Amnesia: Immersion

2. Discuss the immersion created by elements of audiovisual, art or diegetic design in your chosen game and their effect on your experience of the game's narrative.

"Amnesia's" art, audiovisuals, and diegetic design immersed me in its narrative, and made my experience as a player curious about the narrative and scared of  the gameplay.
The audiovisuals in "Amnesia" immersed me in the narrative as I felt a moment of affect, as when I played through the "Wine Cellar" I heard footsteps and saw something standing in my peripheral vision. I quickly hid and turned off my lamp so the monster wouldn't see me. As I stood in the darkness the sanity level began to rise: the throbbing audio gets louder and the vision of the player becomes more blurry. This all built up to my emotion of fear, as the sanity level gave a sense of tension. The emotions I felt throughout the game helped me immerse in its narrative as I felt like after frightful moments, the player was rewarded with story nodes.
The diegetic design combined with its audiovisuals immersed me in the narrative as I felt curious about finding out more about the narrative. As I played through the game I eventually progressed to the "Entrance Hall" where the player enters a story node playing in the background while they approach a door in the middle of of the "Entrance Hall". The view of the player became dark red and the character's movement became slow with faint sounds of people talking; all building up to the tension of finding out what is behind the door. Once the player enters through the door, a large skin-like mass blocks the player's way. This created an emotion of curiosity as I was eager to find out what had happened for this to be there, why it was blocking my way and who made this, all of this immersed me into its narrative as I was eager to get to the next story node to find out.
"Amnesia's" audiovisuals and diegetic design immersed me in its narrative through the emotions of fear and curiosity I experienced as a player.

Gone Home: Micro-narrative

1.Was the use of micro-narrative objects in your chosen game(s) engaging? Explain your answer.

The use of micro-narrative objectives in “Gone Home” did not engage me in the game as a player.
Most of the micro-narrative objects supported the diegesis but didn't add anything new or interesting to the narrative.

As the player searches through the house they can find a “cassette” that one of the story nodes explained was a gift from Lonnie to Sam containing her favorite music. Once the player puts the cassette into a cassette player it plays the music which makes the diegesis feel realistic but makes the micro-narrative feel meaningless as it doesn't add anything more to the narrative.

The story nodes the player finds by searching throughout the house are in a particular order and if the player finds them in the wrong order can make the narrative feel jarring and makes the player lose their agency.

Throughout the game the micro-objects the player finds seem to be building up for a believable horror narrative; when the player finds the “basement”, they find a table with a pentagram drawn on it and candles sitting on top and some of the letters the player finds mention an Uncle who had died inside the house. All of these micro-narrative objects give the player the impression that the diegesis is setting up for a convincing “horror”, but once the player reaches the end and finds the final story node all of this built up becomes meaningless as the story was more about Sam running away.

"Gone Home's" micro-objectives did not engage me as they didn't add to the story, they just supported the diegesis. The objects make the game believable but not engaging.

Grand Theft Auto: Avatar

2. Does your chosen game's design of the avatar character help immerse you in the story? Explain your answer.

Niko Bellic's character design in Grand Theft Auto 4 felt very vague and unconvincing which made it hard to immerse me in the story.
Niko's appearance make him look like a gangster; shaved head, un-shaved facials and baggy clothes but if we put him in the context of the game, he is just fresh off the boat and wants to live the "american dream". This all made me believe that Niko was coming to america to look for trouble when he is just seeing his rich cousin.
When I played Red Dead Redemption, John Marston immersed me in the game as his intentions were clear from the start and his appearance supported this which made his character immerse me in the story. I found that in GTA4, Niko was too "mysterious" at the start of the game as Roman's character was clear from the start: he stated openly to Niko that he was just keen for America for "boobs" and "money", which gave the player a sense of what kind of character he was. Throughout the game, the player finds out more about Roman than Niko which made me empathize more with the non-player characters than with Niko as their motivations were clear and Niko's were not.
When the player goes on the date with "Michelle", all of the questions are ignored by Niko which doesn't add anything to the character; the player assumes that progressing through the game would reward you with more exposition of the protagonist,which didn't happen, instead the player is left with the vague and uninteresting character they started with.
Niko Bellic's  intentions, appearance and dialogue were vague and unconvincing. His intentions were unclear, his appearance didn't support his personality and his dialogue was one-sided making immersion difficult. 

