Prompt 2: In the game The Laughter, the passage is starting with a description of your background. The protagonist's experiences and current situation set this story in a more realistic context. And this part of the story setting does not have any options - clicking the blue text could only bring the player to the next page of the passage. Then, the first choice seems weird but after I go back I think the "Unknown Caller ID" is some sort of hint of danger. There is a go-back button on each page. And the options will navigate the player to face different scenarios. Going back and re-entering the choices is necessary. Because the hint of the previous passage might not be obvious to me. However, the ending of different choices is not beyond my expectation. Like the dead body of the headline. Before my choices, I can feel there is something bad that might happened. I think these options are appropriate with the topic or atmosphere made by this game which is a vague but bad feeling. You do not know what is ahead of your choices but you feel uncomfortable when you choose some options that make the protagonist into danger. Moreover, I restart this game many times and I think I found most of the ending. If the protagonist did not die because of the previous options, players would always see "headline of the newspaper" about a "dead body". This ending gives the player a sense of achievement because if they choose inappropriately that dead body will be the protagonist controlled by the player.
Prompt 4: Drawing on Brian Upton's definition of narrative play, describe how your process of anticipation and interpretation.
In The Laughter, the kind of uncertainty that a passage provoked mainly revolved around questions such as “what could be” regarding what could be of the player if the player performed certain actions. This mainly had to do with progressing the player’s job status and efforts of getting there, so the uncertainty had to do with what could be if the player took certain actions to better their career. The possible directions that the game suggested in achieving the player bettering their career had to do with either picking up a call from an unknown caller ID or not picking up a call from them. Moreover, it tasks the player with deciding to stay safe and take a familiar direction based on gut feelings and context clues or taking the desperate and potentially unsafe route. In light of the choices that you make, the game rejects the choices that you did not make very slightly. What I mean is that you usually have to make a certain decision more than twice in order for the story to progress in that direction. For example, getting off of the bus to go to the warehouse: The game asks you multiple times whether you want to get off. This for sure foreshadows how this may affect your future, as getting off the bus leads you to a death that is described by the red blinking text of the text box within the scene that follows. In light of asking you twice, the game also gives you options to return to the previous state multiple times, overall not making it as obvious as what is going to happen next as certain choices may lead you in circles. I would say that the expectations regarding second guessing and common sense were expectations that the game drew on from ordinary life. Second guessing is mainly presented through the aforementioned talk of mentioning choices multiple times and common sense is presented through the description of the environment and the reality of the situation, such as taking a too-good-to-be-true job in a sketchy area of town. I would say that this game does not really subvert these expectations, but goes along with them, as choosing the more obviously dangerous option leads you to death, and playing safe does not.
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Prompt 2: In the game The Laughter, the passage is starting with a description of your background. The protagonist's experiences and current situation set this story in a more realistic context. And this part of the story setting does not have any options - clicking the blue text could only bring the player to the next page of the passage. Then, the first choice seems weird but after I go back I think the "Unknown Caller ID" is some sort of hint of danger. There is a go-back button on each page. And the options will navigate the player to face different scenarios. Going back and re-entering the choices is necessary. Because the hint of the previous passage might not be obvious to me. However, the ending of different choices is not beyond my expectation. Like the dead body of the headline. Before my choices, I can feel there is something bad that might happened. I think these options are appropriate with the topic or atmosphere made by this game which is a vague but bad feeling. You do not know what is ahead of your choices but you feel uncomfortable when you choose some options that make the protagonist into danger. Moreover, I restart this game many times and I think I found most of the ending. If the protagonist did not die because of the previous options, players would always see "headline of the newspaper" about a "dead body". This ending gives the player a sense of achievement because if they choose inappropriately that dead body will be the protagonist controlled by the player.
Prompt 4: Drawing on Brian Upton's definition of narrative play, describe how your process of anticipation and interpretation.
In The Laughter, the kind of uncertainty that a passage provoked mainly revolved around questions such as “what could be” regarding what could be of the player if the player performed certain actions. This mainly had to do with progressing the player’s job status and efforts of getting there, so the uncertainty had to do with what could be if the player took certain actions to better their career. The possible directions that the game suggested in achieving the player bettering their career had to do with either picking up a call from an unknown caller ID or not picking up a call from them. Moreover, it tasks the player with deciding to stay safe and take a familiar direction based on gut feelings and context clues or taking the desperate and potentially unsafe route. In light of the choices that you make, the game rejects the choices that you did not make very slightly. What I mean is that you usually have to make a certain decision more than twice in order for the story to progress in that direction. For example, getting off of the bus to go to the warehouse: The game asks you multiple times whether you want to get off. This for sure foreshadows how this may affect your future, as getting off the bus leads you to a death that is described by the red blinking text of the text box within the scene that follows. In light of asking you twice, the game also gives you options to return to the previous state multiple times, overall not making it as obvious as what is going to happen next as certain choices may lead you in circles. I would say that the expectations regarding second guessing and common sense were expectations that the game drew on from ordinary life. Second guessing is mainly presented through the aforementioned talk of mentioning choices multiple times and common sense is presented through the description of the environment and the reality of the situation, such as taking a too-good-to-be-true job in a sketchy area of town. I would say that this game does not really subvert these expectations, but goes along with them, as choosing the more obviously dangerous option leads you to death, and playing safe does not.