You have debugged a part of the essay but you aren't sure exactly where it fits in you essay. You have to wait other componets of your essay debugged and completed before you know where to place this one. This segment reads as follows: \n\nDo we or should we as players feel for them, even when they ambush us, stab and hack us to death, should we still be sympathetic towards the Taken because of their circumstances? Or perhaps cruel? It depends on how the player views them, whether he or she believes them to be the bane of your existence or a trapped and tortured soul that yearns for release. We like the players in Nakamura’s article, have to pass judgment on these NPCs (Non-Player Characters) without really knowing anything about all but three of them other than they are all male, and regardless of how we feel about them, most of them are eradicated from existence. It’s as if the game and designers are saying if you cannot define yourself or define yourself through something or someone else you deserve to be a slave and/or be eliminated. The absolute lack of an identity is not tolerated. Which if you look at society, a lot of times with describe ourselves as much as possible using physical attributes or accomplishments to give people a better idea of where we stand in relation to them. And despite how much they are railed against, this is also the purpose of stereotypes, which give people a starting point to try and grasp the essence of a human being. And in game example of this would be Agent Nightengale referring to Wake as 8 or 9 different authors. It’s a starting point to give us a reason to understand that Nightengale doesn’t like Wake and thus we do not like him. Another judgment based on very little information that is passed on a “minor” NPC once again.\n\nAfter reading through the text, it looks ok and it would appear that you don't have to add anything to this section. Your program has debugged another part of your work. [[Segment 1 ready.|Random Piece 1]][[Segment 2 is ready.|The Title Page]] [[Segment 3 is ready.|Random Segment 7]]
A white rabbit? Surely this can't be good. 'Either I've completely lost it like some crazy Alice in Wonderland special or I'm about to get assissinated by that critter Monty Python style,' you think to youself. You look down at the ground as you debate whether or not you should approach the seemingly only gentile thing you've met so far and see how far the perverbial rabbit hole goes. When you look up to find the rabbit, it has vanished. You go to look for it, but the little critter is nowhere to be found. You turn to leave and collide with a mountain of a man dressed in hunter's attire. As you look up to say you're sorry, you notice his eyes. The black voids swirling with madness and chaos. You try to scamper and crawl away. In your haste you somehow end up on all fours with your back to him, unable to see the gigantic knife he is about hurl at into your back. [[You dodge it.|Barely Escape]] [[You don't dodge it.|Wake Up Call 2]]
...head. It felt like someone or something had bored a hole into your skull just to let your cranial fluids leak out. Nothing like a pounding headache at 2 in the morning to start a day. As you shake off or rather out, the cobwebs, you notice the flashing light on your computer. Knowing that staring at the blasted screen will only hurt your eyes and thus your pounding head you consider going to get some meds for your headache. And even if you do get the meds, they may actually help you sleep some, but so could rolling over and pulling the covers over your head. [[Go look at your computer.|Go to Computer]] [[Go to medicine cabinet|The Med Box]] [[Go back to sleep|Start]]
This is a project that I was working on for class. It's about gaming and games and what they say about humans. I used the game Alan Wake as a reference and close-read it to the best of my abilities. That's all the information you are going to get from me reader/player. Have fun...and try not be too scared. It's for fun after all. X-P [[Start the game.|Start]]
This segment looks to be another half of a paragraph. Hopefully you can put the two together when you finally have the whole essay recovered. You check it for errors:\n\nMontfort feels that hypertexts, stories that use hyperlinks to tell stories are definitely worth study, but because interactive fictions have no real literary basis, as some of his peers have said, except to their creators, they are treated as picture texts and not worth studying. Montfort argues the opposite. He argues that, interactive fictions are basically a remixed version of the riddle, which comes from the Anglo-Saxon “raedan” which means to guide, explain, or to teach (4). Alan Wake displays this sort of teaching in the way that you have to get through tough situations with limited resources. Additionally, there is a very clear teaching of the rules to play the game in the tutorial “dream sequence” in the beginning of the game. Another thing that Montfort explains is the difference between an interactive fiction and a hypertext fiction. He explains that, “A hypertext fiction is a system of interconnected texts traversed by using links” (12). Conversely, “Interactive Fiction requires readers to engage or inter with them means of questions and queries,” (12) and, “the interactor, confronted with a riddle as a reader-and as a writer” (4). The point of this is to draw a bit of a timeline for you reader. From the riddle-->games-->text based games-->interactive fictions-->video games.\n\nEverything looks to be in order, so you move onto the next segment. [[Segment 1.|Random Piece 7]] [[Segment 2.|The Title Page]] [[Segment 3.|Works Cited]]
