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New posts in al topics.

Tactility: Creating art with digital mediums

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

Introduction

I have worked with many writing tools through my life as a writer and a creator. From simple text editors to complex creative suites for making layouts and workshopping ideas. In many ways does the tools we use shape our work flow, for better or for worse, in other ways our use changes the tools. It is when we modify and experiment with a tool that we make it our own1.

This essay is written using google docs, a tool that is very close to Microsoft Word in many ways. Both tools are made to be straight forward and easy to understand. The layout is the analogue of a blank paper on a desk, or in a typewriter. The standard indent is that of a typewriter, the layout it creates being that of a text in a book2 or a document.. Google docs has added ways to nest documents in sub categories, making it a lot easier for me to work on larger projects like my essay series. I have several sub folders, for all the essays, denoted by how far along they are to being finished.

I have for a long time found the tie between physical and digital workflow deeply fascinating. We do not often consider how much of your digital life has a direct real life predecessor. I have as a result made a deliberate choice to explore and expand how I work with digital media. This essay is a chronicle of that journey so far.

Dipping my toes in

I have recently started using the tabs function in Google docs to cut down on the amount of half finished documents I need to keep tabs3 on. I started to move old documents into one master file for each project4. This greatly cut down on the files in my drive, and made me get a much better view on where I were in the creation process. This is a practice that has a clear tactile allegory in folders and filing systems, or simply clipping documents together. Something clicked when I started to more actively organize my work in this way. I wanted to try and find different ways that I could add more tactile sensations to my digital life, as well as making my workflow more harmonious and less stressful.

I started by exploring Trello, a website for organizing tasks and calendars for better workflows. It is a tool that I use to keep track of different projects, saving links and documents in one place, theoretically helping me minimize open tabs5. There is a layered nature to the layout of the program is not in and of itself a tactile feature, but the ability to drag task bubbles from one area to another very much is. It in many ways mirrors the sensation of moving post it notes around.

My second experimentation with organizing tools is the web browser Vivaldi. The browser is open sourced and applies itself to counteract AI bloat and tracking online. I have found their nested tab feature, as well as the redirect away from Google very useful for me. I am still learning to use the browser to its full potential, but the ability to clump together collections of tabs has been a life saver. This way I don’t have to worry about loosing important links, while having a clean and ordered browser window.

Digital reading

It is impossible to not mention the number of digital readers and reading tools when discussing digital creativity. Archive.org for example has gone to great lengths to try and keep the sensation of a physical book alive as possible. Sometimes this is to the detriment of the user experience, as moving the pointer around on the screen while reading larger books can easily become cumbersome. Project Gutenberg takes the opposite approach, focusing on readability and ease of use. While this follows the spirit of its name sake and makes materials more accessible, some of the magic is lost in the process, especially when using the online reader.

Most modern E-readers follow one of these two philosophies, many landing in between the two. Google play books for example presents the text as an actual book, with a crease in the middle, but keeps the text plain and easy to read. Many E-readers have tools like text markers and bookmarks that have a clear physical allegory. Other features like extensive note taking and searching for definitions are more tied to digital workflows.

Dedicated novel writers

My first experimentation with dedicated novel writers was with 4thewords, a platform designed to encourage you to write more consistently. This is done by gamifying the writing process by adding things like levels, quests and monsters. While it did help me get into a good rhythm of writing, was the process not in and of itself a very different experience from using any other word processor. Sadly the word processor is rather rudimentary, and I eventually came to outgrow it. With that said, do I wholeheartedly recommend it, I simply used it enough to not need it anymore. I wanted something with more features, and more structure.

This led me to exploring World anvil, a dedicated world builder and novel writer. The website is designed to work as your all-in-one program for notes, characters, worldbuilding as well as writing the text itself. The website allows for simultaneous notes to be open, and for easy links to be made between documents and articles. I have found that World anvil gets close to the sensation of building a story bible. You connect the sensation of having various different texts, snippets, notebooks and post notes, in one place, with the convenience and scalability of a wiki.

Non linear planning and creation

Planning board for Oakendale academy on Milanote

There are many programs and websites designed to create workspaces and creative collaborative spaces.. Google docs as well as Office both offer several ways of combining and linking different files, documents and notes together. I have worked a small amount with Office in my day job, as well as exploring some of Google’s organization tools. Google classroom has been incredibly useful for me to get my head around lesson plans and tests.

