Limbo

Limbo is a unique game that allows the players to explore the game without any limitation. By not having game tutorials as other games tend to have, it let's the players to figure out how to play the game and what is the purpose of the game. The background is gothic and romantic, in a sense that it has ghostly sounds, dark and foggy background, and scary atmosphere created by nature. The fact that the game character itself does not have any characteristic except to white eyes, it makes the player focus more into the background. (Also, this eyes can also represent "life") The death itself is very realistic, which makes the player be careful not to be killed by the natural obstacles.
The game itself is really interesting and intriguing of what would happen. It is a shame that it was only a trial version that we could play.

Primer

I did not like primer. There was a lot of mumbling physics going on that I think the story could have done with out. It was almost like the movie was based on an interruption of a group of people's everyday lives that were more than just the ordinary business man days. I couldn't quite figure out what they were doing, whether they were having out of body experiences or whether they were time traveling. If they were time traveling, why did they have 2 bodies of themselves walking around? If you disrupt time, wouldn't it take all of you as a person and a body to do that? I don't understand the science fiction behind duplicating every atom and molecule over a space continuum that exists in parallels. Or maybe I'm just being too critical. Either way, I think they should have explained more in the movie. I didn't see the purpose in a lot of the things that were going on, such as the man they were chasing that night who they suspected had done the time traveling also. And why the main character killed his best friend's double. Can someone please explain this to me? Also, why did they not want to stop? Why couldn't they have just left it alone instead of one of them trying to flee? Wouldn't the double eventually disappear? And if not, wouldn't that mean there were more than 2 of each person since they did it so often?

Limbo

I really enjoyed the game we had to play for class, Limbo. The open nature of the game allowed for a lot of gamer interpretation which made it frustrating but also really intriguing. Figuring out everything from the very beginning gave me sense of satisfaction after completing each and every step, even if it was as simple as standing up. This sense of gratification was completed by the fact that there was no tutorial. There was no one holding your hand at the beginning of the game and leading you in the right direction. Every step of the game was discovered along the way. Even grabbing objects was a challenge! I thought it was particularly interesting that there was no characterization given to the avatar so the nameless, faceless glowing eyed boy could be whomever you wanted him to be. This allowed for the player to project their own qualities on him and be even more devastated every time he died a gruesome death. The projection of death was also more pronounced and violent than it is in some video games, giving the whole game an air of uneasiness. Overall, the promo made me frustrated because I wanted to buy the game so that I could keep figuring it out!

Primer

The methods used in the film Primer could be seen as either frustrating, or stimulating to its audience.  I found the beginning of the film as well as several parts in the middle to be confusing because many things in the plot seemed to occur without explaination or prompting.  It is true that this movie should be viewed multiple times to really understand the story line.  I don't particularly enjoy being confused through the bulk of a movie because it makes it hard to concentrate on the timeline and can be distracting while watching.  From the recordings we heard in class, it seems like the creator wants his audience to ponder and contemplate the meanings of his films.  I appreciated the brain-teaser style of the movie but I also like when the creator rounds it all off in the end.  This allows the viewer to go back to the film and look for forshadowing elements.  This, however is not the case with Primer and it is expected that the audience view the film repeatedly to accomplish the "rounding off" themselves.

Primer

I must admit that for the first 20 to 30 minutes of watching Primer I had no idea what the characters were talking about. As an animal science major physics is like a foreign language to me so I had trouble paying attention to the movie. As the film progressed it became clear that they were building a time machine and travelling to the future and past. However, I didn't think that the movie got any more interesting. The film made time travel seem almost mundane, the opposite of what I think of when I imagine that kind of technology. I thought that this was an interesting way of presenting the idea of time travel, rather than focusing on the advanced technology that would be required or the logic of time travelling, ethics seemed to be the central theme. This I also found interesting because the characters themselves don’t address the ethics or potential consequences of their endeavors. Primer met the director’s objective of being the kind of film that you don’t fully comprehend after the first viewing. In hindsight I enjoyed the film more than I initially thought. I left class kind of bored and frustrated with the film, but after some reflection I came to appreciate it. As I found answers to the initial questions I had about Primer I developed new queries about the plot. I appreciated that although Primer seemed boring and confusing at glance, it has many layers of complexity that allow the film to be revisited over and over with a new result. Sean Carruth and his film are a testament to the fact that you don’t need to spend millions of dollars to thrill audiences if you begin with a well thought out story. 

