Textual analysis and other trippy things not to read when sick...

Apologizing for the late time I'm posting this task. Catching the flu and having a baby with fever doesn't help much, but mostly I've got to say that reading Diane Carr's article was more difficult to read for me, than I care to admit.

All in all, i think that the player is very much in a Schrodinger's state when it come to affect the meaning of games. One one side, if games are such that the input from the player is considered in the creation of the playable character itself or in the storyline, then the players are themselves part of the story and therefore affect the meaning of the game. For example Roleplaying games expect the player to contribute in the development of the story and hence in the creation of meaning.

If the game doesn't expect the input of the player to form part of the game, then the meaning from the player is diminished. For example a game where the skill of the player, while moving a rolling ball across a table with obstacles, is the only interaction that the game has with it's player, then the player doesnt really alter the meaning or story of the game.

I think, in my own opinion, that the best games are those that involve the player with what happens and how it happens.

One of my all time favorite game is Chrono Trigger, where you can finish the game in one of the 13 - 18 different endings, now that's what I call choice! So the final meaning of the game is greatly influenced by the player. Love it.

You even go to trial. Your good deeds are taken into account by the jury.

In other media, mostly things are shown in a single way, basically you are let to whatever the maker wants you to learn or reinforce. An add wants you to see all the greatness of a product, and they leave very little room for misinterpretation. Or at least, they try.

In this sense, media uses meaning in a direct way, because they want to achieve something directly. Games, well, they want you to enjoy yourself and the game, so you buy the next one, and the next, etc.

For example, again with Chrono Trigger, the meaning is created by the choices you do while you play. There is a little girl who lost her kitten in the fair. If you go around you can find the kitten and give it to her. You can do this or skip it and go on with the game, but eventually, for example, there is a scene where you are on trial and the little girl testifies on your good nature if you helped her before.

This game in particular deals with time travel and the effects of doing something on the past and the repercussions in the future. You Take your Robot friend to the past and leave him for a few centuries caring for a patch of land, and it comes to be a forest in the future. I think that giving the player so many choices helps define what the game is. it's not a linear Rpg where you do as you are told and that's it, It is a game about choices where even the little things matter.