By Matt Weatherford Oiligarchy is a free online strategy game from Molleindustria. The name Oiligarchy comes from oil and oligarchy. An oligarchy is an economic system in which a privileged few have all the power and wealth. Your objective is to get rich in the oil industry by exploring and drilling around the world. Along the way you trash the environment, bride politicians, collude with third-world regimes, and play the role of the bad guy. The format is basically a business sim/tycoon game in which you make decisions on how to allocate money to obtain a return on your investment. You can choose to explore at multiple locations to find underground oil reserves, then install taps to pump out the oil. You can deploy small wells, normal wells, or platforms to extract the oil. You start out in 1946 on a limited budget, so you only use the small wells, which have a slow rate of extraction. Once you install it, the oil is obtained at a fixed rate at first, but after 50% of the oil is extracted, the rate decreases. You can invest in normal wells or platforms to increase the extraction rate, but this means the reserves will be depleted faster, so you must find more oil reserves. This highlights the central role of your quantity of money, the amount of oil in your wells, and your rate of extraction. Another factor is the demand for oil. Over the course of years and decades the “addiction” to oil increases, so you need to supply more, and you make more money. These are the quantities you manage to be successful in the game. Thankfully, the calculus does not have to be performed by the player. If you don’t keep getting bigger, you go broke. This follows the capitalist ideology that has prevailed in the period of rapid population growth and technological progress that has been the norm since the industrial revolution, particularly post- World War II. The population has increased exponentially along with our use of natural resources, a trend that cannot continue indefinitely. The player is forced to search the globe for more and more oil, which often requires political and military support from our government and the foreign powers that be. This adds another element to the gameplay. You receive updates of the political climate and must make donations and bribe politicians to increase sympathetic influences in Washington. For instance, if you can establish support in government and an oil-friendly president, you can invade Iraq to access their oil supplies. In Venezuela, you must employ aggressive special operations and execute a coup to eliminate the blockade of your wells by protesters. In Nigeria, you can assassinate activists with assistance of the government, which triggers the emergence of armed opposition. These scenarios are based on events that may have actually happened. Oiligarchy is worthy of being called a digital narrative because it is uses the format of a game to make a commentary on the oil industry and its legacy of environmental degradation, shady politics, wars, and profits. The developers tried to use the game to model the cause-and-effect relationships that are arguably very similar to reality. The developers put the player in the shoes of the “bad guy”, and your success in the game requires you to make decisions that have negative social and environmental outcomes in order to maximize profit. Your survival is based on ruthlessly fueling the increasing oil addiction. The cool thing about Oiligarchy is that it is actually fun to play. It is kind of like the South Park of digital narratives. Despite being cartoony, simplistic, and fun, Oiligarchy still manages to provide an intelligent critique of the messed-up state of our world.
By Brittany Walsh Welcome to Pine Point is one of the most sentimental and heart-warming digital narratives I have ever seen. The digital narrative was created by Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons, who operated the publishing company of “The Goggles.” The piece operates like a smooth film with interactive elements. The story is not actually based on the experiences of Shoebridge or Simons, but of Richard Cloutier’s experiences and his website Pine Point Revisted.