You are stuck. You either go with a random person that may turn out to be some corrupt being who also seeks your life, or you wait and try to face the behemoth that is smashing its way through the door and will most assuredly destroy you. You decide to take your chances with the stranger. You say, "Ok. Stand back." You break the lock on the window, lift it up, and run off into the night with your new companion. As you run, the creature finally gets through the door and looks for his prey and sees the two of you running into the night. You turn to look behind you as you hear one of the most terrifying, gruntial, primal yells you have ever heard. "Come on," the man said. \n\nThe two of you end up at a cabin. [[Do you go in the cabin.|Understanding]] [[You leave the man and continue on your way.|Extend One Hand and Arm the Other]]
You decide not to chance it. Even though you may find something helpful in the shack, you have no idea how to face the darkness. With it and its minions skulking about, the shack looked more like a cage more than a safe haven. [[Thus you keep running.|Keep Running]]
After heading to the right, you happen upon a clearing in the woods. And bathe in the light of the full moon. It appears that the darkness has stopped chasing you. You see a person sitting at a picnic table, and a tent. [[You head over to the picnic table.|The Picnic Table]][[You had over to the tent.|The Tent]]
...in your abdomen. It felt like a blade had been thrust through your abdomen and sliced you the length of your Linea Alba. It actually hurt some to bend over. With getting out of bed being such a chore, you weren't sure if you really wanted to go check on your computer as the light on the power button was flashing. An annoyance that would surely keep you from sleeping. Or try to go back to sleep and risk your dream world coming alive only to kill you again. [[Check your computer.|Go to Computer]] [[Drift back to sleep and hope you aren't murdered...again.|Start]]
As cliche as it sounds, it starts with a dream. One of those vivd nightmares that you simply can't get out of. In the dream, you are running through a forest at night. As you run deeper into the night, terror slowly grips you as the darkness creeeps ever so close; trying to consume your form in the night. You have no idea why the darkness terrifies you, or why you have this paranoid feeling that it is hunting you. Every sound causing you to jump and become more afraid. You come upon a fork in the road. [[You head to the left.|Left Fork]] [[You head to the right.|Right Fork]] [[Turn to face the darkness.|Turn Around]]
The axe penetrated the door inches from your face. The terror that had left you had returned in an instant. You backed away from the door. Looking around the shack there was really no where for you to go. The axe thudded into the door again. This time an eye looked through the door, and slight chuckle escaped the deranged humanoid's mouth. You backed away even further. You hear a knock on the window behind you. You see another person. He screams, "Hurry out the window! I can help you!" You are unsure of what to do. [[Unload all 4 revolver rounds into the monster.|Bulletproof]] [[Open the window and escape with the stranger|Salvation?]]
You wake in a cold sweat. The shear terror of your dream causing you to tremble, and your heart to race. Your skull physically hurts, strangely enough where the blade of the demon's axe cleaved your skull in two. Psychologists posit that when you are killed in a dream a great change is trying to be processed by your sub-conscious. You see the light on your computer flashing. You are deciding whether or not you wish to get up from bed to the computer file that you were uploading, get a drink, or risk going back into the dark and distrubing realm of your sub-conscious. [[Go check on file uploading.|Go to Computer]] [[Go to the bathroom and get a drink.|Go to Bathroom]] [[You ignore both and go back to sleep.|Start]]
You wake up with a start. Your heart pounding and your skin and clothes drenched in sweat. You suddenly feel a pain in your...[[Head?|Head Games]] [[Abdomen?|Gut Check]] [[Back?|Bent]]
You wake up. A mild pain in your neck but nothing too terrible. Sleeping wrong can do that too a person. You didn't have too terrible of a dream, despite not remembering what it was about. The sun is just starting to rise, you can see it peeking over the horizon and piercing through your window. You sit up and notice that the power button on your computer is flashing. [[You go and check on your computer.|Go to Computer]]
