Professor Sample commented on my previous post wondering whether The Room 2 was perhaps a comment on technology in our society since it utilizes a typewriter within the game. While the whole game is rather antiquated, featuring old, musty rooms with locked boxes, it is interesting that the developers chose to place the game in the past though the exact time changes as one proceeds through the game. Seemingly, The Room 2 could have used modern rooms, placing clues and keys within computers or even just modernizing the look of the rooms. Yet, the developers instead chose the complete opposite, making the rooms dark and filled with old photographs.
Simultaneously, however, technology, such as the typewriter or the laser system, was needed to beat the levels. This technology is also antiquated, but The Room 2 often feels like a mad scientist’s creation, fully equipped with levers, pulleys, and elaborate locks. The technology used to design the game is clearly high-end for a mobile puzzle game; the graphics are intricate and artistic and the overall feel of the game is incredibly convincing. But it also seems that the developers have a fascination with early modes of technology. They are more interested in how an old complicated locked box opens than the modern equivalent.
This contradiction, modern game developers focusing on old technology, makes the game fascinating. They apply our modern technological skills to make the brilliance of old technology come alive again. It is, as Professor Sample put it, techno-nostalgia. I think this techno-nostalgia makes the game much more appealing. It adds another layer to an already complex puzzle game, perhaps making the player think about technological advancements, but also the similarities between the game mechanics and the technology within the game. For instance, when a box opens with multiple inputs needed i.e. a key, a button, and a photo placed in the right position, the code written for that box to open had multiple inputs to create said box and make it function the way it does. The old technology is tied in with the new in a fascinating manner in the game, creating a nostalgia for old technology, but showing how modern technology can enhance our appreciation of that old technology.