Pine Point was a mining town in Canada that was shut down because all of the property had been mined. People in this town established families, had jobs and entire lives here, but lost it all when the town was officially removed from the map. Richard Cloutier kept the memory of this town alive through his website and research of the town. Cloutier was the town bully when he was younger, and in an attempt to redeem himself and remember the positives about his hometown of Pine Point, he created a website in remembrance of it. Eventually, Cloutier was diagnosed with MS, which is a contributing factor to why he put so much effort into his site. He wanted to visit the place he called home one last time. In this digital narrative, Shoebridge and Simons explore the people of the town, who they were, and who they are now in an extremely creative and engaging fashion. Images, video clips, interviews, and music all contribute to this beautifully constructed narrative. A person is able to watch a home video clip, listen to a somber song, view an image of the town, and read the narration on the screen all at once; the creators were able to combine all these elements in such a way that does not distract the reader. The great thing about this piece is that it does not feel like work reading it, it does not require significant effort because it is so engaging. I forgot that I was reading a story throughout the time I read this, and was continually inspired and filled with nostalgia while I explored the piece. I think that I really engaged with this piece because as a student who has left her hometown for college, I come home to my family and the place is exactly the same. I can’t imagine returning to the place I called home, the place I grew up, and having nothing be the same; I can’t imagine my hometown being take from me, or just not there anymore. With all the images of the people and stories of families and fun times, it makes me think that it’s not the place or physical structures that make up the town, rather, it’s the people and places that make the town one’s home. I call my town home because that’s where my family is. Throughout the entire piece, there are some sayings that really stick with the reader and truly make them think. Some of the statements I found significant are:
Throughout this entire piece, the reader is consistently engaged in all the elements. I think that this narrative is significant because of that very fact. When readers engage with a narrative like this, they are experiencing something drastically different than a traditional paperback novel. People who have trouble staying engaged with a story told through a physical novel would greatly benefit from digital narratives like these because they still get to appreciate a story, just one told in a different way. This narrative is someone’s story, but it’s also everyone’s story, because we all come from somewhere and it’s sad to see something go. Simons and Shoebridge conclude with Pine Point “would live on only for those willing to dig into history, into memory” and I think this is extremely relevant to literature because people are not reading anymore, they are not appreciating the magic of storytelling. People will have to dig to have stories told in a certain way, but it’s important to remember that times are changing and we need to adapt to the new ways of telling and appreciating stories. By Matthew Gremo Welcome to Pine Point functions as a mix-drink compromised of equal parts scrapbook and textbook, with a splash of ethnography that runs through it like a thick syrup. The authors, Michael Simons and Paul Shoebridge, note that the project was intended to result in a traditional print book, but at the end of the day, it simply made more sense to present their findings in the form of a digital narrative. This narrative, which combines audio, text, and visuals, tells the story of a town—one that conveniently shares the title of this story—that seemingly disappeared overnight. The story begins with a brief history of the town’s origins around rich mining potential, coupled alongside the personal anecdotal evidence of the authors who happened to live nearby. The history of the town itself, however, has little in the way of narrative, aside from shining a light on the depressing nature of western expansion and collapse that is reminiscent of Isaac Brock lyrics. In order to truly understand the people who lived there and what it felt like to lose the sense of home which so many take for granted, Simons and Shoebridge began by pulling out a high school yearbook. From there, the narrative unfolds into a series of mini-vignettes into the lives of Pine Point’s residents. There is the up and coming musical sensation, the future franchise owning brothers, and the stereotypical bully turned town savior. As a work of fiction, one may even call these characters cliché or trope like, but the historical reflection of this piece allows for the humanizing forces which are so often overlooked in such narratives. The simple fact that this narrative functions primarily as a work of non-fiction works to complicate the reader’s expectations for how the story is to unfold. To further convolute and complicate the past lives of the town’s residents, the authors proceed to track them down in an effort to learn where their lives have led them since their home town was erased from the map. In what feels like some strange breach of privacy, a series of candid interviews shed light on what the town of Pine Point meant to a microcosm of residents who grew up there. With waves of nostalgia and the pervasive feeling of lost history, each resident recounts their fondest memories of Pine Point through rose-tinted glasses. The supporting resources of photos and videos—which supplement what would otherwise be a text-only narrative—show a town that is always shot from its good side, and yet an empty pit in the stomach of the reader still manages to grow. Interacting with Pine Point is tantamount to a Vietnam veteran suggesting the only memory he has of the war is the day he sat down and ate a makeshift Thanksgiving dinner with his platoon. In remembering something that is now lost, the human mind is rather crafty in holding on to that which brings it warmth. The term “heartbreaking” perhaps does this notion no justice.