You head into the well-lite cabin with your new companion, still unsure of his motives though. "I've been living out here for a while now. The dark ones never bother me because I keep the place so well lite. You see, they don't like the light. It hurts them." You think to yourself, 'So even with this revolver I couldn't stop them.' You have this urge to leave, you are still too unsure about your host. You go to the window and see a lighthouse out in the distace. You figure that'd probably be the safest place to be right now. You ask your host, "Do you have a flashlight?"\n"Why?" he asks. "I'm going to head for the lighthouse. And if light hurts them, than I'll need one." "You can't. There are too many." You turn and point the gun at him and say, "I wasn't asking. Give me a flashlight." "Fine," he says retrieving one, "but take this flare with you as well. Use it in case you get cornered." [[You leave the cabin|To the Lighthouse]]
You leave the campsite. While the rest was nice, the company was far too peculiar for your liking. You are enjoying the fact that you have caught your breath and that it appears that the darkness is no longer hunting you. For some reason you can't shake this sense of concern. The hairs on the back of your neck and on your arms are standing on end. The darkness may have left but you can't help but feel like something is still after you, watching you. Stalking you like a predator would its prey. You hear a noise. It's...\n[[a white rabbit.|The Late Hare]]
You're done. You're tired. You submit whatever you have to be graded. Hopefully it's good enough to get you a passing grade. You really could care less. You've done what you could. Now it's off to beddy-by land. As you lay down with the blinds now closing out the sun's rays, you feel something on your leg. It is a hand, and you look up the arm to see the figure of an old woman all dressed in black. She says to you through a crooked smile, "Ah ah ah writer, we're not done yet." And yanks you off the bed and into the shadow. \n\nThen you wake up.
You open your eyes. A bright light blinds your eyes. The wood that was previously pinning you helplessly to the ground is now in a pile off to the side of you. You hear a voice. It commands you, "Step into the light." You do so. For the first time tonight you feel safe and relaxed. It commands you again, "Go to the lighthouse. The darkness fears the light." It's the only advice and safety you've been given the entire night. [[You decide to head to the lighthouse off in the distance.|To the Lighthouse 1-2]] [[Ignore the light. You are tired of these damn beings controlling you.|Keep Running]]
The next part of your assignment is done debugging. It's the rest of your introduction it looks like. Thank goodness. "Whoo!" You shout, "Now we're cooking." If anybody else had been around they probably would have thought you were a little off your rocker. Regardless, you read over the next part of you essay to check it for anything:\n\n...I will relate a close-reading of the video game Alan Wake as well as, many different scholars who have spoken and written about many different aspects of video games and interaction fictions.\n\tThe first words spoken by Alan Wake in the game are, “Stephen King once wrote that ‘Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical to the poetry of fear.’ In a horror story, the victim keeps asking "Why?" But there can be no explanation, and there shouldn’t be one. The unanswered mystery is what stays with us the longest, and it’s what we’ll remember in the end.” While Alan Wake is a horror and psychological story, the...\n\nYou notice that the debuggin program has cut off the last files in the middle of the paragraph. You really hope that this does not continue to be a trend. Only because you'd have a hard time picking up a thought midway through the paragraph. As you hope that this trend stops the next segment is done. It's...[[Segment 1.|Random Piece]] [[Segment 2.|Random Segment 4]] [[Segment 3.|Random Piece 1]]\n
You've debugged the next segment. You hope beyond all hope that you won't need to re-write anything, because you have very little time to create 9 pages of text out of thin air. The next segment reads as follows:\n\nIn the world that we live in, there are many things that take up our time. Between work, surviving, family, food, drink, sleep, reproduction, and that leaves very little time for leisure. That leisure time is spent by an increasingly larger amount of people playing games, particularly video games. There has been a large outcry and defaming of video games, whether they cause violence, rot the brain, or simply waste time. I don’t believe that. Video games may cause or do some of those things for particular people, however, video games can tell humans a good deal about themselves as well as, inspire actions and remind people of histories that they have maybe forgotten or never knew existed. In order to help explain this notion...\n\nIt looks to be the beginning of your introduction which is a relief. So at least you don't have to redo that part and have the reader start off completely confused as to what is going on. The next segment is being debugged right now. It's...[[Random Segment 1.|Random Segment 3]] [[Random Segment 2.|Random Segment 2]] [[Random Segment 3.|Random Piece 7]]