Limbo

When we play games, the visual effects and the music are the things that stand out to players. In Limbo, both of these things showed up to make the player feel very anxious to play. In the beginning of the game, the setting is in a very dark and gloomy forest and there is only one guy that you are guiding. The fact that the game was in black and white also added to my anxiety because I felt like something was going to pop up at me at anytime. The music also added to my anxiety because the music sounded very ominous like something was going to happen. As we play on with the game we realize that nothing pops up at us but that we are just naturally scared that something is going to happen. Another aspect of this game that makes it so addicting and also a little related to the supernatural is the fact that there are unlimited lives. In most other games there are a limited number of lives that you have but in this game there are unlimited number of lives but yet we are still drawn to it because the game is like a puzzle that we want to figure out. This game is not like any other game that I have played before because there were no directions and no background or storyline. The game just starts off with the boy in the dark forest and doesn't even tell you that the game started because I stared at my screen for 5 minutes expecting something to pop up but nothing ended up showing up. Another thing about game is that they don't tell you the directions and what keys to press. I was constantly pressing every key on my keyboard trying to figure out if they had any effects on the game. Finding out that the Ctrl button was the pull option took some time. Overall I think this game was very good because it was addicting, fun and makes the players use their minds and think outside the box but also having a little creepiness to it.

-Alice Lee

Limbo

As a game, Lymbo falls somewhat flat. Two dimensional platforming with basic puzzle solving is an archaic style of gameplay that has been done hundreds of times before. However, what makes Lymbo special is everything outside of the gameplay; a mysterious and dark atmosphere looms like an especially dense cloud, enveloping everything from the setting to the character and enemies in a fog of eerie tension. With no instructions, the player intuitively wanders through the black and gray woods avoiding the occasional spike pit with essentially no motive, only a sense that danger silently lurks. This lack of information is where Lymbo ironically shines, for the dark ambiguity of the entire experience is what drives the player to continue. While the search for answers or at least a hint of reason is not entertained by the short demo, it does give a taste of the somewhat supernatural elements the game has to offer.

Primer

There's a point in this film where it loses all coherence. When the narrator takes hold of being the driving force in the telling of the narrative, it begins to become hard to follow. I also felt like the two men went about this technology they had developed in a totally unprofessional and foolish way. Why on earth would you intentionally deceive your partner in work when working with something as fragile and uncertain as time travel? The main characters brought upon themselves all the problems they encountered. Had they not decided to go and punch some guy in face, none of their problems would have happened and they would've been able to create real and important social change. They initially talked about mass transit and space travel and settled for conning the stock market and March Madness brackets.

The Rules of Limbo

As someone who has never been a hard-core gamer I was very lost and confused when the actual game part of Limbo began. I didn’t know which controls to use or how to do anything and I definitely spent a decent five minutes sitting in front of my computer waiting for some fairy or elf character to show up and tell me what to do and at least 3 of those 5 minutes were spent wincing at the prospect of something spooky leaping out from behind a tree with the immediate effect of scaring the living daylights out of me. However, after those first five minutes were over I started pressing random buttons on my computer and eventually realized that I could make the character move. As the first episode continued I figured out how to grab stuff and move things and I was very happy to discover that Limbo is actually a very enjoyable game. Two thumbs up.

But more then that Limbo’s lack of directions for the player kind of has the effect of making the player identify with the character that goes beyond the bond created by being put in charge of the characters actions. Without directions or help of any kind, I am not only in charge of the well being of the character but also have to really think and apply real world logic in the character’s virtual world to keep the character from dying. In the few video games I’ve played there are invisible barriers and rules within the game that prevent the player from making the character do certain things. For instance in a Harry Potter game you can’t run into a pit of fire and in any game it doesn’t matter how fast you jump off of a tall building, as long as you land on “solid” ground you get to live. However, in this game I ran off the log and hit the ground at a weird angle, fell over, and died. It was tragic. The most tragic thing about it was that in real life I would know better then to take a running leap from a high place when trying to land on an angled surface, obviously that would not work and I would fall and break my ankles, and it is this knowledge about the outcome of such an action in my real world that made me feel so awful when I made the character go through with the act anyway in the virtual world of Limbo. In Limbo the player knows the rules of the game in the sense that the natural laws of our own world exist within this virtual world, it just takes a few deaths to figure this out.

Also, does Limbo have to do with the Limbo in Dante’s Inferno? From what I remember Limbo in Dante’s Inferno is a forest and this game, or at least the first episode, seems to take place in a forest.