As a whole, what Welcome to Pine Point accomplishes is the filling in of the cracks between factual evidence. It uses human stories as mortar and builds a wildly fascinating narrative around what would otherwise stand as a blurb in a local newspaper. From an educational standpoint, such narratives are essential in the passing on of genuine history to future generations. It is the combination of historical catalogues and living literature into the hybrid nature of humanities which paints a far more complete picture then either could ever manage to do on their own. It is entirely possible that what Simons and Shoebridge have created in Welcome to Pine Point will stand as a shining example for how future generations can take account of their own histories. By Logan Mclaskey Music is all around us constantly. You may think that that is a ridiculous statement, but it is true. There is always a song stuck in someone’s head or music playing on someone’s phone or laptop; there is music playing in every television show and every movie; and there is music playing in every video game. Before you read any further think of a theme song. It doesn’t matter what it is from, but just keep it in mind as you read through this. (Also, feel free to comment it at the bottom of the post right now.) Music, regardless of the medium, plays a huge role in the atmosphere of that medium. It tells us when something is about to jump out when we are watching a horror movie or playing a horror game. It fills us with sorrow when something bad happens in a film or television show, but that is the point, is it not?; to give us some sort of emotional reaction, whether it is good or bad. Without the music in Star Wars then we would care much less about the drama and action that is unraveling in front of our faces. I do not believe that I have ever watched a film, played a game, or followed a television show where the music took away from my experience as a participant. Of course, I am not saying that every movie, television show, or video game has the best soundtracks or musical scores, but I have good taste and I tend to steer away from all the bad stuff. (That was a joke.) In fact, when it came down to whether or not I was going to purchase Hyper Light Drifter my decision was made solely based on the fact that the musical score, in my opinion, was out of the world (no pun intended). I care a lot about music and I knew that the music would play a huge role in Hyper Light Drifter because neither your character nor the NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) speak at all. So, without the music, and the fighting, gunshots, etc., it would be a completely silent video game; and that is no fun at all. With games like this and Gone Home the music plays a massive role in the atmosphere—and in Gone Home’s case—and gives exposition to characters that are not physically within the game. That music gives life to people that are not there with you, that you can’t talk to or look at. And in some specific cases it can give away major spoilers about events that happen within the game. For example, the indie adventure game Undertale. The music within this game, for one, is spectacular, for two, is filled with spoiler-juice. The songs, which you can find on Spotify, do not obviously give away spoilers—as if a narrator were a voice over in the song telling the listener exactly what is happening at that very moment, giving away any sort of surprise—but the musical notes and movements that are used within the songs portray a change, though it may be subtle, to the games atmosphere. The tone of the songs, along with the titles of those songs, shows the intentions of the bosses that you fight while those songs are playing in-game. Another great example of spoiler-filled-goodness is the music for the Dark Souls games. Though the Dark Souls games are a complete other story compared to Undertale, the music is still very crucial to the parts of the game that introduce bosses. Once you hear the music change drastically you know that shit is about to go down. POSTSCRIPT: I hope that at the very least this blog post has introduced you to some new video games and some new music to listen to. I recommend all of the games mentioned within this post and have linked the complete soundtracks to Hyper Light Drifter, Undertale, and Dark Souls I, down below. Again, do not listen to the soundtrack for Undertale unless you are okay with major spoilers. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
By Amberlee Seitz During the course of this class, we have discussed many types of digital narratives, as well as the concept of transmedia storytelling. While trying to find something new and different (for me, anyway), I came across a transmedia experience directed by Lance Weiler which was featured at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011 – Pandemic 1.0, which features a short film called Pandemic 41.410806, -75.654259: The premise behind Pandemic 1.0 is complicated: it is a kind of social experiment taking place over the course of 120 hours. People online, as well as people attending the festival, must work together to stop the spread of a mysterious sleep virus affecting adults. This project was a collaboration of film, pictures, tweets, phones, and actors. 20 different characters were given Twitter accounts and a script of 100 different tweets to be sent over a 5 day period. There was a Mission Control room (designed to feel like a room at the Center for Disease Control) which features a Microsoft Surface table, and includes Twitter feed data projections in real-time. There was also a “Memorial Room” which features replicas of golden objects that are hidden throughout the city, and belonged to 50 people who had contracted the virus. It was the job of the online players to figure out the locations of these objects using digital clues. The offline festival goers were then told the location of the objects, which were then brought back to the Mission Control room. These objects could then be scanned and provide insight into their owners, hopefully providing information regarding how the virus was spread. One interesting twist to the project – 50 bottles of “special” water were distributed throughout the festival. When these bottles were brought to the Mission Control room, they could be placed on the Surface table and a map was then displayed, showing red dots for the infected and blue dots for healthy people. Players then could touch the red dots to help slow the spread of the virus. Special cell phones were also left at places throughout the area. They were wrapped inside plastic biohazard bags along with a hand-cranked phone charger. The players were asked to answer morality questions and look for other people to complete tasks such as taking pictures of themselves with their eyes closed. These people then became the infected. I apologize if my description of the event is a bit confusing; there are so many different aspects of the event that it is difficult to explain it coherently! While the main website that was used during the project is no longer available, you can still read the tweets at #pandemic11, along with #hopeismissing. Hope’s mother, I believe, was patient zero for the virus. Hope was a carrier for the virus, and went “missing”. This took place about four years before Pandemic 1.0, and the virus is back. “Hope is Missing” was another of Lance Weiler’s creations, and you can check out the blog of Richard Chambers, Hope Is Missing, who was Hope’s fiancé at the time of her disappearance.
