Portal – Page 2 – Interactive Digital Narratives

The Glados Dilemma

Glados, the machine fans of Portal know and… do not really love, has been with the player since the beginning of the game. And yet she is an enigma. And of course she became more complicated after our class brought up the idea that she might be the environment and not a character. True she feels … Continue reading “The Glados Dilemma”

Glados, the machine fans of Portal know and… do not really love, has been with the player since the beginning of the game. And yet she is an enigma. And of course she became more complicated after our class brought up the idea that she might be the environment and not a character. True she feels like a character, but she is hardwired into the mise en scène of the game. As I played Portal, my mind began its quest to solving the Glados dilemma, generating ideas that will hopefully quell debates on the subject.

Most people think of Glados as a character considering how she has all the dialogue Chell clearly lacks. As an aspiring writer, I noticed that she has qualities writing instructors discuss in outlining characters. Although her origin story is unknown, it still exists and affects her behavior in Portal. Glados has an objective to kill Chell, and possibly a super objective that guides her actions in the plot of Portal. Also, she something that resembles a body at the end of the game. As a character, she has an origin, an objective that motivates her actions, and a body of sorts. All in all, the argument for Glados being a character seems fairly air-tight.

Or does it? Glados is a super computer linked into every part of the Aperture Science testing facility. In a way, she is the Aperture Science testing facility. And as Henry Jenkins discussed in his article “Game Design as Narrative Architecture,” game designers focus heavily the construction of the game’s levels. The commentary from the game designers of Portal within the Bonus Levels do not discuss character design, they discuss game mechanics and level design. Glados, controlling the environment of the game, providing a majority of the plot in the game, sounds more like mise en scène of Portal, and less like a non-player character.

So is Glados a character or the name of Portal‘s mise en scène? The way I see it, if the people who created Portal poured energy into both Glados as a character and as the set, I do not see why she cannot be both. I would also say that Glados is something no novel or movie could properly portray. Video games are the perfect medium for the enigmatic Glados, and similar entities in games will secure a place for video games in narratology.

The Anti First-Person Shooter

When playing Portal, the most interesting aspect to me was Portal’s status as a first-person shooter game. As a first-person shooter, Portal, therefore, is a game that belongs in a category with fellow shooters such as Call of Duty, Halo, and any game featuring James Bond. However, my experience playing Portal was vastly different than … Continue reading “The Anti First-Person Shooter”

When playing Portal, the most interesting aspect to me was Portal’s status as a first-person shooter game. As a first-person shooter, Portal, therefore, is a game that belongs in a category with fellow shooters such as Call of Duty, Halo, and any game featuring James Bond. However, my experience playing Portal was vastly different than my experience playing these games.

The majority of first-person shooters are action games. The player controls the main character as they battle his/her way through numerous enemies armed with various guns. Throughout the game, the player tries to shoot the majority of the non-player characters (NPCs) before they shoot the protagonist. The game boils down to a test of the player’s reaction time—can you pull the trigger/press the button before the NPCs?

Portal takes this trope and flips it on its head. For starters, the “weapon” that Chell—the main character—is armed with, the Aperture Portal Gun is not even a true weapon. The portal gun does not fire bullets or ammunition, but instead fires non-damaging portals at walls. In a battle, this gun would be worthless, except as a means of escape.

In Portal, Chell uses her gun to create portals rather than kill enemies.

Firing portals is useful to Chell, however, as in this game she is not truly battling. Yes, Chell does take damage periodically from robots controlled by the antagonist GLaDOS, and she does battle GLaDOS at the end of the game, but this “battling” is more about avoidance and relocation than combat. In another break away from the genre, Portal is less of an action game and more of a puzzle game. Instead of trying to shoot first, Portal encourages the player to think strategically. The game is about finding your way out of a predicament rather than simply battling through it. While many first-person shooters are about destroying, Portal is more about creating. The player must use their weapon to create a solution to their problem, as opposed to most first-person shooters which require their players to destroy their problem.

Air Portals 1

Chell soars across the room in her Air Portals and dunks into another blue portal! The crowd goes wild! “Bzzzt!” When I began my play-through of Portal I conjured up my past exposure to science fiction’s dystopian future subgenre through various tabs on my internet browser. Some of the included films were The Island (2005), Total Recall (2012), and […]

Chell soars across the room in her Air Portals and dunks into another blue portal! The crowd goes wild! “Bzzzt!”