You stagger over to the cabinet to get some painkillers. Firstly to make these infernal hurts go away but also perhaps to help you sleep better. You groggily stumble over to the cabinet to get the pain meds out. Now you look about for something to wash them down with. Unable to see anything from the hall, you head to the bathroom. You turn on the light, grab one of those disposable paper cups, fill it with water, and wash down your potential saviors of the pain you are in. You turn off the light, and the darkness cloaks you once again. You head towards the light in your room, being the moonlight flooding in and the flashing of your computer. You are unsure if you should check on the computer or simply ignore it until later and go back to some hopefully restful sleep. [[Go back to bed.|Start]] [[Go check on the computer.|Go to Computer]]
After you latest full body hallucination, you really needed to finish this and get back to sleep. The next part of the essay, you are looking over slowly.\n\n\tGames are also capable of telling people a little bit about their history and teaching them things they had not previously considered, or at the very least, provide a place to start the research at. In Jane McGonigal’s Reality Is Broken, she starts the book with a story about the ancient Lydians. She talks about how there was a famine at the time, and the Lydians used immersive gaming to help stave off the hunger until they were able to get their rations of food (6). Her point is that gaming has long history, and the immersive environments and crazy gameplay is not a new thing. The video games that we know and love today started as little street games, then became board games, and that’s where Nick Montfort and his book Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction take over. Montfort approaches Interactive Fictions a bit differently than some of his peers do. \n\nThis part looks ok, but you remember that there was more to the paragraph. Hopefully the rest will be recovered without a problem. As if it was answering your call, your computer had the next segment for you to look over. [[Segment 1.|Random Segment 8]] [[Segment 2.|Random Piece 6]] [[Segment 3.|Random Piece 7]]
This piece looks to be some more of your work. You're glad to see more of your work is coming through. It reads like this:\n\n..notion of ‘Why’ runs as a constant theme throughout the story. That notion also can be applied to video games as well. In so much as, video games can be examined in the sense of what do they do or say about human and why do we play them.\n\tThe day to day grind of “living,” if often enough to drive a person into some form of unhappiness. The cause of this unhappiness can be from any number of things. However, scholars that study video games have two suggestions to why people turn to video games as a source of relaxation and relief. Jane McGonigal suggests that, “Compared with games, reality is too easy. Games challenge us with voluntary obstacles and help us put our personal strengths to better use” (22). Espen Aarseth, in his book, Cybertext, asserts that games, good games are those that have the player doing non-trivial tasks or effort (4). This is not to say that reality is boring and so dull that humans have turned the virtual realm. But more so, that we wish to be stimulated more, our brains are in hibernation mode and want to be woken up. McGonigal goes on to say that in certain studies, typical “relaxing” actions or behaviors like watching TV, eating chocolate, etc. didn’t actually make any of the participates better which made “having fun,” less fun and often times made the participates worse (31-32). We don’t like easy fun, we like challenging and hard fun.\n\nYou are glad that at least you have a whole paragraph to work with. As you finish reading over your work your debugging program prompts you to check the next part of your essay is done. You choose...[[Segment 1.|Random Piece 3]] [[Segment 2.|Random Segment 7]] [[Segment 3.|Random Segment 2]]\n
You look at the next piece that has been recovered for you. It looks like the midway point of a quotation. No big deal, you can always find the rest of the quote and piece them together. You scan it for any errors. \n\nMeaning that I can play as Alice and enter into her world through her. Thus, I can enter the space of Alice's world, Wonderland, by passing through the screen through my identification with and then psychic incorporation of Alice. In essence, Alice becomes my looking glass as any player-character can in a third-person point-of-view game” (Taylor). Taylor is saying that a player playing a game in the 3rd person has to first except that they are not immersed in the game like they could be in a1st person game. Additionally, the player must also make a connection with and understand that they are moving the character around in the world or realm the character is in. That character is now their eyes and limbs in the world. That same character has to provide the context for the player in the game so the player knows what is going on and what to do. Alan Wake provides this for the player with its multi-medium type approach. Alan Wake, technically is a video game that is set up like an episodic T.V. show, but the characters do not have the script to perform it. Instead they find it as the story progresses, and on top of that, their script is actually a rough draft of a book, not a screenplay. Simply put, the video game is a story about a story where you live the script instead act and perform it. With the skewed story provided with the manuscript pages and the cut scenes at the beginning and end of each episode the player can get a grasp of the story. The addition of the radio shows, TV shows, and the Bright Falls trivia spots, increase the amount of knowledge the player can acquire about the area around them to help piece together the very broken and fragmented story they end up in.