Metatextuality and the Modern Author - Alan Wake.

So having spent, by my count, four and a half kertrizillion dollars on the latest Steam sale, I feel like I really need to do something faintly productive to attone for it. So I'm instituting a Policy.

I will blog once a week. Even if it's just two words, as long as those words are meaningful in some way, I will write something here every single week. If I can get myself writing regularly I'll start to put together some other ideas I have, but right now: Write something here, once every week. If I have not written something here and it's been more than a week, you are all invited to find me on IM or whatever and ask me, "Hey, weren't you supposed to have written something this week?" until I leave to go write something. Please do this.

Okay, so what did I really want to write about? Alan Wake. Alan Wake is a game about a writer in a survival-horror scenario, searching for his missing wife and a missing week of his life while dealing with the idea that his writing MAY be affecting reality. There's gonna be spoilers for it, and for Silent Hill 2 so... duck out if you care. Also I felt like just dashing through this piece so I don't get real descriptive about what I'm talking about. Sorry.
( Cut here for SPOILERS. )

I've been playing one episode a night, because the game is broken into TV-style episodes and I want to acknowledge and honor that. When I've finished the game, I'll "replay the DVD set" and see if I can collect more story, since there is story you can only collect on the hardest level. Do I do this for most games? No. I am not a challenge gamer or achievement-oriented person.

If there's one thing that WILL make me replay Alan Wake, though, it's the promise of more writing, more plot, more fuel for the imagination. This game flaunts its influences like a peacock plume, fanning out years of horror tropes and references in a spread that dances in front of me. I'm completely entranced.

Metatextuality and the Modern Author - Alan Wake.

So having spent, by my count, four and a half kertrizillion dollars on the latest Steam sale, I feel like I really need to do something faintly productive to attone for it. So I'm instituting a Policy.

I will blog once a week. Even if it's just two words, as long as those words are meaningful in some way, I will write something here every single week. If I can get myself writing regularly I'll start to put together some other ideas I have, but right now: Write something here, once every week. If I have not written something here and it's been more than a week, you are all invited to find me on IM or whatever and ask me, "Hey, weren't you supposed to have written something this week?" until I leave to go write something. Please do this.

Okay, so what did I really want to write about? Alan Wake. Alan Wake is a game about a writer in a survival-horror scenario, searching for his missing wife and a missing week of his life while dealing with the idea that his writing MAY be affecting reality. There's gonna be spoilers for it, and for Silent Hill 2 so... duck out if you care. Also I felt like just dashing through this piece so I don't get real descriptive about what I'm talking about. Sorry.
( Cut here for SPOILERS. )

I've been playing one episode a night, because the game is broken into TV-style episodes and I want to acknowledge and honor that. When I've finished the game, I'll "replay the DVD set" and see if I can collect more story, since there is story you can only collect on the hardest level. Do I do this for most games? No. I am not a challenge gamer or achievement-oriented person.

If there's one thing that WILL make me replay Alan Wake, though, it's the promise of more writing, more plot, more fuel for the imagination. This game flaunts its influences like a peacock plume, fanning out years of horror tropes and references in a spread that dances in front of me. I'm completely entranced.