World Anvil has many features that makes it a non linear planning tool, in its notebook, articles and cross reference functions. Sadly I find it a bit too clunky and heavy to use for quick notes and ideas. It is for this task that I started using Milanote. Millanote is a brainstorming, organization and collaboration tool. It gives you a lot of the features of a physical whiteboard, while expanding and improving on it. Milanote lets you link different work surfaces and whiteboards together, creating nesting collections of work spaces that can be moved between.

Millanote lets you drag and drop everything from Youtube links to documents to pictures directly in a work area. The premade template and work boards often help me approach concepts and ideas from different directions. As someone with five ideas at once is it very helpful to be able to focus and collect all the seemingly disparate and non connected ideas in one place. The tactile feeling of moving items and collection of items around deeply helps me stay focused and grounded in my work. I especially adore the columns feature that allows you to add different kind of notes, links and videos in to simple to move and organize collections.

Digital work spaces

There are several small games designed to keep you company as you work, write and study. I have tried a few, but I have landed on using On-together as a way to write and create together with others. I rarely talk in the chat, or interact with others, but the knowledge that others are at the table, being productive is very helpful. You are able to sit down, with a book or a laptop, take notes in game, keep track of time, and dates all within the map. It brings me back to when I went to the uni library just to work in silence amongst others.

Chill Pulse with todo list open, and cat friend on the desk.

I used chillpulse before, a game where you study together with a girl/study as a girl, drinking coffee and writing. While Chillpulse is a single player experience, the presence of the other person, and the small narratives that happen in each scene help greatly to keep me motivated. I still use the game from time to time, as the aesthetics, music and little mini games are delightful. Being able to make a virtual cup of coffee or tea is a delightful design detail.

Final thoughts

The internet is full of productivity tools, planners and writing aids. There is no one stop solution for all your problems, and you will often need to shop around until you find something that works for you. What I wish to show with this essay is that there are so many more options than the blank word or google document.

There are many options, if you like me, you need to be able to connect, move around and get messy with your creative work. It was not until I started writing this essay that I really started to take a long look at what kind of tools I was using when creating. It has led me to think of my creative work in a different way.

What did I need, what did I actually use. What features came in the way more than helped. I for example learned that I found that the 4thewords approach to gamifying to be exhausting, while I found the very visual and tactile approach to Milanote deeply helpful in organizing and preparing. I hope that I have made you look at your digital creative and productive life in a different light.

  1. Google lets you customize your workflow to a degree, while Vivaldi is the perfect browser for truly making it your won. ↩︎
  2. Google docs has many tools and templates that deviate from this standard layout, but for my everyday use, I tend to go for the blank page. ↩︎
  3. Pun not intended. ↩︎
  4. Much like, how I as a child realized that I could write my stories in one document, instead of creating new documents for each chapter. ↩︎
  5. In reality it does not. ↩︎

Newsletter #5

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

Hi everyone! I have been busy getting things ready in my new apartment, as well as at my new workplace. I have several new and old projects that I am working on. I can not promise any deadlines. But I hope to at least get a newsletter out every other week from now on!

Why we bleed

Updates

Here are some of the things that I have been working on:

  • Why we bleed: The first part of my horror anthology is finally al done, and available to buy. I am sketching on a part 2.
  • Skyrim essays: I have a few Skyrim essays that are boiling in the background, hoping to get one or two one sooner rather then later.
  • Digital classes: Exploring possibilities for digital classes in topics like narrative critique and game design.
  • Game design: I am continuing to broaden my knowledge and insights in game design and game critique.

Thank you for supporting me and helping me create more wonderful things. I hope to hear from you soon!

Media literacy 101: the Text, how to analyse it

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Introduction

Specificity is vital in all forms of science, that includes the humanities. One part of specificity is the specification and standardisation of terms. Models can be made first when the parameter for that model has been created. These terms can often seen strange or alien for those outside of a specific field. These terms are often used differently from how they are used in everyday speech. I will over the course of a few essays present a series of terms that I have found invaluable in my work as a media analyst, starting with the term Text.

What is a text

The term text, in its simplest more basic form denotes the object that will be analysed or deconstructed. This text is any set of symbols that carry meaning, and can as a result be analysed. The text varies from street signs, to novels, movies and music. The form of the text takes is not important, the fact that it carries meaning is. The term text is a clear denoter of meaning, and can be applied to a large number of items, objects and concepts.

Why use text

There are several reasons to use the term text, chief amongst them is to create a unifying term of discussion forms of material. By crating and using a unifying term will the author not need to reiterate what kind of media that is being discussed. While any analysis of course needs to discuss what kind of media form that is being presented, will the term text make it easier to call back to the specific object.

A clear tie is created between the analysis the analysed and the rest of the world, a clear object with boundaries and properties. This is another use of the term text, as it can be used to specify cut off objects in otherwise loose and sometimes arbitrary collections of symbols. A text can be an entire website, or it can be a single blog post. A text can denote a single episode of a series, or the entire series.

Finally does the term text allow the researcher to make judgements and carry out tests between different forms of expression. For example can books and movies from the same series be presented in the same discussion without the need to specify that each object is a form of media at every part of the analysis. Instead can text 1 and text 2 be used for comparison purposes.

How to use text

The term text is a flexible tool, but as any tool does it have its limits. For example is it still vital to explain what form of text you are discussing. The text itself must first be fully and clearly be presented and defined. The term text should only be used to specify what artifact, or series of artifacts that are going to be discussed in the analysis. Due to the fact that all form of expression and information has their own language, can the term not be unclarity used to make blanket statements regarding for example, all romance novels. The text, in this case, romance novels, must be clearly defined
beforehand. Just like with the term canon and author is it vital to present the context that the term text is used within. This specificity is especially important with the term text, as it can be used on everything from bulletin boards and street signs to novels and long form TV series.

Final thoughts

I have hopefully been able to show a number of uses and functions of the term text, as well as limits in this essay. This is a short introduction to the term and does not come close to covering everything that the term can be used for. I point towards my essays on pop culture for more practical example of its use. It is my hope that my media literacy essays can be used to gain a fuller understanding and appreciation of not only media analysis, but of media and its discussion in general.

Gwylim notes on Morrowind: Guild quests, the value of mundanity

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Mundanity is a powerful tool of storytelling, it helps anchor and expand the narrative, it gives the reader a chanse to recover from a particularly intense chapter. This last part is especially important for games where the players take a more active role than in for example film watching or reading. Morrowind has several organically formed downtimes, primarily traversal from one area and another, while this is a fascinating form of mundanity, and one that I will undoubtedly come back to, is there another mundanity I wish to discuss in this essay, the mundanity of faction questions.

Specifically the mundanity of the quests found in the joinable guilds. Unlike the later games in the series, these factions do not have a big Crisis to solve, no real villain, and no truly complete unbroken narrative. What you get from the quests is that of which you puzzle together on the way, vague hints and implications of grander plots. What makes these quests so engaging is that they often intersect with plots and narratives of both the main quest and other grander narratives of the game.

Source; https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Fighters_Guild

While you may only go to Vivec city to acquire a rare book for a colleagues research paper, you will inevitably find many more quests on the way, many more areas to explore, as well as some interesting hints and implication of the mystery of the Neravarine. The quests writing and design works rather effectively for giving you a reason not only to explore, but to place the player characters in regions and situations they may have otherwise missed.

The mundanity of the guild quests also helps with how Morrowind is designed to be interacted with. For the longest time, the player is not The hero of the tale, but a simple agent of the imperial crown, pardoned from an unspecific crime in return for providing a vague service to the crown. You are a person in the world, rather than a hero that happens to it. The game pretty early on heavily suggests that the player should join a guild or another organization, with the logic that the player will need some form of cover. Again enforcing that you are not necessarily the big hero, yet. So far you are a mere civilian and agent of the imperium’s spy network.

The mundane and pedestrian tasks of the guilds helps to drive this point home without making the process tedious and boring. The quests are often streamlined and located either near to the starting location or near one or several fast travel locations. The quests are often very simple from a purely mechanical standpoint, entailing going to a place, talking to or killing a person, or getting a thing. What sells the fantasy of the guilds is the consistent theming and narrative, giving everything you do a flavor unique to that faction.

Source; https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Mages_Guild

The guilds have their own internal struggles and politics, and you get glimpses of, and partake in some of the politics as a player. There is bad blood between the thieves guild and the fighters guild, power struggles within the fighters guild, as well as discontent with the current mage guild leadership. As you carry out your orders, train your skills to raise in rank will the player inevitably find other quests and stories. The lack of a central narrative of a crisis makes it a lot easier for the writers to weave these quest tales in the wider tapestry of the world’s narratives.

Lastly, does this approach to quest design allow the player to more effectively play out the narrative of their character. Your role as a Mage guild member does not end when you leave the Balmora Mage guild in the same way that your role within the Mage guild in Oblivion disappears as soon as you leave the arcane collage. While the strategy of creating walled gardens for your faction quests may be more practical and easy to manage (I will return to this topic later), I would argue that the depth and life the Morrowind approach to faction quests entails, is well worth the extra work.

Do you like my writing and want to help me write more? Please take a look at my patreon, it has several essays, and would help me create a lot more: https://www.patreon.com/cw/SamRandom13

Highways and industrial complexes: the melancholy world of eurotruck simulator 2

~ SamRandom ~ 1 Comment

Introduction

Simulator games are uniquely limited in scope and place where its narrative takes place. It is the only form of art where the players have the need to traverse the text’s narrative physically, where so much focus is put on the very action that the game aims to recreate. In the focus on the very executions of actions and interactions in a game world, do the text inevitably put focus on where these interactions end. Where the simulation stops, where the game, due to budget or usability or technological reasons, ends.

This essay aims to explore two instances where the simulation makes itself known, where gameplay necessity and immersiveness meet. Where technical limitations and real world expectations rub off on each other in interesting ways.

Highway meditations

Eurotruck simulator 2 is a game, where you drive a truck in primarily Europe. You are tasked with delivering cargo from one major city in Europe to another. These destinations are either large population centres, or well known destinations. The game limits tedium and creates a more enjoyable experience by drastically shortening the distance between these points. The game hides this shortening partly with the help of a severely sped up clock. One hour in the game is 3 minutes in real time. Twentyfour hours being roughly half an hour in real time.

The game further hides this space and time warping by having you drive on highways and other central connective roads. Not only does this make sense from a narrative perspective, you are after all trying to get from spot a to spot b as fast as possible. This decision to focus on larger arterial roads also lets the devs get away with fudging a lot of the granular details of long distance travel. Highways are often rather sterile and homogeneous, and the sensation of being on a highway is kept mostly intact even in their scaled down format.

This illusion is helped by the player now and then needing to take a sideroute or a smaller country road between highways or going in and out of towns. These diversions into the countryside are tightly designed and help to make the world you drive in feel more real, more alive. 

Eurotruck Simulator uses glowing yellow X:es to denote when a road or lane is not in the game. These barriers are easy to hide behind off ramps and junctions in highways, but become all the more apparent on small roads and small towns, where streets and roads has a tendency to snake off into small areas, or lead off to service paths.Towns in particular made the screening of of parts of the game world highly apparent, even more so when the player can see cars drive from and through these barriers that are not available to them.

The endless warehouse district

Considering the choice of scaling, as well as the apparent and obtrusive cutting off of areas from the players, is it not difficult to understand why the devs have chosen to primarily set the game in industrial areas outside of cities. This again makes sense from a narrative perspective, as the player takes the role of a long distance trucker, and is as a result rarely involved in the “last mile” part of the delivery. From the vantage point of thoroughfares and warehouse districts is it easy to present the player with identifiable skylines and landmarks.

Intended or not, does this approach to world design lead to a separation between the world of the game and the player, a sensation of always being on the way towards something, but never truly arriving. The devs have alleviated this sensation in a small but rather effective way. Many of the warehouses where you pick up and drop off your cargo have a security guard or worker on break somewhere on the lot. They passively observe as the player comes and goes, but effectively anchor the game and stop it from becoming what could easily be a rather alienating and surreal experience.

The game similarly have work crews situated near new constructions, as well as police giving tickets of npc drives, as well as rescue personnel standing around car crashes and other accidents. It all comes together to create an experience that succeeds in feeling authentic, not because it tries to hide its limitations, but because the game shows them so clearly.

Do you like my writing and want to help me write more? Please take a look at my patreon, it has several essays, and would help me create a lot more: https://www.patreon.com/cw/SamRandom13

Dredge: The Iron Rig and expansion in World Building

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Introduction

Drege is a fishing simulation and exploration game, where you are set to take over when the old fisherman disappeared

mysteriously. The game takes clear inspiration from Lovecraftian horror and tackles themes of loneliness, regret and isolation. There is something very wrong with the waters around your little peninsula, the fish turn strange, and murderous visions haunt you in the night.

Dredge is a game about personal tragedies with the background of cosmic horrors beyond anyone’s understanding. The tragedies that take place in this strange island paradise are distinctly personal. This all changes with the introduction of an oil rig in the dlc The Iron Rig. The rig itself dominates all around it, at night it almost outshines the lighthouses that used to be your guiding light in the darkest of nights.

The player is tasked with helping to ferry cargo to the rig, as all the companies transport ships have run ashore or otherwise been lost to the depths of the sea. A fact that the foreman is not concerned or surprised by. As you build the rig, more and more upgrades and tactical items become available to the player. The rig’s chief scientist further tasks the player to investigate and take samples from a series of new fish that seemingly appeared after the start of the rigs operations.

The oil rig as the other

The image of the oil rig brings with it notions of exploitation and destruction, of pollution and depletion of the natural resources. Fishermen like that one you are playing are part of those that would have their livelihood threatened by the arrival of an oil rig. Even if there is no oil rig would the disturbance to the seabed as well as the transport ships make your work harder. The Ironhaven Corporation is depicted as a ruthless corporation that cares little for those they hurt in the process. The title of the corporation itself hints at their brutal and cold exterior.

The writing makes it clear that there are those that are with the company, and those that are not. You as the fishermen, are clearly not one of them. Your presence is only tolerated as long as you can be of use to the corporation, and not a second longer. 

The rig invades your seas with oil spills and strange mutated fish, but it also invades your nightmares. The ghostly visions of fishing boats and safe harbors are slowly replaced by ghostly cargo ships and phantom oil rigs, tempting you to your death in the deep seas. Mentally and physically the oil rig dominates its surroundings.

They KNOW

The writing makes it clear from the very start that the company is not here to dig for oil. The chief operator casually notes that they have very little capacity to hold whatever it is they are supposed to be digging for, be that oil or minerals. The rig also has a surprisingly large staff of scientists and technicians, the chief scientist in particular seems to have no interest in the operation of oil mining, but a deep fascination with the area’s strange fish.

Your fears are justified with the arrival of the CEO of the company that seems hellbent on keep digging into the seabed, despite numerous attacks on the rig itself. He excitedly claims that “there is just one layer left”. He insists on digging despite the danger to his life and the lives of his crew. It is made clear by the text that the company, whatever they used to be before they went into oil mining, are fully aware of what they might find in your little archipelago.

While the rig is destroyed at the climactic end of the DLC, are the company still out there, the CEO being seen escaping on his helicopter at the final attack. The message is clear, you are no longer alone with the secrets of the deep sea. The outside knows to, and they will return one day.

Final thoughts

The Iron Rig effectively broadens the world of Dredge with a few well developed features and characters. Many of the activities of the rig have direct consequences for your friends in the surrounding fishing towns. The DLC opens the world by having it conveniently assert itself in your very backyard. It manages to hint at a much larger world without needing to make the game world itself much bigger at all. The DLC only has one new location, and it was previously an empty part of the map. The developers have managed to expand the world narratively without making the playable area much larger or complex. The dlc is a good lesson for other game devs, me included, you don’t need to make a new setting for your dlc to make your world feel bigger, you simply need to remind the player that there is a world outside the setting of the game.

Do you like my writing and want to help me write more? Please take a look at my patreon, it has several essays, and would help me create a lot more: https://www.patreon.com/cw/SamRandom13

Gwylim notes on Big concepts: Health potions as visual shorthand

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Introduction

The potion bottle is a staple of the fantasy game genre, and can be found in most every game of the genre, from Dark souls to legend of Zelda. In Skyrim the potions are easily labeled and color coded to the stat that they refill, green for stamina, blue for mana and red for health. What I wish to discuss in this text is their prominence in the game world.

Gameplay convenience

The health potion is an essential part of many games systems. Even more otherwise realistic games such as Kingdom Come use the seemingly magical health tonic in an otherwise realistic setting. The reason being simple, dying of an infected stab wound would be a very depressing way to end that game.

Similar concepts can be found in scifi and modern settings in the way of health packs, healing stations and bandages. The need for these tools are self-evident. Health is a great indicator of the player’s progress, but the ability to replenish this resource is vital. Health is very rarely outside of survival games or simulators treated as actual health.

Rather, they are used as an indicator of player progress, as well as a teaching tool of what the player did right, or did wrong. While these mechanics are incredibly important and should absolutely keep being a staple is it still a good idea to examine their implementation.

Narrative shorthand

Skyrim is on the whole rather coy about discussing the existence of any form of restorative potions, other than them existing. Much like the constant coins in chests, vases and urns, they are there out of a mechanical, not narrative design. This non acknowledgement makes the few instances when the game does acknowledge their existence stand out so much more.

Morrowind

Morrowind often emphasizes narrative construction and worldbuilding, sometimes at the cost of gameplay readability. The potions of Morrowind are an interesting example. While there are clear markers of what quality a potion is, there is very little way of knowing what the potion does until you look at it. 

The potions available range from healing, to stat boosting and stat lowering effects. There are many different kinds of effects that continue throughout the series, My focus in this chapter is on healing potions, and I want to specify that there is no simple way to see if the item you are about to pick up is a healing potion or not.

There are ways to know at a glance what quality the potion is, via the quality of the bottle itself. This is a great example of world building, of course you would put your best creations in your finest bottles. Morrowind further this notion of potions being real in world items by the existence of spoiled potions. If they were truly items made from plants, fungi and sometimes meat, it would make sense for them to eventually go bad.

The potions in the screenshots are paired with one of the many drinks present in the game. Many of these drinks have unique and interesting qualities, and can in one way be seen as potions. I have chosen for simplicity and clarity to discuss these drinks in the next chapter on food. 

Alchemy in Morrowind can be carried out anywhere, as long as you have the required items to do so. The items used for alchemy, while clunky, could arguably be used in the field. There are plenty of alchemists in Morrowind where you can buy and sell ingredients and potions. Much time and energy has been made to ensure that these laboratories feel like a distinct part of the world, as a place where someone could work.

Oblivion

Potions in Oblivion takes on two appearances, pink one for beneficial potions, and green one for poisons. Potions can be consumed to get the positive effects, while poisons must be applied to a weapon. The potions come in lesser, standard and greater qualities. Their effects range from boosting abilities to healing. 

As with Morrowind there is no easy way to ascertain from a distance what potions you are about to pick up. All beneficial potions have the same shape and the same color, the same is true for poisons. This uniformity can be seen as a way to give the potions a more cohesive in universe feel, they are practical everyday items above all else. 

The unifying color makes potions easier to spot at a distance, as they do not as easily meld into the background together with drinks and empty bottles. While this design undoubtedly makes them easier to recognize from a distance, they also stand out from the world. They no longer seem to exist within media res in the same way that the potions of Morrowind does.

I would argue that Oblivion sadly has the weakest use of potions of the games that I am discussing today, it fails to make the potions feel like a true part of the game, but simultaneously does not go far enough to make them easy gameplay tools. Oblivion exists as an inbetween of the narrative focused Morrowind and the gameplay focused Skyrim, a theme I will return to again and again in this series.

Skyrim

While there are a few instances in which the health potion is mentioned by name in the game, it does primarily seem to exist as a utilitarian shorthand for healing or the medical arts. A few books mention their creation, and use, as well as how different ingredients may lead to different results.

Health potions can be bought by vendors for sure, but can also be found in caverns, dungeons and most interestingly, inside people’s homes. While this makes sense from a gameplay sense, it does lead to some interesting narrative consequences. At some points are you able to hand these magical potions to an npc, that indeed does get better. Others you are forced to leave to their death. It is worth noting that Elder Scrolls Online is much more guilty of this crime than Skyrim.

This is another way that Skyrim streamlines some mechanics in order to make sure that the player can always be on the move. While these potions did exist in the prequel games, they are especially prominent in Skyrim, giving the player a steady supply of resources as they wade through even the lengthiest dungeons. This very much follows the same themes and design philosophies that I discussed in my text on books and shops in Skyrim. The ease of getting health potions very much encourages their use, as well as minimized downtime between dungeon delving. 

The size of the potions is a likewise easy way to discern what the potion will do, the bigger the bottle, the more it will restore the stated resource. Beyond these are potions that improve the player in one way or another, as well as poisons that damage or make the enemy weaker in one way or another. While a bit more abstractly colored they do still follow clear coloring patterns, as well as keeping to the same organizations when it comes to size.

Elder scrolls online

So many characters die tragic death when you, the player, can literally cast healing magic. This is to say that some suspension of disbelief must be taken in return for gameplay convenience. While the narrative convenience of the character the player is currently taking to dying works as a signifier to the player to move to the next area, is the frequency of its use rather offputting.

Potions are, like all other gameplay features, tweaked and corrected in such a way that they work in a continual gameplay experience without pausing. The potions are set on a timer, making sure that the player can only heal in certain predetermined intervals. The visuals of the portions follow the same logic of Skyrim, but with their own distinctive visual flair. Many new potions are added to facilitate online play like dungeons and PvP. 

Alchemy is once again made using crafting stations, these can usually be found in large cities and other concentrations of players, making the crafting stations a natural gathering point for players. The player can later get access to crafting in their player homes, or at the homes of their guildmates. The position of the crafting stations, as well as the existence of the trading and barter system adds a social dimension to the crafting and use of potions.

The way that players interact with potions is colored by another fundamental difference between ESO and earlier games. In earlier games like Morrowinds were items, physical objects, props with their own physicality that could be interacted with. ESO being online made this approach impossible. Items are constrained, with a few exceptions to being in containers, be that the player inventory, a box in the world, or a dialogue tree.

There are certain props, such as the items in player housing that can be interacted with directly, but for items like food and potions can they never exist in the gameworld, and as a result not be manipulated directly like they can in earlier games.

Final thoughts

Potions have a long history of use in game design, as a simple way of helping the player manage one of their resources, their character’s health. I have in this essay explored how different iterations of the Elder Scrolls have used the health potion, both as a gameplay mechanic, but also as a narrative device. I have presented a few ways that these goals can sometimes clash, and what the design of such an unambiguous item as the health potion can say about the wider design philosophy of the game. I hope that this essay has helped you look at the humble healing item in your own game design, or playing of games, and start to look at these seemingly trivial item in a new light.

In my next chapter I will discuss food and drink, and the vital cutoff points between the three modern iterations of Elder scrolls, and how they used food and drink, both to tell stories, and make for interesting gameplay opportunities.

Do you like my writing and want to help me write more? Please take a look at my patreon, it has several essays, and would help me create a lot more: https://www.patreon.com/cw/SamRandom13

New project!

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

My new project is now live, it is still very much a work in progress, but I still want to share it with all of you! It is a project where I will try and improve my photography skills as well as build up a portfolio. My focus will be on nature, abandoned spaces and liminal urban area. I hope that you find this as interesting as my writing. I will add context and examinations of the themes of each exhibit I publish.

https://samrandom131.wordpress.com/?_gl=1*p6rs7z*_gcl_au*MjA1OTE1MjI4NS4xNzUwMDI0MTQ0

Gwylim notes on Skyrim: Books and magical excavations

~ SamRandom ~ 1 Comment

Introduction

Image taken in Skyrim with Library mod

Books are a fundamental part of the narrative building of the Elder scrolls series, they can often bring context to the greater narratives as well as specific quests. In this essay I will discuss four different quests, two from Oblivion and two from Skyrim. The unifying themes for these quests is that, except for one, they get a lot of context from the lore books surrounding, or being part of the quest

In this way I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of relying on a player to read a book, and when in the narrative the book becomes available to the player.

Excavations and exploration

The magic institutions of both games have large questlines tied to them, both that eventually will see the player become the leader of said organization. In Skyrim this is the college of Winterhold, while in Oblivion this is the mage guild. Both of these have quests that take place in an excavation of one form or another.

Oblivion’s quest takes place rather late in the quest chain, and is used as a simple way of showing the player a common task of the guild, as well as to give hints of the internal struggles and conflict within the guild. There are some lorebooks and journals tied to the excavation, but it does not drastically change the context or importance of the quest. The quest itself is mostly there to help the player feel more like a member of the guild.

In Skyrim the quest is the first real quest that the players are sent upon, and also ends up being the inciting incident for the entire quest chain. This is already a stark difference from the Oblivion quest, where the dog was shown to be important, but had nothing to do with the war against the worm cult that the questline later became to circle around.

Image from https://www.imperial-library.info/

The dig in Skyrim takes place in Saarthal and is presented as a rather mundane task, after all they are letting the first year students take part in this dig, and you are told you are there to “find novel uses of magic”. The player is given the task to find any form of arcane items, finding several rings, as well as a necklace that upon taking, traps the player in a corridor.

This all eventually leads the player to finding the Eye of magnus, an incredibly powerful item that seems to have been forgotten. Everyone in the college of winterhold is shocked by the discovery, and no one seems to be aware of where this item comes from. 

This is most likely how the player will react as well, as the player has been given no information about the digsite or its history at this point. This leads me to my second comparison, books, book hunting, and incentivising the player to read.

Hunting for knowledge

Both Skyrim and Oblivion have quests related to acquiring books. The two quests I like to discuss in this essay are the acquisition of the four texts of the Mythic Dawn cult, as well as the Winterhold college text to acquire some stolen books. Both collections of books are related and tied to the quests in mention, but the games take considerably different approaches to how the players acquire, and are incentivised  to interact with these books.

In Oblivion the player is tasked with acquiring all four commentaries created by the founder of the Mythic dawn. This leads the player to peruse book shops, talk to book collectors and finally meet with the cult itself to get the final book. The books are given slowly over several stages of the quest. The player needs to acquire these books in order to find the hidden base of the Mythic Dawn cult.

After the player has acquired all books they are tasked to discuss what they have found with a member of the mage guild. The woman will offer to solve the riddle of the books for the player, but will only do so after twentyfour in game hours, as she first encourages the player to try to solve the riddle by themselves. This gives the player some downtime with the books, and may peak their curiosity. While the books themselves are mostly superfluous, it does give the player some interesting insights into the philosophy and goals of the Mythic Dawn.

Compare this with the quests Hitting the books, a quest that sees the player fight a guild of differently minded mages to acquire a series of books regarding the newly found Eye of Magnus. The dungeon is in and of itself an interesting case study, and worth its own essay all on its own. What is relevant to this essay is the way that the players acquire the bespoke books. They are located at the end of the dungeon, in a strange barren room containing only three pedestals, as well as the dungeon’s boss.

The player can choose to leave a prisoner behind to acquire these books as a trade, or fight the final boss for the same reward. The books The Last King of the Ayleids, Fragment: On Artaeum and Night of Tears. The players are told at the offset of the quest that the book may contain some clues on The Eye of Magnus. The players are then directed to return these books to the library, upon which the librarian mentions that the Night of tears has some interesting implications.

The Night of Tears does indeed contain a very direct and obvious explanation that the place the Winterhold College were excavating was indeed holding some arcane item so powerful the Nord inhabitants gave their lives to keep it hidden. The other texts present the player with some more context on the Ayleids as well as the Psijic order. The player gets no further incentive on reading the texts, and as far as I am aware they are never brought up again.

What is notable about the quest Hitting the books, is that actually reading the books, drastically reframes the entire questline. The player is told in the quest dialogue that the dig at Saarthal is routine, safe and simple. Reading the Night of Tears makes it clear that this was never the case, and brings up some unintended implications of either the college’s incompetence, or duplicity. It seems like a stretch to imagine that neither the Arch mage, or one of the faculty in charge of this site did not know about the site they were excavating, especially since the book would be available to them.

Final thoughts

I have presented four quests in this text, two have involved excavations, and two have involved the procurement of books. All are related to acquiring information or performing research in one form or another. I hope to show different ways that lorebooks can be used to further a narrative, and how it can harm it. I would argue that it is vital that the player still gets the vital information they need, regardless of if they read supplementary texts or not.

The commentaries of the Mythic dawn are pushed on the player who is incentivised to carefully read and examine the texts. Even if they do not, the player still has plenty of options to acquire the same information they got from the book elsewhere. In contrast, the books in Hitting the books are never actively pointed out as important until after they are handed over to the quest giver. This is done despite the fact that the book contains vital context to the quest that the player will not find through playing through the questline.

I have also presented two ways that excavations can be used in RPGs, and what different goals their inclusion may have. While Oblivion used its excavation to present the player to mounting dissatisfaction in the Mage guild, Skyrim uses the excavation as a suspense tool to build up to the big inciting incident for the College of Winterhold questline. Both are valid approaches, but will lead to vastly different experiences, and leaves the player with different connections to what they have explored.