\n\nThis segment looks to be intact. As you wait for the never one, you look at the window. Weirdly enough, upon the window, you see a bird on the sill. A big black bird, and you swear it says, "Nevermore," before it flies off. You rub your eyes again, desperately in need of some sleep, and reply, "Indeed. I'm never doing this again. My assignments will be done and turned in a week in advance from now on." Right then the next debugged part is ready for you to look over. [[Segment 1.|Random Piece 3]] [[Segment 2.|Random Segment 8]] [[Segment 3.|Random Piece 6]]
Your machine was able to recover about a half of a paragraph and what looks like the conclusion of your essay. Well that something at least. You quickly check it for any errors.\n\n...pens all depends on the player. You go about this by collecting your manuscript pages to help you remember the past week, gather some of the collectibles about Bright Falls, and simply surviving until you reach Mrs. Weaver who gives you a way to win. Again by having all of these aspects, I would assert that Alan Wake is an interactive fiction within an interactive fiction.\n\tAll in all, I’m a little biased, but I’d say that Alan Wake is a pretty damn good video game. It hosts a number of things within that can be close read and drawn out of it. There a number of things that this particular game can say about humans, whether it be about why we play games, the way we play games, the issues of identity and sharing of it and your knowledge, and/or the history or knowledge forgotten or never known to us. Unlike the game though, there answers to the strange things to end the perpetual question of why things are happening. And if not, there are writers to open a whole new can of worms and drop it down the rabbit hole for the rest of us to discuss and use.\n\nWell now all that is left is for you to gather up all the other pieces and put the essay together. [[Segment 1.|Random Piece 3]] [[Segment 2.|Works Cited]] [[Segment 3.|Random Piece 5]]\n
You've gotten a majority of the essay completely recovered. This part though, the program says that it can only debug a part of it, and the rest will be lost. You sigh. You're good luck had to run out some time. You look at the part that is debugged. It reads:\n\n\tIn Alan Wake, the game asks the player to assume two things about the characters. It asks the player to assume that Alan Wake is an upstanding guy in a fantastical and rough circumstance. The game also asks you to assume that the Taken, the minions of the Dark Presence that is hunting Alan, are inherently the “bad guys.” The Taken are possessed by the Dark Presence and in the beginning of the game when the rules of the game are being explained, the character of Thomas Zane tells Alan to, “Take the light,” and burn the darkness out of them. Then Zane commands, “Now take the gun,” and explains that the Taken are already consumed by the Dark Presence and you can not save them. If you look at the Taken, they are the assumed “bad guys,” however, a majority of the Taken are innocent campers, lumberjacks, hunters, villagers, and policemen that have had their identities completely stripped away from them and forced to be evil slaves. \n\nYou actually do remember the next part. And as you go to type the rest, you feel a heavy hand land on your shoulder. It startles you so much so that you jump up only to see one of the demonic beasts from your dream clade in flannel and lumberjack attire. He says to you in a proper English accent, "Oh do press on old chap. I do so love this part of your work."\n\nYou try to answer but, at too busy in the process of fainting. Somehow you stay conscious and make it to your chair. "Just a little further," he says, "do tell every person that plays that melodramatic writter in that infernal game that we Taken are the real tragedy." \n"But you're not real."\n"That's moot point. Don't you have some writting to do my boy?"\n\nYou turn back to the screen and laxidazically type the missing section:\n\nSome of the characters that get taken are only interested in taking care of you or making sure you have a good time, and then are turned against you later on. \n\tThis ties in really well with some of the concerns of digital humanities because of the nature of robots, cyborgs, and androids. Considering that robots, cyborgs, and androids much like zombies and in this context, the Taken are seen to be human or not. Are they monsters, humans, or just random bits of code that explode? \n\nThe ping from your computer wakes you out of your stupor. You look around and nobody is there. You check the next part of your essay to see if it is done. [[Segment 1.|Random Piece]] [[Segment 2.|Random Segment 8]] [[Segment 3.|Random Segment 6]]\n