I found this project fascinating. I like that even people not in attendance at the Sundance Film Festival could also take part in the event, allowing for a wider range of participants. This entire project relied on audience participation, making it a true transmedia experience. Weiler says, “I work from a principal that I call the 'bullet hole in glass' theory. In the center where the bullet hole would be is my singular vision for the story but as the glass cracks out I leave room for the audience to participate.” This allows the story to take its own shape. Unlike some of the choice based games we have played in class, this experience has no definite parameters, and there would be no way to make a diagram of possible choices, such as with Life is Strange. Well, I’m sure there would be a way to do it, but I can’t even begin to imagine attempting it! According to Henry Jenkins, “transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience.” I believe that this project definitely fits the definition, and is a perfect example of where transmedia can take us in the future. One thing that sets this project apart from normal entertainment experiences – Weiler shared the data collected during the project with Medic Mobile, a company that gives SMS devices to doctors in third world countries, in an effort to track the spread of infectious diseases. Scientists from Wellcome Trust (the world's largest medical research charity) were also involved to see how something like may possibly be used in the future for public health messaging. For more information, check out these interviews with Lance Weiler: By Jessica Cieply Toby Fox’s Kickstarter project Undertale challenges the gaming industry on pre-existing expectations in the community. Fox is well known for his Earthbound mods, such as “Halloween Hack”. He was well known in fandom community prior to Undertale with his involvement in the “Homestuck” series. He provided music to go with chapters found online. For this project, Fox found typical RPGs “too boring” and used Undertale as a way to explore new concepts for gameplay on the system for game creation: GameMaker: Studio. Undertale is very much a choice based game and that creates multiple outcomes for every action a player makes. There are three ways to play, essentially. From the start you are given the choices to kill, spare or do both. Depending on the way you play, you are given two very different stories. If you choose to spare enemies, you are taking the pacifist route. This is also called the “true ending” to some. In this version, Frisk, a fallen human, enters the world of monsters underground and befriends them instead of killing them. The team of monsters ultimately ends up teaming up with them. (Frisk’s gender is ambiguous and the pronouns are always they or them.) The ending reveals an age of peace between humans and monsters. The alternate route is the genocide route. This is the path that puts pre-conceived notions about RPGs, and video games as a whole, to the test. In this version, Chara is the human sent to the monster world that tries to kill every monster in their way. They must end by facing off against Sans, a punny skeleton who seeks revenge in this run. The only other ending, which usually follows with this version, is the neutral ending. In that one, a player chooses to kill some main character monsters but spare some as well. Undertale tells compelling narratives in any of these three routes. It puts what we know or perceive video game narratives to be and how to play them. Horror RPGs are usually made on the same or similar game creation systems. Games like “Corpse Party” and “Mad Father” leave expectations of what an RPG is for players. There’s also classic RPGs like “Earthbound” and early “Final Fantasy” games. Typically you kill what the game tells you is an enemy, save up currency and give extras to NPCs. Undertale takes all of these ideas and challenges them. Every character is active and has a personality. Every NPC offers different interactions as well. Some are starting their own bartering system, asking for a “glam burger”. Another is an energetic dog. Every interaction is personal. If you’re like me, it would be difficult to endure a genocide run when every character is so real with you. Another aspect of the game with these choices is that the game breaks the fourth wall. If you kill a major character and restart the game without saving, it will remember that. It will mention that later on. If you start with a genocide run, then restart with a pacifist run, remnants of that genocide run will come again later. At many points, the game will mess with you on your power to “save” and “quit”. The game challenges what players see as “the way it has always been.” What Undertale succeeds at is showing players how