When I began my play-through of Portal I conjured up my past exposure to science fiction’s dystopian future subgenre through various tabs on my internet browser. Some of the included films were The Island (2005), Total Recall (2012), and I, Robot (2004). These three films are similar in that they share a futuristic setting with a persistent skepticism by the protagonist of the “reality” in which they live in. Albeit Chell doesn’t talk (gameplay still in progress), there hasn’t been an indication that she is hesitant to progress. With GLaDOS’ constant bickering, it doesn’t feel as if Chell has any choice in the matter as GLaDOS continuously talks about progressing through the rooms as obstacles needed to be completed. Themes that were also included in my research of the genre were Artificial Intelligence, robots, advanced weaponry, distorting space and time, and bionic enhancements.

The interaction with the turrets during my gameplay reminded me of the game Azure Striker GUNVOLT (3DS). I would build a barrier using blocks and hide behind them until I was ready to make my move. Although Azure Striker GUNVOLT is a 2D platform game the game strategies were similar. The aesthetic choices were also similar. The backdrop in Azure Striker is a darkened cityscape and the chambers that hold the various bosses resembled the room structure in Portal. Interestingly enough, one of the bosses in Azure Striker uses portals to make their attacks.

The most important aspect of the game, personally, was the bionic leg enhancements on Chell’s legs. Without the enhancements the portal physics would be pointless. As a basketball fan, the joy in executing 360 degree spins into a second blue portal and soaring out of the orange portal was priceless. Did I mention I am using the WASD + trackpad combination to complete the game?

This notion of intersectionality between various media allows for deeper exploration and appreciation of a video game. Without an understanding of futuristic dystopian sci-fi or personal appreciation of air gliding in basketball, Portal would have been a mundane puzzle platform game.

FPS, Gender, and Portal

As Kline describes in Digital Play, video games originated as “the play of an overwhelmingly masculine world, centered around themes of abstract puzzle solving, exploration, sport, and centrally, war” (107). He lists activities that society generally associates with men, and thus, makes the playing of video games a masculine activity. Portal subverts the notion of…

As Kline describes in Digital Play, video games originated as “the play of an overwhelmingly masculine world, centered around themes of abstract puzzle solving, exploration, sport, and centrally, war” (107). He lists activities that society generally associates with men, and thus, makes the playing of video games a masculine activity. Portal subverts the notion of a gaming community meant for men by manipulating first-person identification.

In film, the viewer identifies with the camera and the perspective it shows, as though the camera itself acts as a character, that character being ourselves. Similarly, in video games that use a first-person perspective, the player identifies with the character they play. Since society takes video games as a male-dominated space, men generally assume companies make games for them, thus, in most first-person games, the player plays as a man. For examples, think Call of Duty and Bioshock. (I literally Googled “first person shooter male protagonist” and got a list of games that have female protagonists, which tells you how much male protagonists dominate the field.) Now, Portal complicates that identification by making the player-character, Chell, a woman. However, the player does not even see Chell throughout the game unless they go looking for her. Since the game lacks mirrors, the player must take advantage of the portals and fire them in such a way that they can look through one and see Chell. Otherwise, one could play through the entire game and not realize her identity, since there is no other indication of her gender. I think it likely came as quite a shock to male and female gamers alike that the character they were playing was, in fact, a woman.

The first-person perspective also prevents player’s from turning Chell, as a female character, into a sexual object. In third-person perspective games, while the player identifies with the player-character, there is a separation between them, as the player watches them, rather than seeing through their eyes. Hence, female characters from those types of games, like Lara Croft, often get objectified and sexualized. Objectifying or sexualizing Chell is incredibly difficult though, because the player is constantly seeing through her eyes. In order to sexualize her, the player must also, in a sense, sexualize themself. Additionally, Chell’s outfit prevents this sexualization because it covers most of her body, and makes her chest flat. It’s through the first-person viewpoint that Portal manages to subvert the first-person shooter genre, by removing the typical male protagonists.

Lonely Humor in Portal

Everyone who’s played Portal knows its humor. GLaDOS supplied gamers (and subsequently, the internet) with memorable, dark quips of the Emancipation Grid—”which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel and teeth” (Tanner 1)—and the promise of cake amidst incredibly dangerous test chambers. Moreover, within the game, humor is such an important part of the playfulness of Portal. The player experiences quality comedy then gets to dart across a room by shooting portals everywhere. Portal reeks of joy and fun, but on this play-through, I also noticed another essential part of the game that I never caught: the loneliness and creepiness of Portal’s game world.

