Carlie Highfill- One of the Classics

1. Portal (video game)
2. https://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell_looks_aren_t_everything_believe_me_i_m_a_model?language=en Looks aren’t everything Ted Talk

My second eldest brother recently went off to college again to get his masters in game design. Weeks before he had planned to leave, he made a promise to me. Every single time I went to my dads house (where his master computer was) he would introduce me to a new game, claiming he could not have a sister who didn't have a basic knowledge of games. On the last week before he left however he insisted on showing me ¨one of the classics,¨ Portal. Portal is a puzzle game but has a very unspoken story line. The backstory must be figured out by the player, it is not simply displayed. There were lots of secret rooms and hidden messages within the game that pieced together plot points. I found it powerful because these messages revealed something broader to me. Our society is full of secrets hidden from the general public. We all believe the things we want to and not necessarily the truth, like Portal demonstrates with the lack of outside world access. The player could never know what was happening outside, however that didn't mean there wasn't one. This message this communicated through the visuals in the game. The words scrawled on the walls and Glados´s lack of information given. The game felt very censored in the beginning, yet the end is neared, the player will notice there are more and more secret messages that leak through. There are also only robots in this game, further raising more suspicion in the player. There is little music, just monologues done by Glados, that often sound very passive aggressive. This game was definitely aimed at thinkers. The puzzle element means it's necessary for the player to have the ability to think through situations, but also the secret story behind it all. Portal made me think more about censorship and how we have to see the whole story instead of just what we want to see.