(no subject)
I have to tell you about a game called The Witness. Maybe you've heard of it.
Some of my friends were quick to recommended it: "Hey, Matt Vanston! You like puzzles, you should try this! It's really good." Naturally, I bit.
In a nutshell, it's first-person puzzle exploration on an island. Solve grid puzzles where you draw a line from point A to B according to the rules. What are the rules? The rules are dictated by different shapes that appear in each puzzle. What do the shapes mean? Well, you start off with small, easy puzzles, and you're told if your guess is right or wrong. From there, figure it out.
I think it was day three when I realized I had gotten off work and done nothing but play and explore long into the night. I forgot to eat.
This is on an extremely short list of games with which I share a deep personal connection.
The Witness is the world I live in, in my head, every day, and not by choice.
There's no dialogue; no signs; no tutorials; no hints; no help; no one to talk to; nothing to read. You solve at your own pace. Don't know how to do it? Well, keep looking. Explore a bit. Look at it a little differently. Maybe you'll find something. But you won't need to ask for help. Everything you need, it's all in front of you.
Scattered around the island are statues of people in various interesting poses. Men in suits, preachers, explorers, mother and child, artists, musicians, all walks of life. In my day-to-day life, quite often I wish this were reality -- people frozen in time, not bugging me as I try to make sense of the world around me. Finding patterns. This means that, which leads to this. This happened before, which might lead to that. No, please don't talk to me, I'm in the middle of deciphering something. I'm not mad at you, just focused on figuring it out. This thing doens't make sense because I don't know everything about it yet. I need to see more iterations of it. OK, now I understand it and I can plow through it. This is all I've ever known.
One person I've met -- and only one, ever -- understands.
The Witness is how I wish the real world worked sometimes. Take some time to figure things out. You'll get it. But, it's just a video game. So I'll keep trying to make sense of what's around me as the world changes.
Some of my friends were quick to recommended it: "Hey, Matt Vanston! You like puzzles, you should try this! It's really good." Naturally, I bit.
In a nutshell, it's first-person puzzle exploration on an island. Solve grid puzzles where you draw a line from point A to B according to the rules. What are the rules? The rules are dictated by different shapes that appear in each puzzle. What do the shapes mean? Well, you start off with small, easy puzzles, and you're told if your guess is right or wrong. From there, figure it out.
I think it was day three when I realized I had gotten off work and done nothing but play and explore long into the night. I forgot to eat.
This is on an extremely short list of games with which I share a deep personal connection.
The Witness is the world I live in, in my head, every day, and not by choice.
There's no dialogue; no signs; no tutorials; no hints; no help; no one to talk to; nothing to read. You solve at your own pace. Don't know how to do it? Well, keep looking. Explore a bit. Look at it a little differently. Maybe you'll find something. But you won't need to ask for help. Everything you need, it's all in front of you.
Scattered around the island are statues of people in various interesting poses. Men in suits, preachers, explorers, mother and child, artists, musicians, all walks of life. In my day-to-day life, quite often I wish this were reality -- people frozen in time, not bugging me as I try to make sense of the world around me. Finding patterns. This means that, which leads to this. This happened before, which might lead to that. No, please don't talk to me, I'm in the middle of deciphering something. I'm not mad at you, just focused on figuring it out. This thing doens't make sense because I don't know everything about it yet. I need to see more iterations of it. OK, now I understand it and I can plow through it. This is all I've ever known.
One person I've met -- and only one, ever -- understands.
The Witness is how I wish the real world worked sometimes. Take some time to figure things out. You'll get it. But, it's just a video game. So I'll keep trying to make sense of what's around me as the world changes.