It makes sense that I didn’t catch that aspect the first go-around. I beat the game in three or four hours, and at that point, I was the kind of player that wanted to beat the game and progress through the story as quick as possible. I never bothered to explore a game or examine how the game was designed, other than it possibly hampering my progress. This time around, when I soaked in the world again with new analytical lenses and slower play, Portal became much more unsettling. Aside from the interactions with GLaDOS, the soundscape of Portal drilled into my head emptiness and the fact that nothing else was with me in this world. Other than the occasional button push or whooshing of the portals, all of the rooms buzzed mechanically and dully. Additionally, the context of having played this game previously and knowing that GLaDOS killed all of the scientists (hence, why Aperture is empty) unsettled me even more. Aperture is a dangerous abandoned facility where I play a character that is essentially the plaything of a rouge AI. That sounds like a horror sci-fi premise. Playing this game alone and slowly (with a frustrating touchpad) made my experience dizzying, to the point that I had to exit the game and do something else, usually to talk to someone.

Yet, in that creeping loneliness, the humor of GLaDOS works very effectively. I felt lonely enough in the test chambers that anytime I heard dialogue from GLaDOS, I relished it. I loved the overt dark humor and slips of a deceiving, passive-aggressive AI. The humor really cut through the tension of loneliness and provided a space for latent social feelings to emerge. The obvious awareness of sinister things at work in the writing of GLaDOS’s lines and jokes helped me connect to an otherwise kind of foreboding world. Having a humorous antagonist along with great mechanics against a lonely atmosphere really fostered an interesting evocative competition between creepiness and playfulness. It also helped me appreciate the connection that so many players have to the delightfully crazy and murderous GLaDOS.

Work Cited

Tanner, Nicole. “Top 10 GLaDOS Quotes.” IGN, 25 Mar. 2011, http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/03/25/top-10-glados-quotes?page=1. Accessed 6 Sep. 2016.

Portal’s Replay Value

When playing through Portal again, having already beaten it, a new thing that caught my attention was how easy it is to play and replay the game. I normally am one who doesn’t find much entertainment in replaying games, but playing Portal a second time through I feel as engaged as the first time through. And having read the Henry Jenkins article … Continue reading “Portal’s Replay Value”

When playing through Portal again, having already beaten it, a new thing that caught my attention was how easy it is to play and replay the game. I normally am one who doesn’t find much entertainment in replaying games, but playing Portal a second time through I feel as engaged as the first time through. And having read the Henry Jenkins article “Game Design As Narrative Architecture”, I think this replay value comes from the detail that is put into the game that adds to its immersive nature. The more I play, the more I feel I know about Aperture Labs, or about GLaDOS. Because the game is embedded with a strong presence of the environmental storytelling that Jenkins alludes to, it not only creates a better play through the first time, but also adds value and entertainment to the game past completion. In addition, the game designers did a very good job of using the environmental storytelling aspect of Portal to slowly tell the story of the game. It was easy to follow, but also very rewarding as each completed level not only meant a new terrain but also more plot information.

Another very unique thing regarding Portal is the addition of Developer Commentary into the game. You have to have beaten the game before accessing the game mode, but it is very interesting to hear comments from the developers as you go through the levels. For instance, on one level, a player found a short cut that bypassed the majority of the level. However, instead of fixing the “bug”, the developers rewarded the players for their ingenuity in discovering the short cut and left it in the game. And while this doesn’t necessarily impact the environmental storytelling or the embedded narrative in the game, it does provide some insight about what was going through the developers’ minds while creating Portal.

Sterility & Total Institutions in Portal

The most striking moment of Portal, for me, was the final scene after the destruction of its AI character and an explosion. But it wasn’t striking simply because it was the culmination of the game, or the drama of the firey finale — it was striking because it was the first time in the game in which I saw trees, dirt, and green. This “back to nature” moment worked because it reinforced, and appeared in dialogue with, the setting of the game…

From One End to the Other – Within the Same Game

There are two ways to play portal: 1. Shoot portals and solves puzzles 2. Analyze the game from a critical perspective, questioning all facets of the game. I had previously played Portal before, but had never really “played” it. On the first day of class Professor Sample stated that many people play video games, but … Continue reading “From One End to the Other – Within the Same Game”

There are two ways to play portal: 1. Shoot portals and solves puzzles 2. Analyze the game from a critical perspective, questioning all facets of the game. I had previously played Portal before, but had never really “played” it. On the first day of class Professor Sample stated that many people play video games, but very few understand them. Taking that message into account, I approached the game from an analytical viewpoint hoping to get something more than entertainment out of it. I succeeded.