There is an old woman sitting at the table. If you weren't in a nightmare you'd think that she was a nice lady. But since it is a nightmare, and you have yet to answer why this is happening, you can only assume it is an old crone that wants something from you, hopefully you won't have to give it. [[Go and sit down across from her.|Talking to Strangers]] [[Walk on by and continue down the path.|Leave the Campsite]]
You look back quickly, just enough to see the demonic creature hurl the blade at you. You were able to get up and run only to slam into a second behemoth. The force of the collision knocks you to the ground. You look up in terror, only to witness the last thing you see is the bottom of a shovel coming down on our face. [[You wake up.|Wake Up Call 2]]
The next piece of your essay is done debugging and ready for your ever so keen eye's perusal. The text on the screen shows you this:\n\n...What better way to master a game than to have perfect statistics and acquire all the achievements possible for it. Some would say, that this method is a way for game designers to get loyalty from the players by having to play through a few times or buy downloadable content, which is true and a very real possibility. However, there is the triumphant feeling of the 100% competition epic win. That is the point of Alan Wake keeping track of how many evil crows you’ve fried with your flare gun or how many T.V. shows you’ve watched. Also some of the collectibles may improve your actual play through of the game. The Supply Chests even in the hardest difficulty allow you to keep Alan alive a lot longer than if you didn’t really look for them. Furthermore, if you have an Xbox Live account, another database is created on your account documenting all of the achievements you have obtained show up. This allows anybody to view your profile and ask you about the game and how to get certain things. \n\tThe beginnings of a network to be created where information can be swapped between your database and that of your new online acquaintances.\n\n"Damn it," you say out of frustration. "It's back to mangling the paragraphs again," you say under your breath. "Why does this have to be so hard and annoying?" You ask no one in particular. As if the machine is taunting you, it pings that the next part is debugged. [[Segment 1.|Random Piece 2]] [[Segment 2.|Random Segment 7]] [[Segment 3.|Random Piece 4]]
You ignore the stranger. Unwilling to trust anybody you don't know in this demented forest. You threaten him with, "Leave or I'll shoot." Although that wouldn't be a bad idea anyways because it would allow you to get away from the monster via the window. He looks at you for a minute, a mixture of sorrow and pity dances acrossed his face. Then he dashes off into the next. The axe thuds again. This time the black beast can reach through the hole in the door to open it. It does. You unload four shots into it hoping that it stops the creature. It grunts with each bullet that collides with its body. It staggers and falls to one knee. Because the monster is a behemoth of a humanoid, you can't really get by it. As you wait in anticipation it looks up at you with an insane look and smile on its face. It stands, completely taking up and blocking the frame of the door. It advances toward you. You hurl the empty revolver at it. It brushes off the hunk of metal as if it were a feather. The darkness infused monster raises the axe and you cry out, "PLEASE!" It does not hear your pleas and buries the axe, with some satisfaction, into your left collarbone area, severing your aorta and brachial arterties. The creature satisfied with its axe being in its rightful spot, halfway in your torso splitting you in two, leaves his tool there and stomps out of the shack saying to itself as you fade from consciousness and your lifeblood flows everywhere, "Now where'd that other one get to?" [[You wake you.|Wake Up Call 1]]
You can't help but chuckle at your luck today. Not only did you have wonderful dreams, and your essay magically get all ker-fucked to hell. But now you've debugged your works cited. Nothing quite like having the cited sources for an essay you don't have or even completed. Splendid! At least you didn't plagarize your imaginery essay you think sarcastically.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tWorks Cited\n1.\tAarseth, Espen J. Cybertext: Perspective \ton Ergodic Literature. The Johns Hopkins \tUniversity Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1997; pg: 4 \thttp://monoskop.org/images/e/e0/Aarseth_Espen_J_Cybertext_Perspectives_on_\tErgodic_Literature.pdf\n\n2.\tMcGonigal, Jane. Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can \tChange the World. The Penguin Press, New York, 2011; pg: 6, 22, 31-32\n\n3.\tMontfort, Nick. Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction. MIT Press, \t2003; pg: 4, 12-14\n\n4.\tNakamura, Lisa. Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet. \thttp://www.humanities.uci.edu/mposter/syllabi/readings/nakamura.html\n\n5.\tRheingold, Howard. Net Smart: How to Thrive on the Internet. MIT Press, Cambridge, \tMassechusetts, 2012; pg: 192. \thttps://blackboard.sdsu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url\t=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Fcontent%2Ffile%3Fcmd%3Dview%\t26content_id%3D_1677212_1%26course_id%3D_166175_1%26framesetWrapped%3Dtrue\n\n6.\tStallybrass, Peter. Against Thinking. The Changing Profession; pg: 1584. \thttp://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/WRIT510/readings/stallybrass.pdf\n\n7.\tTaylor, Laurie. When Seams Fall Apart: Video Game Space and the Player. The International \tJournal of Computer Game Research: Vol. 3, Issue 2, 2003.\n\nThe next bundle of your essay is about to be debugged. You check...[[Segment 1.|The Title Page]] [[Segment 2.|Random Piece 2]] [[Segment 3.|The End]]\n
