{"id":705,"date":"2018-04-16T18:42:23","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T22:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fms321.olivialiccione.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/one-with-nature-the-witness-as-an-environmental-text\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T19:47:13","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T23:47:13","slug":"one-with-nature-the-witness-as-an-environmental-text","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/2018\/04\/16\/one-with-nature-the-witness-as-an-environmental-text\/","title":{"rendered":"One With Nature: The Witness as an Environmental Text"},"content":{"rendered":"

Besides its mind bending puzzles, most players praise The<\/em> Witness<\/em> for its vivid, beautiful open world. With expansive bodies of water, lush greenery, and colorful flowers, the graphics of the game are breathtaking However, I argue that this world does more than simply look pretty; rather, it encourages players to contemplate the beauty, importance, and enormity of the natural world. I read the game as what scholar Alenda Y. Chang calls an \u201cenvironmental text,\u201d encouraging the player to work with the environment, appreciating its beauty and value without plundering it for resources.<\/p>\n

In many video games, such as Minecraft<\/em>, players are encouraged to treat the game’s environment as an infinite provider of usable resources. The actionable parts of the environment, Chang writes \u201care most often things a player can use immediately\u2026 acquire for later use\u2026 or destroy,\u201d such as power-ups or supplies (60). Chang then proposes that \u201cgames are opportunities to create entirely new sets of relations outside of those based on dominance or manipulation\u201d (60). This relation to the environment, one of collaboration and respect, is present in The<\/em> Witness<\/em>. In my last play session, the solutions to the puzzles were imbedded in the natural environment, the trees in front of the puzzle boxes serving as clues to the puzzles’ answers. Hiding the solution to the puzzle in the environment serves two important functions. First, it requires the player truly to examine and appreciate the natural world. If the player is focused myopically on solving the puzzle without considering her environment, she will undoubtedly be stumped. Paradoxically, to solve the puzzle, the player must look at the world beyond the puzzle. Second, hiding the solution to the puzzle in the game\u2019s environment models a way of working with nature that is not predicated on directly taking or using natural resources. Instead of taking from nature, the game encourages the player to learn from it, which is a pretty significant environmental message.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The solution to this puzzle is hidden in the tree pictured<\/p>\n

Additionally, The Witness<\/em> encourages players to contemplate the vastness, power, and beauty of the natural world. In discussing the parser-based interactive fiction Adventure<\/em>, Chang writes that the game encourages the player to consider \u201cthe sheer scale and complexity of its natural environment\u201d (66). The Witness<\/em> is much the same. Isolated on the island with no NPCs to distract her, the player\u2019s focus is solely on the world around her. Even while sitting inside and looking at a screen, the enormous, beautiful world of The<\/em> Witness<\/em> encourages players to consider the vastness and splendor of nature.<\/p>\n

While a video game is no substitute for time spent outside, environmental texts such as The Witness<\/em> nevertheless instruct players on the value of nature. Interacting with the environment without plundering it and considering the beauty of the open world, players of The Witness<\/em> are met with timely themes of environmental respect and appreciation.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

Alenda Y. Chang. \u201cGames as Environmental Texts.\u201d\u00a0Qui Parle<\/i>, vol. 19, no. 2, 2011, pp. 56\u201384.<\/p>\n

<\/img><\/p>\n

Source: One With Nature: The Witness as an Environmental Text<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Besides its mind bending puzzles, most players praise The Witness for its vivid, beautiful open world. With expansive bodies of water, lush greenery, and colorful flowers, the graphics of the game are breathtaking However, I argue that this world does more than simply look pretty; rather, it encourages players to contemplate the beauty, importance, and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"item_id":"73b411e2c7b607438d5ff5c3e0bbb844","pf_source_link":"","item_date":"Fri, 13 Apr 2018 20:35:10 +0000","item_author":"admin","item_link":"http:\/\/fms321.olivialiccione.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/one-with-nature-the-witness-as-an-environmental-text\/","item_feat_img":"","item_wp_date":"Fri, 13 Apr 2018 20:35:10 +0000","item_tags":"","source_publication_name":"","source_publication_url":"","nomination_count":"1","sortable_item_date":"1523651710","item_description":"","pf_word_count":"573","pf_forward_to_origin":"no-forward","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[189],"tags":[34,201,202,138,203,149],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-round-3","tag-console","tag-environmental","tag-environmental-text","tag-puzzle","tag-the-witness","tag-uncategorized"],"nominators":{"1":{"user_id":1,"nomination_datetime":"2018-04-16 16:11:12","nomination_unixtime":1523909472}},"archiveOrgStatus":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9xw5i-bn","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions\/732"}],"feed":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/pf\/v1\/feeds\/213"}],"nominator":[{"embeddable":false,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/user\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705"}],"wp:term":[{"attributes":{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true},"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705"},{"attributes":{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true},"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}