Wolf Among us and The Banner Saga: Meaningful Outcome

2. Discuss the meaningful outcome of your choices on the story in your chosen games(s).

In "Wolf Among us", the choices the player makes feel meaningful in terms of story as the outcomes will change depending on what choices you make."Colin" asks "Bigby" if he can still be in Bigby's apartment when Snow said that he is to be send to the Farm. The player is given the following choices: "Sorry. Rules are Rules.", "I wouldn't do that to you.", "Snow will change her mind" or to say nothing at all. If the player chooses the second option, the game will notify you what decision you made: "You chose friendship over rules." The player can assume that from this, you will keep the friendship between "Bigby" and "Colin".
This choice feels meaningful because the morality/personality of the player is questioned and the result is reflected in the game. It depends on the player's personality whether they would "go by the rules" or to choose friendship.

In "The Banner Saga",the results of the choices the player makes feel micro towards the story but macro in terms of strategy. Further in the game, "Alette" is about to be struck by a "Dredge" and it is up to the player what to do next: if the player chooses either to shout her name or to shoot the arrow, the same result will happen: another character will jump between the "Dredge" and "Alette" and die.
This choice doesn't feel meaningful in terms of story because no matter what the player picks the end result will not change, whereas deciding how long you want to "rest" at a camp can change the strategic aspect of the game: it will improve the caravan's morale.

Overall, I feel that "The Wolf Among Us" feels more meaningful in terms of story as the story will change depending on what choice the player makes, while in "The Banner Saga" it will not.

Prince of Persia and Rayman 3: Story Nodes

2. Do the story nodes in your chosen game(s) work well to support gameplay and gameplay objectives? Why or Why not?

My chosen games are Prince of Persia and Rayman 3 and the story nodes worked well to support gameplay and gameplay objectives in Prince of Persia but not in Rayman 3. Both of the games feel different from one another, Prince of Persia relies more on narrative and Rayman 3 relies more on gameplay.

Prince of Persia opened with a story node (cut-scene), establishing the characters and setting making the objectives clear. Through the story nodes I found the story interesting but the gameplay uninteresting and repetitive. I found myself playing only because I was engaged and excited about the narrative but not the gameplay, and as a result I saw the story nodes as rewards which came in a variety of forms; cinematic (start of the Game), scene and mood setting (when the level is shown to the player) and gameplay catapult (Father and son win the battle and give the sand of time to ally).

In Rayman 3 I found myself enjoying the gameplay but not the story nodes. It opens with a story node establishing the characters, plot and setting. The game used story nodes, only to make objectives clear to the player but not to engage and excite the player for the narrative. It felt very much like Mario where the story is not necessary for the gameplay to be enjoyable. The player lost agency when the story nodes played and I felt detached, just wanting to get to the gameplay instead of paying attention to the story nodes.

Overall, I think the story nodes supported gameplay and gameplay objectives in Prince of Persia but not Rayman 3. The story nodes immersed the player into the narrative in Prince of Persia but in Rayman it was used to get the character from “A” to “B”.

Facade: User Input

3. Does your chosen game(s) make user input feel meaningful in terms of story direction and progression? Why or why not?

My chosen game is "Facade" and it makes the user input feel meaningful in terms of story direction and progression. The user input feel meaningful because the story's resolution relies on the user's decisions.

The input of the user is writing down their responses to a situation simulated in the game. The narrative of "Facade" will progress differently depending on what the responses are of the user. An example of that would be if the user types :"I hate you." The couple will then ask the user to leave, resulting the game to end. Having the couple ask the user to leave is one of many different outcomes.

If the user decides to not say anything the result of the story will always be the same, but if the user inputs their decisions , the progression of the story will change depending on what they write. If the user progresses far enough into the story they will find out things like; that the couple has cheated on one another. This can result in different outcomes; the couple breaks up or make up. If the user chooses not to get involved in any of the arguments the story will progress negatively; resulting the couple to break up. This demonstrates that the story will go on like a "movie", making the user input feel meaningless but the story will progress differently if the user does input.

Overall, I think that "Facade" makes the user input feel meaningful as the story will not change if the user chooses not to respond, but if the user does input the story will change according to what the user responds, making the story end differently.