Response written by Autumn Gibbs. Title generated by Gemini.
I thoroughly enjoyed the game, Florence. I had technical difficulties and had to play without sound, which I’m afraid might have slightly limited my experience, but I still feel like I understood the majority of the game through the interactive drawings. Since I was unfamiliar with the game, I initially didn’t know what to do. But its simple graphics and prompts made it pretty easy to get into. The game focuses more on telling a story than on learning complicated mechanics that require lots of skill. However, I think the simple mechanics help amplify the simplicity and realness that the game is trying to convey. In Everything Bad Is Good for You, Steven Johnson argues that games encourage us to think in new ways. I experienced this while playing Florence, through what Steven Johnson calls “probing”. Probing is essentially exploring a game’s possibilities and testing what actions might work to progress. “You literally learn by playing.” (Page 42) At first, I clicked around the screen to see what I could interact with, even when the game didn’t prompt me to do anything. As I became more invested in the story, though, my probing began to reflect my feelings about it. This was very prevalent during Florence and her partner’s breakup. The game had me take part in the process of ending their relationship, and I found myself resisting what was happening. When the game prompted me to fight with her partner, I tried to resist. I didn’t want to complete the action! When it prompted me to pack her partner’s things into a box, I tried to take them back out. Even though I could not control the story’s outcome, interacting with it made me feel involved in what was happening, and I tried to resist the outcome at first. Through this small interaction with the videogame, I found myself reflecting on my own relationships. On the surface, I was only tapping a screen and testing the actions that the game allowed and seeing if I could change the outcome. As Johnson says, the process of exploring those possibilities in this videogame also made me think differently and learn something about myself.
Mountains. Florence. Annapurna Interactive. 2018.
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter. Riverhead Books, 2005.
Credit: Viktoriia Illina, iStock.
5 Comments
That’s unfortunate that you had to play without sound! It would be interesting to compare game play experiences between people who can have sound and those who can’t. Especially, as you point out, this game is so focused on telling a story and the music is a key part of that. But I love how you really took an experimental approach to playing Florence, exploring how you could interact with the game.
I’m sorry that the sound didn’t work for you, Autumn, as I think it’s one of the key pieces of the game. Not that you don’t have other things to do with your time, but it might be well worth taking another spin through it if you get the sound ironed out.
I think the question of resisting parts of the story is pretty relevant to the experience of Florence. It’s unusual for a game to limit one’s choices as much as this one does, and it might even lead one to question whether or not it is a game.
I like how you mentioned the resistance to the game itself. Specifically, this reminded me of the chapter of the story/game titled “Letting Go”. Quite literally, the point of that interaction in the game was to finally not interact in order to actually progress and keep playing. It’s interesting how the game played with storytelling in that way and limited your choices as you simply let the game continue to unfold.
I love what you said about resisting the game’s path. I felt that the very linear nature of the game made it somewhat more of an interactive visual novel, yet with a lot less words than those usually have. I definitely found myself grappling with the genre of this game- does a game inherently require decision making? It was a little unclear. I also thought it was funny that you had that response, whereas mine was one of resignation, but I didn’t probe to see if there were any other options, really.
I had a similar experience with the probing! My sound was functioning, and if you have a chance/desire to play it again, I’d recommend it, I think it adds a lot. I also found myself resisting the break-up. I tried to pull her back in the scene where it tells you to let go, but the mechanics eventually made me since you literally and emotionally couldn’t move on without letting go. I also loved how the drawing style and mechanics got me invested. Even though it wasn’t super inherently entertaining, I loved the story and how I was able to interact with it.