Dissecting Portal

[madeofspiders]

So, I finished Portal yesterday and it was pretty great.

I found some articles today that do some pretty heavy analysis of what's going, in terms of the game's story, narrative structure, emotional content and whatnot. They're definitely worth a read.

If you're not familiar with all of the reveals of Portal, beware for here there be spoilers.

Comments

[promethius]

I just finished Portal last week. I loved it.

I gave these links a quick look over. The discussion seems interesting, but I think I disagree with a lot of the conclusions being drawn. Aside from the fact that some of the "theories" are less theories, and more guesses, some of the points are directly refuted by the developer commentary that you can access as part of the special features.

Still, the fact that a game that's a super over-developed Frogger can have such personality, be so interesting, and generate so much discussion really is a credit to the game.

[promethius]

1. Just as a general point of info, all games generate a lot of discussion. What's interesting about Portal is you and I care to talk about it.

2. The person who wrote these articles was really trying to sell their ideas and it showed.

[promethius]

It's true. If you give gamers something game related to talk about, they're more likely to talk far, far more than you want them to rather than less. But I agree. It's not just a generator of discussion, but a generator of interesting and intelligent discussion. I agree, the author here did some fantastic composition. I don't agree with many of the points, but he gets credit in my book for a well thought out and explained piece.

A lot of the game writing out there is shit. What's nice here is to see a piece that's really not.