Wednesday 7 November, 2018

Player projection will be the topic of my OPA. I wasn’t too sure after my third hour into the game, as many other possibilities appeared to talk about the game. At first, I was thinking about dissecting the peaceful parts of the game--the moments where the player(s) are not tense with action--relief. However, thinking about it more, combining player projection with the effect of contrasting moments of action with relief, seems like a much more intriguing OPA. When Vincent, Lea, and Alex are playing basketball, the players aren’t doing anything special at all. It is in that normalness that creates an outlet for human projection. One of my favorite parts so far is that after the basketball game, Leo talks with his girl, and Vincent just gets to play some more basketball with Alex. Usually, a moment like this would be implemented as a cutscene in the game, but A Way Out lets the player who’s supposed to be invested in Leo’s moment does, while the other player gets put in the same shoes as Vincent, who doesn’t care or experience the moment himself, and the game sets that up so perfectly.

Great job Sage! It sounds like you already know what you want to talk about, so I won’t worry too much about pointing out possible OPA topics. Player Projection and the Player-Character relationship can be a fascinating topic and I look forward to seeing how you decide to tackle it in your OPA. If you get stuck at all while working on it, here’s a couple questions to help you flesh out some parts: What specific things does the game do to encourage the player to connect to their character? As a player, do you feel as connected or invested to the character that the other player is controlling? How else does the multiplayer element affect the Player/Character relationships? Are there moments when the Player/Character connection is challenged (i.e. are there moments when the character does things the player doesn’t expect or even things the player wouldn’t want them to do?