I played all three games and had the strongest reaction to the game Bronze. Having read the spoiler section about shade I now realize I didn’t finish it. I had gotten stuck in shade and I wasn’t pulled in by the narrative so it felt over to me. I think I figured out most of aisle, and stopped after I realized how ridiculous my commands were becoming ridiculous (spoiler: I was really surprised to learn that punching the brunette and stalking her were possible options).
By the time I started playing Bronze I had forgotten what Professor Sample had said about it in class: mainly that I was Bella and that this was beauty and the beast. I got halfway through a set of memories in the dining hall when I finally realized that my character was not a boy, the ‘lord’ was a beast, and that I could stop looking for weapons. This means that I am normally accustomed to games where the character I control is defined by me, gameplay is driven by combat, and I am normally finding beasts in order to kill them.
I was making a map originally, but after being unable to find the next area I visited the website to view the entire game map. I was stuck for maybe 20 minutes prior to using the map, and my main reason for cheating is that I wanted to know what happened next. I manage to progress a little further in the game, but I again hit a roadblock. The game seems to have realized my trouble and started offering me hints. I still didn’t get it. I sought out the guide/walkthrough and realized I had somehow made a mistake that made it impossible to progress. I gave up on the game and went searching for the simple story version, but couldn’t find a version in any readable format.
What I realized after going through the period of frustration is that I was attached the narrative and unlike in shade where I simply gave up after losing interest I wanted to press on to find out what happened. I was completely uninterested in the game mechanics though. In the early days of gaming I can see how text would offer a lot of freedom, but with today’s options I felt limited. The experience felt more similar to reading a good novel then playing a video game.
Immersion into another realm, rather then just being a passive viewer, only comes to me through a combination of visual, audio, and mental cues. The text based interface wasn’t enough to give me the sense of control I get in most video games.