Discussion August 2009 - Passage
by Scott Nicholson on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 7:16am
Play Along with Us!
Passage is a free game that you can download and install on several platforms. It takes about 5 minutes to play, but you can play it repeated times and make different choices. It's a statement about life and our explorations through it. It's not designed as a game to be "fun," but rather think of this as Game as Art.
You can get Passage at http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/index.html
After you have played it at least once, you can read the author's comments about the game at http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/statement.html
Once you have played it, talk about it. What did you experience? What do you think about this idea of game as art? How could you see this being integrated into a library program?
My own experience
Sat, 08/08/2009 - 9:15am
What I noted about the game was the way that your view changed as you played it. At the start, you could see a lot of future ahead of you, but when it was ending, you were over in that future, and everything was behind you. I started exploring the southern part for chests, but quickly gave up on that and found my wife, and spent the rest of the time wandering and seeing things instead of trying to fight through the maze.
What was your experience?
Associate Professor, Syracuse University School of Information Studies
Chief Scientist, Library Game Lab of Syracuse http://gamelab.syr.edu
The Passage of Time
Wed, 09/02/2009 - 3:55pm
This was a very new experience for me. I played through a number of times, but I enjoyed just seeing as much as I could and progressed in a strict linear fashion ever moving directly forward. It was interesting to see how memories and fantasies worked, that at the beginning as a youth I had a lot of fantasies about what the future would entail, and as I progressed forward I actually got to experience them, as though in a way they were forward moving memories. Interestingly for much of my life I perceived the world as just what I was experiencing in the moment, and nothing else. The environment made a lot of sense to me, that it changed and became almost mature or more reflective of an adult's environment, the nice tiled floors with the nice red background, which as a child was the pinnacle of what I could foresee, but life went on after I achieved that. I almost thought of as an apartment in the city or something. Then afterwards it seemed I was travelling in distant lands, there were mountains in the background and earth at my feet. Later on I became much more aware of my mortality as the soft blues and whites came in as though I were in a hospital and the background looked as though it was a heart rate, and I wondered if it would flatline. My highest score at the end was 779, which I don't know if it could be considered a score. The game leaves each moment to interpretation but are still distinct moments in your life. As I came closer to my wife's death and my own, the past suddenly became increasingly important, whereas it hadn't seemed to matter much previously. The music is very somber I feel, though certainly fitting. Finally I enjoy the end state, for in other games in which age is involved (I.E. Fable) it doesn't seem to matter, where as with this game I came to a nice ripe old age and promptly died. This short, short lifespan also helps to bring our lives into perspective of the passage of time as well, as though our own lives were as short and trivial as our own brief experience with this game.
-Michael M. Soldati
Michael M. Soldati
Americorps Vista
Gaming and Technologies Coordinator
Keene Public Library
60 Winter St.
Keene, NH 03431
(603)352-0157
msoldati@ci.keene.nh.us
Thoughts on Passage
Sat, 08/08/2009 - 10:18am
Games should be games first and narrative devices second, but when narrative works in a game it truly is a magical thing. Passage is one such game where the developer isn't trying to make a glorified interactive film, but a honest-to-goodness game with a strong narrative element. Allowing the gamer to define their own objections (seek riches, explore the environment, find companionship, a mix of all three) allows them to craft their own story. Contrast this to games such as Half-Life or BioShock, which are (rightly) praised for their brilliant story but are also linear and rigid in structure--well-designed and challenging, but linear and rigid none-the-less. The fact that this game is also limited to five-minute sessions (and that the game is complete after each session) gives a sense of solidity to the narrative created by the gamer; Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a fantasy RPG with a sandbox environment that allows for multiple game saves and takes place in a sprawling environment. Allowing the gamer to make multiple saves certainly helps in accomplishing game objectives and exploring the environment, but doesn't ask the gamer to make a commitment to the repercussions of their actions, whereas in Passage there is no way to turn back the clock, no way to change your mind and overwrite an action you had taken previously. Finally, I find it intriguing that there is no concept of win or loss, of success or failure, in Passage. There is an endgame condition (the time limit runs out) but there is no win-game condition. The result of this is the gamer having to examine how they feel after they finish the game: do they feel they used their time wisely? Did they accomplish they had set out to do? Is there more they wish they could have done? Keep in mind that this game is meant to be an expression of life-and-death; fit these questions into the context of the game, and it becomes pretty deep stuff. This level of introspection is rare for video games, and most games that set out to accomplish it come off as glorified interactive films; they don't feel like games. This really is a geniusly designed game and I highly recommend Gravitation, another game by Jason Rohrer that I find even more emotionally involved; it actually made me cry a little.