Game:

Life Is Strange (2015)

Duration: 4:07

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11

What I Learned from Life Is Strange

Life is Strange is a story driven adventure game by Dontnod Entertainment. The gameplay in Life is Strange revolves around dialogue choices and a rewind time mechanic. I played the first episode, titled Chrysalis, to learn something new about video game narrative design, and I think I came away with some useful insights. This video discusses my rationale for choosing Life is Strange, and how I went about it, as well as what I learn from playing the first episode of Life is Strange.

Ending music: "In Your Arms" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Transcript:

Hello, I'm FerrousPilot and today I want to share what I learned from playing the first episode Life is Strange. First I'd like to talk about why I picked this game, but if you're in a hurry just click the annotation link in the top right to skip ahead.

Going back to Why I picked it:

It's well liked, and I don't normally play games like it, which means that playing it could provide insights about the people who love it. It would help me understand what others find entertaining, even if I didn't feel the same way myself. Of course this is interesting, and particularly insightful for anyone who makes games. But it's also an excuse to try something new and have some fun.

However, before I jumped into the game I did a bit of research, and what I found was that people enjoyed Life is Strange primarily because they felt an emotional connection to the main character.
They found her to be very relatable. The game pushes the idea of narrative choice, but it's really not what people first talk about
when explaining why the love Life is Strange.

This gave me an idea of what to expect going into the game. I had to try and empathize with the main character-- something that doesn't come naturally to me. I also had to avoid judging the choice and gameplay too harshly and just treat it like an interactive movie. Again, difficult when I'm playing a game But I managed to do it, and I played for about 2 hours-- enough to get to the end of the first episode.

Here's what I learned.

First of all, I developed an appreciation for the entertainment value of mystery. Mystery engages our curiosity, and primes us for fun surprises. During Life is Strange, I found myself forming a list of questions in my mind and speculating about what would happen next, and as the story progressed, some of my questions were answered, which is a very satisfying feeling. I also realized that speculation on what will happen next is an active process. You're constantly thinking, predicting, and updating your predictions based on the new data being presented to you. In the case of Life is Strange, it felt really good when my predictions were correct, but also when I was wrong. The surprise was fun, and my curiosity was immediately satisfied. In fact, this process of speculating about a story is very reminiscent of problem solving. It's not gameplay-- you're not manipulating anything, but there is is a deep level of mental activity going on. And this could certainly inform the player's decision making process, changing how they play a game

The second thing I learned was that narrative choices do not need to have major consequences in order to improve the storytelling. Life is Strange really shoves the idea of meaningful narrative choice down your throat. It tells you when a choice will have a lasting impact, and even lets you rewind time to see how different the other option is. The choices still don't matter, of course. They're just window dressing, really, and the story is on rails. So why go through all that effort? It's not just to trick people into believing their choices matter, though that's a part of it. It also gives the player a means of self-expression through their avatar, which helps them to identify with the character they control. Plus, the decisions Max makes in the game are no longer just hers-- the player takes some ownership of them, which gives them a personal investment in knowing how they turn out, even if they're aware that it will only be a minor change. This makes them more attentive to the story and increases the weight of the events that occur-- after all you care more about your choices that you do about the choices of others.

I knew this stuff on an intellectually, but it was surface level knowledge. I had never knowingly experienced and analyzed it, and I think that playing the first episode of Life is Strange gave me a better understanding of why people like this kind of purely narrative game, even though it's not what I prefer. Plus, I've identified some tools, Mystery and Minor Choice, that can be used to enhance all kinds of games.

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