The following content contains spoilers.
This week in video game blogging, Critical Distance has
posted a discussion on The Beginner's Guide.
The Beginner's Guide is a narrative video game from David Wreden. From the start of the game we are introduced
to Wreden, who is guiding you and giving his interpretation over a collection
of games, which were made by his game developer friend who is identified as
"Coda". Wreden tells us certain aspects of the game and the process
in which they are made and what Coda might have thought or felt whilst making
the games.
Laura Hudson reaction to playing the game for the first time.
"The first time I
played the game, I felt ill, even angry after this revelation. It seemed like
the game had made me unknowingly complicit in a huge violation of someone's
privacy, one that I had no way of undoing. At the time, I was assuming—wrongly,
I think—that the game told a true story, rather than a "true" one,
that it depicted people and events in the real world rather than inventing
characters real enough to make us suspend our disbelief."
About halfway through the game I also felt the same way. When
Wreden starts questioning if the games that Coda is creating are a reflection
of his emotional and mental status. Coda's games gradually turn darker and more
disturbing. This is when Wreden decides to try and help his friend who is in
need but ends up breaking his trust instead. From what I understood, it seems that
"Coda" was developing these games as a hobby and didn't want to show
these games to the public. Wreden, however, shows Coda's games to the public without
Coda's approval, which ends up destroying their friendship. We learn that this
game is about Wreden trying to reach out to Coda and ask for forgiveness even
though he knows he is betraying Coda's wishes even by doing so.
Laura Hudson explains
that she replayed the game and has a different
perspective of the game.
"The second time
through, however, it felt a little different. Rather than a story about the
relationship between two game developers, The Beginner's Guide started to read
more plausibly as a relationship between a game developer and their audience,
and the dangers of projecting too much onto art and the people that create it.
I'm still haunted by
that initial feeling of complicity the game made me feel when I learned what
was "really" going on, the sickening sense that I had harmed someone
very deeply by participating in someone's misinterpretation of a game. This is
the moment that left the most indelible mark on me, the one that seemed to say
that projecting your own ideas onto an artist and a creative work—or seeking
answers from them—is a selfish act, a stifling act, even a destructive one.
...
But as wrongheaded as
it might be to assume that every story an artist tells is secretly the story of
themselves, it's equally wrongheaded to assume that the best or only way for
art to be understood is inside an echo chamber of its own voice. So much of the
pleasure and insight I derived the game came not just from the moments when I
played it, but the moments where I sought to interpret it, where I spoke about
it with others, where I ultimately projected my own ideas about what it meant
to me."
After playing the game myself, it left me pondering "what
does it all mean?" I feel that the
game can be interpreted in many different ways. Wreden uses The Beginner's
Guide to present questions to the player concerning game theory and design. When playing any game, should you consider the creator's based on design choices or should you let the game speak for itself, as you create your own interpretation about a game?
Wreden seems to think that games can be a window into the
mind of their creator. By playing their games, you can find meaning and develop insight into their personality, which can form a connection with the creator.
This Week in Videogame Blogging:
Laura Hudson's article The Beginner's Guide is a game that
doesn't want to be written about:
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