Anna review + reflection

Posted: February 10, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Reflection, Reviews, Video Games | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Over the Christmas Holiday, I sat down and played an indie game known as “Anna.” This is just a weird game and you can find it here:

 

http://www.gamersinfo.net/articles/3802-anna

The main problem I have with the game is that it is completely hetero-sexist in tone. It’s one thing to assume that the average player is white, male, and in his late 20s to early 30s. Why? Because that is the sterotypical gaming nerd. It’s another thing to assume that the man is heterosexual–which I’m not. This means that I’ll have a harder time connecting with the protagonist. Or in this case, immersing myself into its world. It’s the same problem I have with Silent Hill 2. I don’t understand why the two men should be chasing phantoms or obsessing over the women, though in James’ case it slowly becomes clear that he is a troubled soul.

 

It is in that manner that I can identify with him.

 

Nothing like that is done in Anna. It has a lofty goal of exploring the human psyche–the heterosexual male’s psyche. Yet because they have not even defined what it means to be “male” or a “lover,” the developers cannot take us there. This is Anna’s great pitfall: it fails to use queer theory to its advantage. By using only the extremes of what it means to be “male” and “female,” only individuals who perform gender (yes, gender is a performance; our sex is not) at the extremes should understand this game. Or perhaps this is something that would make better sense in Poland than it does here in the US.

If that’s the case, then this an excellent case for a multicultural approach to video game design.  I should be able to connect to a story regardless of my gender identity and sexual orientation. That simple fact that I can’t is a massive failure for game that could have and should have been more.

Silent Hill 2 reflection

Posted: April 9, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: psychology, Reflection, Video Games | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

For over the past week,  I have been playing Silent Hill 2 (SH 2) on the Silent Hill HD Collection (hopefully my review on that will be published soon). So I wanted to take a few moments and think/digest game. (PS. Some major spoilers ahead if you haven’t played the game. Oh, yeah, and we’re going to be talking about some mature stuff in a safe manner. You’ve been warned!)

You see, it has been over 6 years since I’ve played it.

There’s a lot going on in such a short game.  The monsters are, for the most part, feminine. And James is killing them. So what could this mean? If you’ve finished the game, you already know James murdered his wife. As such, could he be re-killing his wife through the monsters? Perhaps the spitters puked up gas/substances that Mary puked while sick, thus subtly reminding him of his wife and their challenges.

It’s interesting that Maria’s face is smothered in the jail when James catches up to her. Maria is an interesting character. On the one hand, she can be surprisingly strong willed going so far to search for him while scared. Then she acts all girly, wanting to be protected and doing the “dirty dirty” with him. In fact, I would argue that every action she does is to seduce James.

Yes, it’s great foreshadowing for what we soon understand to be the crux of the problem: James smothered his wife and has extreme guilt over it. In fact, we also learn that he has alcohol abuse issues. Guilt and shame are “good friends” of addiction.

 

 

 

 

 

The one character that intrigues the most is Angela. This might have to do with reading When Rabbit Howls. The book is a fictionalized autobiographical account of a woman who has 92 personalities living inside her. The reason for this is due to her experiencing extreme abuse (sexual, emotional and physical) from her step-father. Angela seems to have suffered the same fate. Dad molested/raped her, mom solidified the guilt, and the brother…well, no one really knows his role in this tragedy. All we know is that his picture is torn. On top of this, Angela could be dealing with PTSD and survivors’ guilt. She has absorbed the family secret so well that it consumes her.

The reason James can’t really help her is three-fold. First, he has his own pain that he hasn’t fully resolved. Secondly,  he isn’t in love with her. He’s obsessed with Mary (or Maria, depending on ending), not her. And third, he doesn’t k now how to help her. Any time he tries to show her any compassion, especially with the use of touch, she freaks out. There is no way he could predict her reactions. He learned this the hard way due to Mary’s illness.

 

There’s a lot more that can be written on the game. What are your thoughts?

 

And these are too good not to share: