Postmortem: Ansible (SPOILERS)

Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever created a whole new thread before. Feels so self-indulgent!

I posted some thoughts here:

https://jf64.wordpress.com/2015/05/30/postmortem-ansible/

Hmm, what else? Oh, right, I wanted to attempt to make some kind of connection between Spag #62’s improv analogy and… in this game, there’s this “unavoidable” bit where, in order to meet the giants, you have to do pretty much the opposite: You have to choose the ring of wishing, then pretty much shut down every single offer the game presents, until something unexpected but non-fatal happens. I’m pretty sure that the practical effect of this is to delay the player’s discovery of the giants in almost all playthroughs, at least until the discovery of the crossroads on the wishing-ring branch (which I do expect quite a few players to go for first, even though it’s listed second, just because it sounds so tempting).

You know, maybe I should actually look at the telemetry and see if it supports my pre-comp theories about all this or what. So far I’ve been too lazy.

Oh but the other sort of related thing was: In general, it feels to me like Valeria doesn’t really think of the player as a real person, but more as a tool. One of those magic 8-ball executive decision maker toys, maybe.

I think it would be possible to do something different – like, I could imagine a game very much like this in which it’s possible to have more of a real conversation with the character. Still limited, obviously, but there could be more room for the player to inject something positive into the discussion, without having this interaction where the player is shutting everything down purely for lack of better options and the character is practically rage-quitting as a result.

I was going to try to come up with something coherent to say about all that and maybe try to shoehorn it in to the above write-up but I guess that didn’t happen.

Wait, maybe I should have put (SPOILERS OMG) in the topic name thread subject thing? I can’t do it now, can I? Hmm.

EDIT: I think I did it! Hooray, Christmas is saved!