Gameplay Journal Entry #8
The game that I chose to play and analyze is “A Blind Legend”. In this game you are a blind knight who is guided by his daughter to save your wife. The games is completely audio driven. In the game, for each movement and action there is a sound effect to simulate the experience. The narrative of the game is told by audio queues which signify a moment of inaction to listen to the story develop with a cutscene. There is also a narrator from the beginning which outlines the mechanics of the game such as asking for directions, drawing your sword, shielding, and sprinting.
Immediately, I see the mechanics and overall narrative of the game as projecting a social message of cooperation. Without the Blind Knight’s daughter he would be lost and without her father she would be left to the fate of the enemies. I believe the game is successful in including the ethic of cooperation much how Flanagan and Nissenbau urge games should include ethical ideas,
“…existing games should be enhanced and diversified, or rather, that games should at least be developed in a way that they could include ethical ideals — or human values” (Flanagan and Nissenbaum A game design methodology to incorporate social activist themes pg. 182)
The two work together for the greater good of their loved ones and family. From the time I spent playing I did not personally pickup on any political themes being addressed. One could argue that socially the game provides awareness of the experience of blindness.
Works Cited
Flanagan, Mary, and Helen Nissenbaum. “A Game Design Methodology to Incorporate Social Activist Themes.” Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems — CHI ’07, 2007, doi:10.1145/1240624.1240654.
