Posted In: Reflections
Because this week’s article was over Twine, a unique online programming platform allowing for the creation of interactive games and novels, I thought it would be appropriate to write about my experience and reflection playing one of the games linked in the article: Depression Quest.
Although I wrote a bit about this experience in my hands-on activity, I will focus this reflection on my thoughts of the game itself and how it impacted my feelings about interactive novels, rather than simply an analysis of traditional versus interactive games and novels.
I would categorize this program as an interactive game rather than a short story because the events that occurred didn’t have a story-like plot. That being said, the events that occurred at the beginning of the game and the ones we as users chose ourselves did result in the future events of the main character.
Specifically, what struck me as so interesting about this platform was how the user interaction resulted in higher levels of attention. The snippets of information provided about the main character’s day-to-day emotions and activities would seem dull and dry to read in another format, say a diary. But because this character was framed as myself and I was able to actually choose a few of the decisions this character made, I became more invested in his life.
Another interesting part of this platform is your ability to not only alter the story or events of the main character but to attempt to reach a certain conclusion for the character. Because the creator of the game is aware that his users will have certain intentions for the character, the game is set up to show the resulting events of these chosen actions.
More specifically, the game deals with a character who is dealing with depression (the only thing the user knows that the character does not). With this information and the information presented in each day of the character’s life, the user can choose how he wants the life of the character to play out. Do I want to make choices that I believe will ultimately benefit the character and lessen his depression? Or do I want to make choices that I believe will make his condition worse?
Through this decision-making process, the creator has the opportunity to trick his users as well. For instance, if a user is attempting to make choices that will benefit the character in the long run, the creator can make those choices lead to negative circumstances that the user did not expect. In Depression Quest, these are ways that the creator teaches his users about depression itself. Users learn that depression is not clear-cut and completely understood. Rather, there are times where there is never a great decision to benefit the character.
Coming back to programming, these reflections show that this platform is great for a multitude of purposes. Whether you are wanting to inform your audience of a situation or condition, provide a challenge discussing a wide range of subjects, or create a fun game for anyone to enjoy, an interactive platform allows for more interaction from users and, often times, more interest.