much weight their choices have. Instead of killing since the game tells you to, you are also given the chance to show mercy. Sparing gives a strong narrative and shows how different a game can be when you choose to not be violent. While the genocide route shows the weight these kills can have. The final battle involves the revenge for a major character, who is extremely friendly in the pacifist run. The game received critical acclaim since its release on September 15, 2015. Overall reviews were five stars to almost 9 out of 10 or 10 out of 10 on a rating scale by major publications like Destructiod, Game Informer, IGN and GameSpot. The Jimquisition and Zero Punctuation declared it “Game of the Year”. In the Kickstarter, over 2,000 people raised $51,124. This exceeded the $5,000 goal by far. Names of every funder made their way into the final product of the game. Music was created by Toby Fox, as well as character design, which he worked on with Temmie Chang. The artist is also featured in the game in a specified area. Undertale is relevant to digital literature since it begs for contemplation and involves the player in the story no matter the path they choose. It asks for player involvement more than simply choices. While it does border interaction and participation, since every choice is pre-programmed into the game, it draws the player in by using their expectations to create a further story. Optional (NSFW) playthrough videos: Pewdiepie's first playthrough, choosing Pacifist first Steam Train's experienced playthrough, choosing Pacifist first
By Sydney Brangenberg The website of Pottermore is a form of digital literature. It has many different links that you can choose from when on the main page. This website, once you have joined and become a member for free, you are able to interact with other members, read more little stories, and discover more about the wizarding world. This website was created by the author of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling, and is a place for all fans of the series to go and to completely immerse themselves into not only the story but the world of Harry Potter. Within this website, you are able to read short stories that Rowling has written that give more in-depth information about different aspects of the story. You can find out more about the characters, spells, creatures, and places in the section of “Explore the Story.” There is also a section called “Writing by J.K. Rowling,” which includes extra information about the wizarding world. Something that was really huge and had quite a bit of publicity when it first got released was “The Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA).” Fans talked nonstop on social media about this special story both before and after it got released. This particular story was able to connect with a different audience in a more personal way, by showing how the US is connected in the wizarding world, when it was only about Europe before. There are also other sections about her other wizarding works that you can read more about. Then there is the part that most fans are the most excited about, being sorted into your house! Through this website, you are able to join and then sorted into the house that you belong by taking a quiz that J.K. Rowling created herself, so you know that it is as legit as it could possibly be. Once you are sorted into your house, your house is your family, just like in the stories. You can go through and re-read all the Harry Potter books while completing little tasks that earn your house points. Exciting aspects of being a member have been added in the last year or so, where you can discover what your Patronus, your wand, and your American school (Ilvermorny) house would be! After the story of the US wizarding world came out, all of the fans wanted to know what house they would be in, just like for Hogwarts, so this was a very exciting test to take to find your results, if you are a huge fan like me! This website stood out to me because it not only connects to every single Harry Potter fan in the world, regardless of whether they enjoy things on the internet or not, but it is also a very unique way to bring traditional literature and digital literature together as one. Most fans grew up reading these stories when they came out, and they were able to continue their love of the story by joining this online version, where the story never ends! This is also a way to get the younger generation, who have been born in and are growing up in this technologically advanced age, to go to this website, fall in love with it, and then go out and read the actual books as well. The member is also able to communicate with other members of their house, so they are able to associate with other people who love Harry Potter as much as themselves.