Limbo

When I first downloaded this game, I was at unease by the fact that there were no directions or story lines.  I was on edge of the thought that something scary might appear based on the creepy, quiet background noises.  I was frustrated in the beginning, but I began to press random keys to get the boy to start moving.  This game is unique in that there is no prior storyline when you first enter the game.  It forces you to think on your own, and even though the graphics are not realistic, it still gives you a scare because it keeps you on your toes.  The game process forces you to fear the unknown, because in most points, you really do not understand what is going on.  The colors are simply grey, yet it creates so much anxiety.  It's creative in that it does such little work in the game, but the outcome is enormous.

Limbo

The game Limbo was very confusing and frustrating.  There was nothing that told you  what controls to use, what the purpose of the game was or the background of the game.  The fact that the setting of the game is  very dark and ambiguous makes this game more confusing.  This confusing and frustrating aspect of the game, along with the blank setting goes with the concept of what limbo is, a place where the dead wonder aimlessly until some kind of criteria is met which allows, in a religious aspect the soul to either go to paradise or damnation.  This game seems to play with this concept because the player has to solve these puzzles in order to find what lies at the end.  Dying in this game has no consequence, expect to restart at certain areas which also plays with the repeating the same actions over and over again. 

Comforting Nature of Limbo

When I first began to play Limbo, I was a little nervous. The ambient noises of the game and the gothic surrounding slightly put me on edge and I was constantly thinking about what was going to happen next. But as I began to move the avatar forward, I felt a sense of calm and relaxation, as I quickly realized that we control the game, instead of the game does not predicting our fate. The fact that there were no limits on the amount of lives we were able to have in the game was also comforting. I realized that death in the game was common, and not necessarily punished. It encouraged me to continue playing to see what the whole game was about. Overall, I probably would have tried to continue on as far as I could in the game if it weren’t due to personal time constraints. The fact that I felt comfortable playing really encouraged me to want to play more. 

Death in Limbo

In most video games place the player has two objectives: Reach a goal, and avoid dying in the process. Usually, this goal will be laid out and explained for the player, sometimes through in-game dialogue, other times through objective markers. Death is an object to be avoided at all costs- Grab cover to dodge enemy bullets, use your shield to stop their swords, grab power-ups for invincibility. Death is an inhibitor, an event delaying the player from reaching a goal.

In Limbo, death is as important, if not more so, than reaching some ultimate goal. The absence of a clear objective for the player, beyond traversing a dangerous and nightmarish landscape, makes the initial object of the game the avoidance of death. Eventually, this proves impossible, and the player accepts death as part of the game’s mechanics. With death unavoidable and no goal in sight, the player is left, quite literally, in limbo.

In class Tuesday, we watched the film Primer. After leaving class, I felt confused and frustrated. The physics wasn't simplified and for a majority of the time, I didn't understand what was going on. The nesting doll was used to forshadow the time machine. I think having multiple doubles is addressing humanity and multi-dimensional aspect of identities. Throughout the time travel it seems as if the two are loosing parts of themselves and accumulating other parts that were there to begin with in the beginning.  The video game limbo was frustrating as well and slightly disturbing. However, with the lights and the character and I was able to identify with the character in the game and go through a trial and error process.

Primer

I didn't like this movie because it was confusing and really hard to follow. I don't understand what's the point of adding all the technical terms of the time machine since most of the viewers probably don't understand it. The movie should have at least ellaborated on what stuff meant if they were going to use such complicated terms. Also, the blond guy constantly had his mouth open with a blank expression on his face that was very annoying.

Limbo

While playing Limbo, it did present dreamlike qualities. It felt surreal, I guess, because of how blurred it was. Maybe it was because everything was a silhouette. The game doesn’t have any dialogue but it seems that the world is one that accepts the supernatural as reality. To get past the spider thing, the character had to harm it and with no expression showing on the character, I feel that I should assume that it was just how to deal with it, like it was no big deal. The puzzles that needed to be solved, while strange to the player outside, seemed necessary and normal to the character. For me, I think it’s saying something about dreams and how often people accept the irregularities in the dreams as normal.

