Gregorio
English 114B
Prof Pessin
April 9, 2012
Project Space
Project Space
We are surrounded by living and nonliving things which are part of our community. In our Environment we try to surround ourselves around things that make us feel comfortable. We also choose to live in a house with our belongings in it. This all takes up space. The way we interact with it is crucial to how we run our lives. We dictated some of our boundaries. The government also tells us what we are free to do and what we aren’t to do as long as we are in the boundaries of their jurisdiction. My assignment was to analyze how a character interacts in a space that was created by someone that doesn’t exist in his or her world. I chose to examine the video game Portal. Although I couldn’t pass the game due to the lack of a weak stomach which doesn’t allow me to play video games that lets you rotate your characters view point I of course was able to see how space works in the world of Portal.
“Space is the limitless, boundless, three-dimensional extent where objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Generally, physical space is conceived in 3 linear dimensions, although modern physicists typically consider it (along with time) to be part of the boundless four-dimensional continuum that is known as spacetime.”
When I began the game my character was locked inside a room with a toilet, bed, and other typical things you would find in an ordinary room. Ironically the room wasn’t built like a regular room one can find at home instead it had five glass windows that allowed you to see the outside world. The room had no knobs or ways to exit the room manually. I hurried to start playing the game and didn’t pay attention to the voice which happens to know everything. I was rushing to find an exit and when I knew there was no way out I began to get frustrated. I then became paranoid with the countdown the way the outside voice was saying it. Eventually the door opened and I was able to get out.
I played the game on my PC. The only advantage i can consider was that playing on my laptop allowed me to play where ever I wanted as long as I was connected to the internet. The disadvantage of playing on my laptop was that I didn’t use a controller with a joystick and a simple configuration of buttons. I had to use my key board or my touch pad. I found it very difficult to move around and look around with the keys and touch pad something that didn’t allow me to enjoy the game as much as I wanted to. I later bought a wireless mouse to make it easier for my gaming experience but even though I still felt a bit uncomfortable playing the video game. This was my first video game in many years and the first one I have ever played on a computer instead of a gaming console.
The world of Portal was not like the world I live in. The character is controlled by an outside person, which seems to be a computer, immediately as I began to play. The person’s name is Glados . The place the character happens to be tends to be a maze like operation in it with the only goal to advance to the next floor. I believe the character wants to escape as she is trapped in the place. At first the only person that exists is you and the person that can see your every move. The voice happens to be sound like a women voice. Later as you progress in the video game the voice is less involved in your attempt to move on to the next floor or level. The voice always congratulates you when things are done correctly. Also when you are about to attempt to start at every new floor it always tells you it’s impossible to pass through and tries to break your concentration in some points of the game.
When the game starts we also are left with no type of gadgets or weapons and no type of armor. There is no explanation to what your purpose is or how you got there. This tactic created by the creator of the game was intended to throw off the person playing the video game and was successful. By doing so it left me with a lot of question. Why do I want to keep on going? What do I have to do? Is this a flash back? I was left with uncertainty which in return didn’t let me play the game comfortable until I got out of the room. Still I observed the things around the place my character was trapped in to try and understand and instantly knew I had to find my way out of every situation that was presented. Obstacles and a game plan was presented in every level in the beginning of every floor which served as a guide to give me a head up at what is to come and how to approach the situation. It more or less served as a map and manual at the same time.
The weapon that was crucial in my journey of escaping was a gun that had a special power, a hand held portal device. It shot portals into walls and allowed me to access certain parts of the room I was in without having to use an elevator, stair or door; It teleported my player all around the room. I was only able to shot the portals at a specific type of wall. It didn’t allow me to create a portal in areas that the wall was dark shaded and had a type of padding. I was able to do it any other place that was a wall. The portal shooter was a device that had to get use to with practice. It took me a while to understand how exactly it worked. I realized that the portals also lead you to one place and if you shot it at the same wall you entered you would go back to the place you where.
I really don’t play video game that why trying to play it and figure the ways to complete a task wasn’t that easy but did come naturally as I progressed through the game. It was hard for me to get a hang of it which gave me lots of headaches and frustrated me and only made me nocuous that much easier. Little by little I knew how to use the hand held portal device properly and in my advantage. Clever ways to use the device made it easier for me to progress the level or room I was in.
The space in the game Portal is three dimensional. I, the user, control the character of Chell. The most interesting thing I found and made me want to keep on playing the game was the way the game outstandingly portrayed the momentum . Using the portal gun and trying to figure out how to get out was really interesting after having played the game for a while. Moving blocks was also things I had to do in order to unlock doors or passage ways. By using the portal gun I was able to transport the blocks to the appropriate place which normally where a big red button that had to be pushed down in order to open the door that’s what the block came in hand. Sometimes the creator tricked you in making you believe that you had to use the block but in reality it was just there to keep you busy and not allowing you to think about how to actually get out of the room.
The game is in first person perspective. You see everything Chell sees and nothing more. This video game is designed for the player to think about the space around and figure out how you can use the space provided to escape the room. Also, you become the character because you see everything from their eyes.
The portals where two different colors; blue was for the portal that was made and orange for the end of the portal. The game only allows you to shoot one portal at a time in the begining. There were times when I would go into a portal and then immediately shoot another one in mid air in order to go pass through places that are hard to get through. At first you aren’t allowed to choose the color the portal was as you progress into the game you can obtain a device which allows you to either shoot blue or orange portal.
The enemies I had to confront where some android robots that shot lasers out a hole from the center of their body. There are various ways to defeat or deactivate the android robots. One way was to manually pick them up and then throwing them back to the ground which resulted in them going crazy shooting all around the room until they faced upwards. The other and more creative way was to shoot a portal and send the robots somewhere where they were no longer a threat or to shoot a portal underneath them and make them come down from the ceiling causing a drop and the deactivation.
Something to point out was the reward for escaping every room which was a cake and counseling promised by the voice, Glados. Although it may be a lie because throughout the game Glados tends to say false comments and things that don’t make sense I stilled continued to play to see what exactly would happened at the end of the game. Anxious to see what was my reward for successfully completing the game I was intrigued with all the thing the game had to offer. Portal isn’t just an ordinary video game and the most surprising detail about it was that no actual combat was in the game, with the exception of the android robots that shoot lasers from the center of their bodies. This puzzle game was actually very entertaining for me. I usually don’t play video games because I see them as boring due to the fact that you just sit in front of a screen pressing buttons.
For my project space analysis I have gathered very useful information. By analyzing a world other then mines I can really see who something are very crucial. First in order to have started playing the game I had to read all the signs, signals, and symbols. Signs, signals, and symbols where always present in the game and helped out in my journey to pass the rooms and obstacles. Some of the signs that where in the game where in the beginning of every room, as you go into a new room a big white board with all the things you had to do in order to pass the room successfully. A symbol present in the games were also in the white board it didn’t have actual words that explained what you had to do instead it pretended a stick figure that didn’t certain things. For example: a stick figure shooting a portal on to a wall. Symbols also where always presented in the video game. A symbol that that was often use was again in the white board in the beginning of the game. I really enjoined this project because we actually used something entreating to analyze space and how the character interacts with the space created with the character. The boundaries set by the creator, weapons, and places the character was allowed to access was very different then the world we live in therefore being that much easier to analyze it.