We have learned that digital literature has the ability to engage its readers across multiple platforms. In this website, specifically, it is able to create a bridge between the traditional forms of literature, the actual Harry Potter books, and this new form of digital literature. With sites like these, many people don’t realize that they are actually a type of digital literature because it just seems like a fan website with interactive opportunities. Looking at it in this way gives websites like these a whole other meaning and way of viewing them. They are able to connect to, basically, all kinds of audiences by pulling you in through a love of something and then keeping you there with all the different opportunities that it has which would only work in this sort of platform. This is, what I believe to be, only the beginning of this sort of informative, interactive type of digital literature, that will only continue to grow, expand, and become something truly amazing and effective! By Brittany Larsen In deciding what digital narrative to write about for this blog post, I was inspired by our discussions about form and how stories are told, our previous discussions of transmedia narratives, and some of the themes we discussed about Gone Home this past week. As such, I have decided to write about how digital media has changed the nature of fandom and storytelling beyond the traditional text narrative. One major way the nature of digital storytelling has changed in the fandom context is through using images to convey character and telling stories with what are called social media edits. The goal of fandom, ultimately, is to keep a story alive beyond the confines of the original text. The most traditional way this is understood in terms of digital narrative is through fanfiction, where writers take the existing characters and continue their stories through writing. However, in recent years, new ways of keeping these characters and their stories alive have cropped up through other forms of storytelling. One way that have become especially popular lately are through “social media edits”. Social media edits are where content creators take a character and create a realistic looking social media profile for them. This can take the form of Twitters, Instagrams, text conversations, Snapchats, and more. Just like the objects in Gone Home told us a great deal about the characters without actually ever seeing them, these edits count as digital narratives because they show us how much you can tell about a person just from looking at their social media accounts. As our stories move more and more online, the form fits the function of conveying character because we as readers know how to gain insight into someone by seeing what they post on social media. To use an example with a character I assume we’re all roughly familiar with, Shaggy from Scooby Doo’s Instagram is instantly recognizable because it includes photos of Scooby, stacked pizza boxes, and photos of a UFO badge. Additionally, his profile name features his traditional catchphrase, “zoinks!” Therefore, fans of Scooby Doo can easily recognize whose profile this is and translate the character into today’s world. I also included social media profiles that were less easily recognizable so that people can look at the profiles of characters they’re not familiar with and still see how easy it is to infer certain aspects of their characters through these profiles. For example, in the edits that feature a character’s entire phone with all their profiles, it’s easy to get a snapshot of their entire lives. In this way, the form fits the function because we are very quickly made aware of many aspects of a character’s personality and are given information that in a traditional narrative would take several pages, perhaps even a whole novel, to figure out. These social media edits are popular in fandom because they are a quick way to gain insight to a character without having to write a long winded story. This is also important in understanding why digital narratives are important because it shows how digital narratives provide more access into the creative arts. Not everyone is a talented writer, but with these edits, more graphic artists can still engage in fandom storytelling and more people can share content. This is similar to how those who may not be able to write a traditional novel can tell a story through video games, or a short film. In fandom, all types of creation are valued and often you see artists and writers and graphics makers working together on collaborative works. In this way, we see several important aspects of how digital narratives can join together in one community.
By Sam Miller In thinking about what to write for this next blog post, I found myself trying to remember all of the various interactions I’ve had with digital literature. This also forced me to think about what I would personally consider digital literature and I found that one of the things that interests me the most is the concept of podcasts as literature. More specifically, podcasts that fall within the horror genre. At this point I am determined to do something horror related for as many projects as possible, and my knowledge extends far enough that I can bring something new to the table each time. The podcast I chose to focus on specifically is The Black Tapes, which is part of a larger podcast production company called Pacific Northwest Stories. PNWS podcasts focus on mystery and suspense, dappled with conspiracies and urban legends. It is essentially my overall aesthetic. The Black Tapes podcast focuses on host Alex Reagan (pronounced Ree-Gan not Ray-Gan) as she attempts to understand the mysterious and enigmatic Dr. Richard Strand of the Strand Institute. Dr. Strand is a paranormal researcher, but his perspective is that of an extreme skeptic. He doesn’t believe in anything paranormal, and has essentially dedicated his life to disproving it. His institute offers up a one million dollar reward to anyone who can provide genuine proof of the paranormal, meaning that he cannot disprove it. Alex Reagan is a real person working for PNWS, though the Alex that narrates The Black Tapes is likely somewhat fictionalized. Dr. Strand is not technically