Life is Strange and the Evolution of Electronic Storytelling

I played a lot of adventure games as a kid.  At first this usually meant text adventures, where you type “Go North” or “Get Sword” to progress.  Some had graphics, but some of the best ones didn’t.  I still have fond memories of trying to acquire the Babel Fish in “Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy”, or figuring out the spoonerisms in “Nord And Bert Couldn’t Make Head or Tail Of It”, neither of which had any graphics. 

But typing is tedious, and I’m a visual person, so I gradually got tired of these.  Later I played the LucasArts games “Maniac Mansion” and “Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders” on my C64.  These used a point-and-click interface where you constructed sentences by clicking words and objects.  It was an easy, intuitive interface and the games had a great sense of humor.  I remember wishing there were more games in the series, but sadly, “Day of the Tentacle” didn’t come out for the C64. 

I didn’t play any real “storytelling” games for a long time after that.  After college I got into role-playing games.  I love RPGs, but no matter how much story they put into them, you still spend a lot of time grinding levels and buying equipment.  Sometimes it’s nice to play a game where you don’t have to worry about combat, like an interactive movie where you just make decisions.  

I've played a bunch of visual novels, but I’m starting to lose interest in them.  They require a lot of time to read, and honestly, it’s hard to find ones written well enough to be worth that kind of time.  At this point if I’m going to take the time to read a book, I’d rather  just use my Kindle.

I’ve skipped a few storytelling games I’d probably like, just for lack of time.  There are several from TellTale games that sound interesting to me, like Jurassic Park and Guardians of the Galaxy.  I tried the GotG demo, it seems pretty cool.  I might come back to these.

Recently, I started playing “Life is Strange”, along with the prequel, “LiS: Before the Storm”.  Life is Strange is a few years old now, but then I’m usually a few years behind everyone else when it comes to playing new games.  Heck, I could probably start a blog dedicated solely to modern retrogaming, given the frequency with which I'm late to the party.

As of this writing, I’m only about a chapter into each LiS game.  I should probably have finished one before starting the other, but I’m weird that way.  Unfortunately the ending of LiS has already been spoiled for me, but I’m still looking forward to it.  And no, I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to pick for the final sadistic choice, but… and let’s keep this spoiler free… I will probably abide by one of Spock’s most famous quotes, painful as it may be. 

I have to say I’m impressed with both games.  The visual interface is simple and stylish.  When you approach an object that can be interacted with, words pop up (with a charming handwritten font) that show which button does what.  The menu screens have a scrapbook theme that fits the story.  The stories are compelling and I like the characters.  You’re presented with a lot of difficult choices, and for a wishy-washy person like myself, making an important decision can be just as tough as a Ninja Gaiden boss.

Graphics have improved in the four years since LiS was released, but I’m still impressed by the artistry of these games.  They make great use of camera angles, landscapes, body language, music, and other nuances that give the story a cinematic feel.  There’s something to be said for any game where I can tell what my character is thinking by the way they’re standing.

The main character in LiS has the ability to rewind time, which not only allows you to undo bad events, it also lets you master the art of conversation.  Accidentally insult someone?  Rewind time.  Find out someone’s secret interest?  Rewind time so they don’t remember telling you, then suggest the interest yourself.  It reminds me a bit of Groundhog Day, when Phil tries to gain Rita’s affections by memorizing her favorite things.  “Before the Storm” doesn’t have this supernatural element, and instead introduces a “Backtalk” system where you can “win” conversations by choosing the most appropriate insults in the context of a conversation.  It’s hard to say which I like better. 

I can tell you I prefer controlling the protagonist of LiS to that of BtS.  Max (LiS) is a photographer, a pastime I can relate to.  Meanwhile, BtS’s Chloe is kind of a jerk (to be fair, her life sucks), and her main artistic talent is snarky graffiti.  I have a hard time making decisions as Chloe, because I can never decide if I should do what I would do in real life, or if I should stay true to her character.  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play D&D though, even though it didn’t seem like her style.  Playing a tabletop RPG within a video game was awesome. 

A while back on my other blog, I posted about the lesbian romance novels I’ve been reading lately.  This was possibly my favorite aspect of the LiS games.  I’ll always cheer for any positive LGBT representation in a video game, and the LiS games seriously get it right. 

Yes, some people do complain about the over representation of LGBT characters in video games today.  It seems like every time you turn around, there’s another LGBT character.  Some bigoted critics even accuse the game industry of “shoving it in our faces”.  But I think of it as catching up.  I’ve been playing video games since the late 70s.  If you look at the biggest games from 2014-2018, it may seem like there’s a higher-than-statistically-likely percentage of LGBT characters (okay, I don’t really see it, but some do).  But if you expand your range to 1978-2018, the percentage of LGBT characters is unrealistically low.  Given time, this supposedly unrealistic influx will settle down and even out.  But the truth is, these critics aren’t actually interested in realism; some of them think even one LGBT character is too much. 