I initially realized that playing the game on a Mac was horrendous. I am not sure if the specs of my MacBook Air were not good enough, but the game was at times hard to control and lag. While this did not deter me from playing the game, I began to ask “Why are games like these most commonly better developed for game stations (Playstation, Xbox, PC) than portable devices? As someone who had only played it on the PS3 it never occurred to me that there were other versions of the game that were not as easy to play, or looked as good. This could perhaps speak to the capitalistic behavior that has infiltrated the video game industry: “console games are higher priced and should be prioritized”.

A surprising finding within Portal was the “low-key” cruelty experienced in the game. Usually when playing a game I always observe events from my perspective, yet never take into account the character’s perspective. With Portal, I was able to realize that positioning yourself in the character’s seat unlock hidden meanings. Chell , the main character, is often told that there are consequences for failing and that she should not do so. This torture accompanied with the constant warning signs/depictions of possible dangers that one may encounter in a chamber (as seen below) demonstrate the darkness found in the rated “E for everyone” game.

The shocking realization further leads me to question every single other game I have ever played. Were there many signs/hints/hidden meanings that I did not pick up on simply because I just played the game instead of trying to understand it? Would I enjoy Black Ops 1 less if I was placed into the shoes of the consistently tortured Mason?

Through keen observation and change of perspective, I was able to see two different sides of Portal. The greatest satisfaction came from seeing two different sides of the same narrative, physical space, without having to jump from one portal to another.

#Portal #FirstPerson #futuristic #GLaDOS #POV

Platform and Gameplay

Through my initial play with Portal, one thing that stuck out to me is how the platform the game is played on can affect gameplay. I played Portal on my laptop using a track pad and the ASWD keys. I’ve rarely played games on the laptop and I struggled using these conventions because they differ from joystick … Continue reading Platform and Gameplay →

Through my initial play with Portal, one thing that stuck out to me is how the platform the game is played on can affect gameplay. I played Portal on my laptop using a track pad and the ASWD keys. I’ve rarely played games on the laptop and I struggled using these conventions because they differ from joystick or game-console conventions on a controller. Quick movements and precision aiming are more difficult with a trackpad. It’s interesting to think about how these gameplay affordances of each platform may effect a player’s experience. Although the plot, game-levels and story typically do not change by platform, the difficulty may change based on how well one can use the controls afforded by the platform. While using a trackpad, aiming the portal gun while the player is in motion which requires precision within a short period of time. Multiple attempts of the same action may discourage the player, or interrupt the natural progression of the game. While multiple attempts should be a part of gameplay and challenges can be what make a game fun, sometimes discontinuity in play may interrupt and take away from a gamer’s experience.

Different computer game controllers available.

Another topic related to the affordances of the platform has to do with the layout of keys and buttons on a computer versus a hand-held, game console controller. The convention for shooting a gun on a hand-held controller is typically the right trigger button which can be easily pressed with the right index finger. Pressing this button is similar to pulling a real trigger (minus the end result) and makes sense from a conventional standpoint. When moving to computer keys, this convention is not physically possible. Pressing the space bar is equivalent to pulling the trigger in Portal. Imagine if hand-held controllers had the same convention where clicking a button with your thumb was equivalent to ‘pulling the trigger.’ The layout of the keys and buttons alters the game play experience. Now, it’s interesting to think how engrained the trigger button is on hand-held controllers and how the design of the controller probably adapted to the popularity of first person shooters over-time. At some point, game console developers realized the importance of the conventions and adapted the controls to compliment the game-play actions. As we continue through the course, it will be interesting to consider how other conventions on different platforms may work to afford different gameplay experiences.

Image link: https://www.chinawholesalegift.com/Electric-Gifts/Games/keyboard-game/Keyboard-game-161915540.htm

Retcon Artists

PC-gaming purists love to argue that the computer is the superior system for playing first-person games, which benefit from the laser like precision of a mouse and keyboard. Meanwhile, console fan-boys and -girls will themselves insist that an ergonomic controller offers a more comfortable experience, or that the vibrating “rumble” feature adds to a game’s immersion. Tactile differences aside, playing Portal on a PlayStation 3 console is an objectively different experience from playing the PC version, for reasons embedded not in the hardware but in the game’s actual coded content. Granted, to even notice these differences one needs comprehensive knowledge of both versions of the game; indeed, on my own playthrough of the PS3 port, I had no idea that my game disc featured different content from the original, updated PC version.