a real person, though I believe that he is loosely based on James Randi, a retired magician who founded the James Randi Educational Foundation and set up a similar “challenge” to the one that Dr. Strand has. Randi’s was focused specifically on people who claim to possess paranormal or supernatural abilities, whereas Strand’s is more general, but the similarities are there. This challenge as well as Dr. Strand’s know reputation as a skeptic is what prompts Alex to conduct an interview with him, to figure out more about who he is and why he’s made it his mission to disprove the existence of various paranormal phenomena. Of course if that were all that happens in this podcast, it wouldn’t be as popular as it is today (if you’re part of the community that listens to podcasts anyways). Alex soon uncovers a set of VHS tapes, which she takes it upon herself to name “the black tapes” because they’re…well, they’re black. It’s not creative, but the material contained on those VHS tapes opens up a can of worms no one was expecting. The black tapes are all cases of paranormal or supernatural activity that Dr. Strand has yet to disprove. What is so fascinating about this podcast is the level of interaction it allows the audience to have with the podcast itself. If you listen to the first season, you will come across an episode titled “The Unsound.” It’s the third episode in the series, which makes it a tone-setter for the rest of the podcast. This episode focuses on a sound (again, called the Unsound) and it is supposedly supernatural in origin. The “legend” is that anyone who hears the Unsound dies a year after listening to it. So what does Alex Reagan do? She plays the Unsound right on the podcast, forcing every single person listening to the episode to fear for their life, if only for a split second. Additionally, viewers can send emails to Dr. Strand explaining their own encounters with the seemingly paranormal and receive his scathingly skeptical responses in return. A podcast that’s just a podcast could still be seen as a kind of literature, even if the main method of absorbing it is auditory rather than visual. Adding in the level of interactivity gives The Black Tapes an extra boost that not many other podcasts have. I know of a few other horror podcasts that do this, but not many. What makes The Black Tapes such an interesting piece of digital literature is the fact that it is taking a seemingly obscure form and updating it to be even more marketable to a digital culture.
By Trevor Hooth NBA 2k16 is the first version of this game with a true narrative. As with any career in a sports game, there is always an element of story based on how your specific character performs. And that is the difference, to me, between a sports video game and a game like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. The player is you. They can have your name, and even look like you if you spend the time on appearance. For me, my Division III athleticism rises to a professional level of ability…still waiting on that paycheck though. With this specific year of the game, Spike Lee created a movie like experience for the player. The nickname of every player is the same, he will be known as Freq (pronounced “freak”). The interesting part about this though, is that the element of creating your own legacy remains in the game, even with the evolution of a grander story.
This is the first example of a digital narrative in a sports video game, and I think it opens the door to a larger opportunity of narrative in sports video games. This can launch a platform where the story becomes more interactive and personalized. It can essentially evolve into most of the things we have looked at in class. As of right now it is at a primitive level and is not good at all. It is very long and drawn out in the videos that take place with no control over the actions that take place. It is all scripted for you the entire time. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I said the entire genre of sports games has a stepping stone to use now. I have played through the entire story once. It takes the player through their rookie year in the NBA. But the interesting, and most successful part, is that the player starts as a high school player for two games. After that, there are several colleges to pick from during recruitment. After picking a school there are four games at that level. By the time the NBA draft comes, the player has won a championship at both the high school and college level. Once in the NBA the player goes through eight games of a 52 game season. After that, the digital narrative ends and it becomes like the career modes of the past. During the course of the eight games, the player deals with a controlling sister/manager, his agent, his girlfriend, supportive parents and a well-meaning, yet seemingly gold digging best friend. Normal stuff. At the ending is fairly sad. The family, team owner, and agent all try to push Freq away from the best friend, and they succeed. This ends with a letter from the best friend that Freq finds and reads after a sudden death of the best friend. After that, the rookie season is over and the “normal” career mode begins with choosing a team to be on through free agency. In the future with other sports, I really want to see a more interactive game where the player can make more decisions throughout the game. It would not only make the story better and more interesting to follow, but give the game an element of replayability. As it stands, after going through the story one time, I don’t have any desire to play it again. I also want the ability to make different decisions to make the game less boring. The long story, and videos, really caused me to lose interest. I felt compelled to skip them, but never did because I wanted to see how the story developed. I will say that, even though I think the narrative wasn’t good, it is a great starting spot for these types of stories to evolve from and become better and more successful narratives. |
AuthorWe are the students of "Digital Literatures" at Millikin University. These are some of the digital narratives that entice, inspire, and challenge us. Categories
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