Okay, to be fair, in a lot of old games you don’t really know your character’s sexual orientation, and sometimes not even your gender.  It’s not like “Pong” has a deep backstory.  But once games did have recognizable characters, the protagonist was usually male, and they were often tasked with rescuing a female, which establishes some definite cishet gender roles.  

As I’ve mentioned before, my favorite games are the ones where you can create your own characters, or at least choose your sex.  If there’s a romance option where you can choose your sexual orientation, so much the better.  In Dragon Age, for example, I always played a female character and romanced women.  I would have done the same in Mass Effect if I’d ever gotten around to playing it.  The Life is Strange games may not let you create your own characters, but they do a good job of giving you a character I would have created for myself.

Both are excellent games so far, and I highly recommend them.  I'll try to post another blog when I finish them, with a more complete analysis.  They make me really with I had more free time.

“Life is Strange 2” is currently coming out.  It’s being released episodically (as were the others), and as of this writing only one episode is out.  I don’t know if I’ll be as interested.  The main characters are male, and anyone who knows me knows that I’m 50% more likely to buy a game if there’s a female protagonist.  That percentage is even higher if I can play as a lesbian.  On the other hand, I hear LiS2 has some excellent social commentary that would appeal to a raging SJW like myself, so I may still check it out.  I will wait until all the episodes are out, though.  I hate owning incomplete games.

Fish & Trips

Fish & Trips

Saturday morning we got up very early, and drove down to Atlanta. We went to the Georgia Aquarium, which was very cool but very crowded. It is, according to their website, the "World's Largest Aquarium". However, I'm not exactly sure how they're measuring it exactly. Total building size? Gallons of water? Number of fish? Size of fish?

I only bring this up because KJ and I have been to several great aquariums in the past few years, and while Atlanta's is certainly huge, it didn't keep us occupied as long as some of the others. And a lot of the length was due to the crowds.

That said, it is a great aquarium. We got tons of beautiful pictures there. If not for the crowds, I could have spent several more hours there. If you're people-phobic like me, here's my suggestion: Try to find out when the "off season" is, or wait a couple of years until the furor has died down a bit. For a great aquarium fix in the meantime, I would recommend the Newport Aquarium (http://www.newportaquarium.com/). No, it's not as big, but it's still pretty impressive. Plus, it's not as well-known, so you don't have as many problems with crowds. Why worry about whether or not the tank you're looking at holds 1 or 2 million gallons of water? Without the other people getting in your way and ruining your pictures, you can stare at the same tank for hours and still see new fish swim by.

Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg (http://www.ripleysaquariumofthesmokies.com/) is good too, probably slightly better than Newport, but of course it's Gatlinburg... you're back to dealing with crowds again. Chattanooga's Aquarium (http://www.tnaqua.org/) is just okay... it's nice because it's close, but it's not worth visiting very often. Really, I'd almost rather just eat at the Aquarium Restaurant (http://www.aquariumrestaurants.com/AquariumNashville/) at the mall.

After the Aquarium, we drove to the nearby town of Douglasville to surprise my cousin at work, after which we saw the movie 1408. This movie is based on a short story by Stephen King, from the book "Everything's Eventual". I'm not often satisfied with 50-page stories forcibly stretched into 2-hour movies, but this one is quite good. It's "spooky-scary", not "gory-scary", so slasher fans might want to stay away. It's been a while since I've read the story, but I think it's relatively faithful, except towards the end. It's one of those where the longer it goes on, the farther it strays from the book. But I'm no purist - I believe that movies are movies and books are books, and some things work better in print than on screen. With the exception of about 20 minutes near the end, the director made some very good choices.

I have a hard time recommending 1408 because I'm afraid a lot of people just won't "get it". But the theater audience seemed to have a good time, so maybe that's not really an issue. This movie should be seen in the theater, as the gasps and screams from the audience were almost as entertaining as what's on the screen. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Before the movie, there were a couple of neat trailers I hadn't seen before. "Shoot 'Em Up" is full of mesmerizing (if unbelievable) action scenes, reminiscent of the Transporter movies or Crank... but instead of Jason Statham, this movie stars Clive Owen as an expert marksman, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. (Also known as "Standard Movie Plot #23", but when you see the action, you won't care about the plot.)

"The Invasion" is yet another remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It updates the plot to make it more timely and less "60's Drive-In" schlock, but there wasn't much else interesting to say about it. I'll probably see it just to compare it with the other versions, but I'm not expecting much.

