off in my thoughts yesterday.
My one disagreement with simulation games like Prison Architect is that, at least for me, mastery comes quickly. Yes, there is tons of replay-ability but it doesn't take me long to examine the mechanics of a game like this and figure things out. My prison is doing quite well, and I have reached this point where I can further optimize my prison by focusing it's efforts. I could focus on High security prisoners who are more unruly and maybe even execute them a lot to swiftly deal with them and pump money into my prison by replacing them. Alternatively, which might not make me quite as much money, I could focus on rehabilitating these prisoners instead of just killing them. I really like that the game allows me to make this choice, and I can't really tell as of yet which choice is more "optimal". I get the feeling after this play through that the developers really wanted this game to question your own morality, and I find myself struggling because I know what the "right" thing to do is (not make my prison a capital punishment supermarket) but it isn't necessarily the easiest and it certainly isn't guaranteed to make my prison successful. So I find myself asking if I value efficiency and success over my own morals, even if it is just a game.
The game has done a really great job so far of creating a sense of difficulty around the decisions you make when dealing with prisoners and with just the actual physical design of your prison, and has really been tugging at that sense of efficiency versus morals. In essence this play through is really starting to bug me and leave me in a state of indecision. Some sort of prison limbo I guess.
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S_Beecroft has been with GameLog for 6 years, 3 months, and 4 days |
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