I almost miss my blissful ignorance. Now that I’m aware of how the versions diverge, I’m left pondering a dizzying number of questions regarding digital authorship, the impossibility of locating (spatially or otherwise) the “original” Portal, and the point at which two branched works become their own entities. I’ll tackle of a few of these questions here. Full disclosure, though: if I said I could provide the answers, too, I’d be about as dishonest as GlaDOS promising cake to Chell.

Some of the differences between the two versions are truly minute and, I would argue, trivial. For one, the graphics and performance of the PC version are scalable according to the power of your machine. This means that a high-end “rig” can make this nearly decade-old game look pretty darn good by today’s standards, and will keep the game running smooth as butter start to finish. Meanwhile, the PS3 version is locked at a resolution and framerate suitable for the console’s relatively weak horsepower. I personally don’t think that the difference in graphical fidelity is anything to write home about, since most players would need to see both versions side-by-side to even notice a difference. Likewise, the difference between 30 and 60 frames-per-second is significant, but not enough to significantly impact gameplay (largely because Portal rarely demands time-precise inputs from the player).

So, Portal PC and Portal PS3 look and play similar enough at first glance. But PS3 players need not play for long before encountering technical issues and glitches that the PC version, which has received a number of online “patches” or updates over the years, is now largely immune from. During my first playthrough of Portal on PS3 (the only version I’ve played), I noticed a faint crackling sound in one of the early test chambers. It began as a soft white noise that I barely paid any mind to, thinking it was an ambient effect or else was coming from something besides my TV’s speakers. But as I triggered other in-game sounds, like firing my Portal gun or inciting new dialogue from GlaDOS, the static grew louder and sharper, until it matched the volume of the un-glitched audio. I stubbornly gave Valve (the game studio behind Portal) the benefit of the doubt and figured there was some deeper, narrative meaning to the static – maybe Chell was slowly losing her mind, or GlaDOS overflowing the chambers with noise to make her lose her mind. Well, within a few minutes I was starting to go a bit crazy myself, so I turned to the Internet and Googled “Portal PS3 audio static.”

It turns out that Valve’s port of The Orange Box (a collection of games containing Portal, Half-Life 2, and more) from the PC to the PS3 is ridden with issues; audiovisual glitches, framerate slowdowns, and long loading times are present in every game on the disc. What’s more, while Valve has released a handful updates for the Xbox 360 Orange Box and many more for the individual release on PC, they’ve left Playstation in the dust. Apart from one small patch in 2008 (which had unknown impacts on the games) the PS3 version plays exactly as it did on release.

This lack of support from Valve also explains the largest and most fascinating point of divergence between Portal on PC and Portal on PS3. I was suspicious when I overheard a classmate declare during our second game lab that their own game ends with Chell being dragged away, back toward the Aperture building. My own lab group had just cleared the game’s last chapter ourselves, and my PS3 definitely left Chell’s body motionless until the screen fades to black. Still, the alternate ending made sense with consideration to the game’s sequel, which has Chell still trapped inside Aperture. So, I turned again to the oracular Web and discovered that, sure enough, Valve slightly altered Portal‘s ending on PC in the months leading up to Portal 2‘s announcement. Of course, the PS3 never received the update, and thus still boasts the original (and somewhat more optimistic) closing scene.

Valve’s decision to “retcon”, or retroactively alter, Portal‘s ending points to, among other things, the studio’s conception of the fluidity of their game’s narrative and their own authority to mold it. That Valve opted to change the ending not through a tweet or blog post but with a full-on patch is particularly illuminating. I would argue that delivering the new ending with the same mechanism used to administer gameplay adjustments and bug fixes renders narrative in the same light as those elements. In digital games, narrative and gameplay elements alike are mutable, moldable, and never immune from being revised or removed entirely by their creators. Furthermore, Valve’s decision to overwrite the game’s closing moments (rather than offer the new scene as an alternate or supplemental option) is a serious assertion of their claimed authority to determine what is and is not “canon” for Portal‘s game-world. I have no doubt that many, if not most players have only seen one version of the game’s ending and are oblivious to the other’s existence. If not for the PS3 port’s functionality as an effective time capsule for the game’s original release, preservation of the “old” ending would rely on early players having backed up or otherwise documented their version of the game.

For a medium that so frequently emphasizes player autonomy, the modern, always-online video game places a great deal of power in the hands of the author.