In our readings for last week, I was particularly struck by Murray’s (1997) subsection on digital environments as being spatial. She writes “linear media such as books and films can portray space…but only digital environments can present space that we can walk through.”
This ability to navigate through space, by interacting with our computers via trackpads and keyboards, she remarks “lends itself to dramatic engagement”. It is true that my experience of playing Braid, Problem Attic and Gone Home have engrossed me more than any film or book has in the recent past. I want to use this blog post then to reflect on what about our ability to navigate through digital spaces makes our experiences more ‘dramatic’ than those offered by passive media?
I will reflect on this question with and through the 2D artgame – Everyday The Same Dream, designed by Paolo Pedercini. While Gone Home would equally serve my purpose, I don’t think with it as I haven’t completed the game but more importantly because right now I find myself completely and thoroughly captivated by Everyday The Same Dream. For those of you who haven’t played it, DO! Also spoiler alert! Quickly then, in the game the player is to guide his/her avatar, a white collar worker, through his daily routine of waking up, wearing his clothes, interacting with his wife, going down the elevator, driving through traffic, and reaching his office cubicle. And then the routine starts all over again. The concept that the game is engaging with is that of alienation. However there is more to the game than simply being stuck in a rote.
Upon getting tired of the rote, if one shakes out of their routine and intentionally breaks from the routine as presented by the game at first sight, new possibilities open up. While the game does have a narrative, that of “alienation and the refusal to work” (Wikipedia) (albeit one that is never stated explicitly in words), I would argue that the way in which each player responds to the rote – how long they conform to it, when and how they choose to break from it, the order in which they subvert the routine – would lead to its own distinct narrative. Each possibility then is its own distinct narrative and tells us something about ourselves.
While reading or watching something about alienation allows for one to cognise and imagine what alienation would feel like, interactivity and the ability to navigate through spaces lets one negotiate with the concept in the here and now. It not only lets one imagine the emotional state of our alienated avatar, but also allows one to explore it and play with it. In choosing how to move and play - repeated actions, in reaching dead ends, often moving in incoherent and futile fashions – meaning arises and reflection happens, a reflection that is embodied, is a felt sense in the body. This we are able to relate to our lived experiences for they also take place in geographies and are therefore inextricably tied to a sense of place. It is then the ability to play and explore a space/concept in the digital realm that makes the experience more ‘dramatic’ than those offered by passive media.