You open the next part of your debugged work and now uncorrupted work to find that it reads: \n\nGo back, you should not have come here. Beware! \n\nYou shake you head and rub your tired eyes. "Great, I've gone from birds and axes killing me to disembodied hands to lame warnings out of Scobby Doo. Fantastic!" you say aloud. You proceed to read the part of your essay that has just come up.\n\nIn Harry Reingold’s article, Net Smart: How to Thrive Online, he says, “Human social networks maintained through the medium of speech go back to the origin of our species” (192). Indeed they are, but even in the Age of the Digital, they are preserved and improved upon. Alan Wake relies mostly on actual human communication for networks of allies to be created. Conversely, the Dark Presence, while enslaving people, creates a very large network of minions with varied abilities as well as, inanimate objects. This can be a reflection of the above database of achievements and statistics that may open a window or a possible chat with a fellow individual online to share some content, find new things, or try something new. Who knows? Perhaps the two of you or maybe a few of you will team up for another game and see how you do at that. The way the Dark Presence builds its network of minions could also be viewed as a way that technology is stunting and hurting people’s communication skills, by turning them into unfeeling automatons.\n\tThen there is the ever so important concept of perspective. Alan Wake is a game played in the 3rd person point of view which lends itself to some very interesting attributes that a 1st person perspective does not. An article by Laurie Taylor called, When Seams Fall Apart: Video Game Space and the Player says, “…if I play from the third-person perspective of Alice in American McGee's Alice, then I am functioning, in a sense, as Alice. Alice is a part of me, but she is a determined part of me. \n\n'Oh great' you think to yourself. The program cut this latest part right in the middle of a quotation. Lovely, just lovely. Well at least the next part is done, hopefully it is the rest of the quotation. [[Segment 1.|Random Piece]] [[Segment 2.|Random Segment 5]] [[Segment 3.|Works Cited]]
You take a seat across from the old woman. Her raincoat enveloping her, almost like it is slowly consuming and digesting her body. You say to her, "Hello ma'am. Strange weather we're having tonight, huh? Shouldn't you be in the tent there?" She cackles at you with a strange look in her eyes. "Thank you deary for worrying about my old bones, but the tent isn't mine. It's my daughter's. Besides I don't need to go in there. The weather is pretty stable right now and has been for a long while now." You give her a starnge look to which she cackles at. "You don't know the dangers of the forest deary. The weather is hardly any concern to me." "I see. Well I'm going to go." "Before you do deary, can you help an old bag 'o bones to the tent over there? I need to speak to my daughter." You see no harm in it, but are still concerned as you don't know this woman. She says, "Thank you deary." You turn to leave, and...[[You feel a blade quickly cut up your belly.|Wake Up Call 2]] [[You dodge the blade and run off into the darkness.|Left Fork]]
The next part of your essay pops up on the screen. You look at it very tired and weary of all this waiting and stress. You almost wish something strange would happen. Zoned out in your reading of the next segment:\n\nIn Harry Reingold’s article, Net Smart: How to Thrive Online, he says, “Human social networks maintained through the medium of speech go back to the origin of our species” (192). Indeed they are, but even in the Age of the Digital, they are preserved and improved upon. Alan Wake relies mostly on actual human communication for networks of allies to be created. Conversely, the Dark Presence, while enslaving people, creates a very large network of minions with varied abilities as well as, inanimate objects. This can be a reflection of the above database of achievements and statistics that may open a window or a possible chat with a fellow individual online to share some content, find new things, or try something new. Who knows? Perhaps the two of you or maybe a few of you will team up for another game and see how you do at that. The way the Dark Presence builds its network of minions could also be viewed as a way that technology is stunting and hurting people’s communication skills, by turning them into unfeeling automatons.