They also showed the trailer for Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween. I had already seen the trailer a few months ago, but this was the first time on a big screen. I've been reading a lot of debates about this one... it supposedly goes a bit deeper into Michael's mind, which could be good or bad. One of the coolest things about the original was that he was so blank. It made him a force of the unknown, a character with which no one could possibly relate, and in its own way it made Meyers a lot scarier. But I'll reserve judgement until I see this one, because the previews do look pretty darn cool.

Anyway, we stayed in Douglasville for the night. Bit of triva for you. The most annoying traffic light in the country is at the corner of Douglas Blvd and Bill Arp Rd. At least that was my experience - it didn't matter which direction we came from, it was always red when we got there, and stayed red for what seemed like 10 minutes. Coincidence, or does the light just not like out-of-towners?

Sunday morning we went to Atlanta's Pride Parade. I had planned to dress up - same outfit as Nashville Pride, but a different wig - but it was just too hot. KJ and I both got horrible sunburns as it was (we forgot to bring our sunblock). I can't imagine what it would have been like if I'd been wearing a wig.

Anyway, Pride was great. There were hundreds of booths with loads of neat stuff for sale, making us regret our tight budget. Then we watched was the longest parade I've ever seen. We managed to get a spot just a few feet from a group of religious protestors, who held up anti-gay signs and shouted Bible verses through their microphone. Eh, we mostly just laughed at them. I really can't say anything bad about the preachers because they were trying to help their fellow man. If they want to spread their beliefs in a non-violent way, then I have no problem with that.

But the stuff they were saying through their microphone was so incredibly stupid, that any idiot with a Bible and 10 minutes to spare could disprove whatever they said. I just wish these guys would do their research.

But again, the parade was a lot of fun; though I will have to say, the transgender community was woefully underrepresented. Nothing unusual there... I often feel like a minority within a minority that way. Still, there were plenty of unique people there, and while I'm not actually gay (in the man/man sense), I do feel a strong connection with the GLBT community. Seeing so many thousands of fellow freaks in one place makes me feel much less alone in the world.

God, I'm tired. Good night.

Transamerica

Warning - As with all my reviews, possible spoilers, read with caution.

Transamerica certainly treated transgenderism with more respect than most movies, but there's not a lot out there for comparison. The only other transgender-related movie I've seen recently was HBO's "Normal", which was decent but glossed over a some of the realities... for instance, there was no mention of the main character ever seeing a therapist.

Transamerica, on the other hand, did a lot more homework. The main character, Bree, was played rather convincingly by actress Felicity Huffman. So convincingly that I bet some viewers will wonder if the actress was actually male or female. (And as if to further confuse the audience, she has two full-frontal nude scenes in the movie - one pre-op and one post-op.)

It took me a long time to get used to her voice. It must have been challenging for Huffman - a woman playing someone born male trying to sound female. Makes me think of Victor Victoria. But her voice was so flat and monotone (think Daria), that she often came across as emotionless.

The plot in a nutshell: With just days to go before her gender reassignment surgery, Bree (short for Sabrina, formerly Stanley) discovers that she has a near-adult son. And he's in jail. And Bree's psychiatrist won't let her get the surgery until she resolves this loose end. So Bree flys to New York, bails him out of jail, and takes him on a cross-country drive. In accordance with standard movie rules, the boy starts out rebellious and disrespectful, until you find out about his traumatic past, and you gradually discover he's a sweet boy at heart.

Meanwhile, Bree, desperate to keep from complicating her life even further, avoids telling him that they're related, or even that she's biologically male. Of course the boy finds out about the transgendered part in a scene stolen from Mrs Doubtfire. Bree comes off as a bit of a jerk for much of the movie, but it is a movie about personal growth. Think Jerry McGuire, except Bree is transforming both emotionally and physically. The movie's final message - that the surgery won't solve all her problems - is one all transsexuals should take to heart.

The movie is a bit uneven, like it can't decide whether it's a comedy or a drama. But the humor is realistic and down-to-earth; not the over-the-top stuff you're probably used to seeing in movies involving this subject matter. Some of the scenes with Bree's family were comic gold, maybe a little too much so... it almost felt like they were trying to change the movie's tone halfway through.

Take away the transgender issues, and you've seen this movie before. Actually, you've probably seen several movies about parents reuniting with children they never knew existed, getting to know them, and trying to save them from their own self-destructive behavior. But there's a lot of other movie plots that have been way more overdone.

Overall, I thought it was an enjoyable afternoon. I don't know if I'll buy the DVD, but I am glad I saw it.