Primer

Primer was a confusing movie, how there was no lead in to the plot, it was like we started in the middle of it. the characters were overlapping each other's conversations and there was a lot of suspense, because a lot times we were waiting for something bad to happen with the machine, like a malfunction while it was running or some sort. the problem, however, arose within the characters, the way they thought they could control time and the manner in which events occurs to their liking. the first supernatural event that impressed me was when the blond one was in the storage room, walked to one end of the machine and found nothing there, and then a minute later the second guy was in the same spot, and thats when it clicked for me that the movie was about time travel, which would explain the clock thing earlier in the movie. it was very supernatural towards the end when there was more than one of the characters at once, their present and future selves in the same scene. it was hard to know which one was which, because they were the exact same person but also not the exact same person, because one was technically older. this business with time travel, an attempt to deviate from reality has its consequences, like there will always be one person who abuses that power. as with the stories we have read earlier in the course, trying to associate one's self into a selfish matter of some supernatural superiority proves to be consequential to their being. in hill house, eleanor becomes too attached to playing a role in the house that her life ends when her interaction with the house ends. in the rats in the walls, delapore becomes so immersed into unearthing the buried secrets of his family history that it consumes him. in the yellow wallpaper, the woman becomes attached to what she thinks she sees in the patterns of the wallpaper that her sanity is degraded the more she tries to sympathize with it.

War of the Worlds

I found the abrupt shifts from reports to soothing classical music disconcerting. It reminds me of the abrupt shifts from the cabin to the control center in the Cabin in the Woods. As a member of the audience, tension lies in my inability to understand how I should be feeling. A commentator, Carl Phillips, visits a farm in New Jersey where a meteorite was believed to have crash landed. He describes a massive pit, and an object inside the pit that looks more like a yellowish-white cylinder than a meteorite. Phillips brings our attention to a strange humming sound that seems to be coming from the cylinder to which the professor replies that it must be the sounds of the meteorite cooling off, but admits that he no longer believes it to be a meteorite. Bystanders begin to shout when a creature Phillips describes as having tentacles begins to crawl out of the pit. He is interrupted before he is able to complete his report. The New York studio comes on air stating that there is trouble with field transmissions and fades into a piano interlude. While I appreciate the commentator's attempt at calming the audience through soothing music, its more unsettling than if he were to admit that the events taking place at Grover's Mill are a cause for concern.

Foreshadowing and temporal disruptions through filmic techniques in Primer

      In the movie Primer, director Shaun Carrath discusses the implications of time travel and temporal disruption, as well as human actions and morality when confronted with a power over others.  In the narrative of the film, competing inventors Abe and Arron both use the time machine to their own ends to accomplish different goals.  Abe uses a fail-safe time machine that he built in secret to try to prevent Arron from messing with time, while Arron discovers the Fail-safe machine and uses it to bring a portable time-machine back before Abe arrives, and uses it to ensure that their past selves will finish the invention.  This is all foreshadowed throughout the film through the use of quick, disjointed cuts, frame skipping and rewinding, and displaced narrative and video.  The first time that this happens is on the day that Abe first uses the time machine and subsequently tells Arron about it, and foreshadows Abe's attempt in the same timeline to stop Arron from learning of the time machine..  From the moment that he wakes up, the process of him waking up and going from the floor where he is sleeping to out the door is full of disjointed cuts and skipped frames, with Abe jumping forward and backward in frame, and repeated delayed audio along with audio that is ahead of the video or source.  Each of these jumps and discontinuities acts as a kind of oscillation between the two timelines, with the disjointed cuts and audio showing the slight disparities between the timelines, and jumping between the original and changed timeline.  This kind of foreshadowing is also evident when Arron gets an ear-bleed after the first trip in the machine.  During this scene as well, the cuts jump constantly with frames missing in-between, only to go back to those frames later, creating jerky, disjointed movements.  Again, this is foreshadowing the fact that there is an alternate timeline of this scene, where Abe gets an ear-bleed instead of Arron, and the jerky jump-cut nature of the scene serves to metaphorically show the disparities of the two timelines.

Primer

The screening of Primer in class was very confusing. I didn’t know what to think of the characters and the story overall. We first are introduced to the main characters at the very beginning of the story, but their motives and plan are never clearly stated. The experiment they worked on in the garage is very strange as well in the sense that we have no background knowledge of the machine or the experiment itself. As the story continue I found myself lost with what the characters were trying to accomplish and finally a double popped into the story unexpectedly. At this point of the movie I was more confused on how the machine worked in order to create a double or in order to time travel in general. At the very end of the movie I didn’t understand why one of the characters wanted to run away and make big money someplace else and I also didn’t understand why the two main characters were no longer friends. The ending was very confusing for me and to top that off I didn’t understand why the characters are losing their hand writing skills. This movie as a whole left me with more questions at the end than it did in the beginning and as a person who watched this for the first time I do not understand the meaning behind the movie.