\n\tThen there is the ever so important concept of perspective. Alan Wake is a game played in the 3rd person point of view which lends itself to some very interesting attributes that a 1st person perspective does not. An article by Laurie Taylor called, When Seams Fall Apart: Video Game Space and the Player says, “…if I play from the third-person perspective of Alice in American McGee's Alice, then I am functioning, in a sense, as Alice. Alice is a part of me, but she is a determined part of me.\n\nAs you are reading about Alice, you look up at the screen. It appears that a hand bathed in the white pixels of the screen is trying to reach out and grab your skull. This immediately scares you, resulting in you falling out of your chair. You look up and there is nothing there. On quene, your computer pings telling you the next segment is ready. You say to yourself, "I really need to lay off the video games before bed. They are messing with me even during my waking hours." You pick the next segment which is...[[Segment 1.|Random Segment 2]] [[Segment 2.|Random Piece 2]] [[Segment 3.|Random Segment 4]]
Your computer has the next part of your essay ready for inspection. You look it over.\n\nFor you to arrive at the same belief as myself, video games are essentially interactive fictions and this one more so than others. Alan Wake’s constant theme is “Why?” Why is the Dark Presence doing what it’s doing this and how does Alan/I stop it? The riddle. You have texts in the manuscript pages that you interact with and link together the actions of the game with Alan’s situation. Text-based games. Then because you move Alan around in the game, and by extension yourself as established earlier, through some tricky situations and puzzles through the correct decisions you do or do not choose to make. Interactive fiction. Because of these aspects it is safe to say that Alan Wake is an interactive fiction inside an interactive fiction, this is partly because you move around as Alan while he is constantly asking questions. The manuscript pages that are collected also tell you about the past, present, or future that you are living, have lived, or about to experienced. Montfort, also writes that interactive fictions basically have an optimal output that the player I trying to achieve, and that output is achieved through solving puzzles that are better understood as riddles (13-14). So you have to give an input to get an output and see if there is any answer to help you move forward. If not than you have to keep trying until you figure it out. Alan Wake has an optimal output in which you find Alice and survive, if that hap...\n\nYou are rather annoyed that the program not only cut the paragraph but also cut the sentence and word it stopped on in half. Oh the joys of computing. Hopefully the rest of the paragraph can be saved. The last thing you need is another foreign hallucination telling you to write. The next segment finished, and you pick...[[Segment 1.|Random Segment 1]] [[Segment 2.|Random Segment 4]] [[Segment 3.|Random Segment 8]]
You go inside the tent. You ask the strange person, "Do you know what's going on out there?" In a creepy whisper she says, "Allow me to illuminate the possibilities." With that a brillant light from a lantern illuminated the inside of the tent. The searing light intensely scolding your eyes. You don't notice it make it's way inside the tent. Before you can say anything, the beautiful woman says with a smile, "You'll be excellent for dinner." Something pricks your arm, quickly you become disorientated and your limbs slowly start to seize up. She takes a needle-like straw and burrows it through your skull. "Now my delectable little snack, hold still, as if you could move anyways with all that venom coursing through you. But I digress, there is nothing quite like sucking the brains out of live prey." You look on terrified as the creature starts sucking and your face contorts and your consciencousness fades. [[You wake up.|Wake Up Call 2]]
Waking Up Call
You keep running. Tired from all the strange things that have been happening to you. However, this is no time to stop. Surely the darkness will take you. It looks to creeping along the forest faster and faster as if hunting you. As you keep running down the path you see the glint of the metal too late. Will you be able to avoid it? [[What did you hear?|The Laughter]] [[What did you hear?|The Snarl]] [[What did you hear?|It's Only the Wind]]
You look around in the dimly lit shack. Strangely you see a flashlight. Upon opening some draws in a desk and thinking, 'Why in the hell is there a desk in a shack?' you find a revolver. These may not help you stop the darkness, but it's a start. You lean against a wall, the thumping in your chest slowing down when all of a sudden. [[An axe blade pentrates the door the door with a loud thud.|The Axeman]] [[The shack trembles violently.|The Center Beam Falls]]
So after a strange night, full of strange and occassionally grusome dreams, and an even stranger and stressful time in reality, you've reached the halfway point of the recover process. The next segment reads as such:\n\n\tGames like Alan Wake also reveal what some people may think about the identity and race of individuals. It is a problem that is often at the surface of the game, if not the main tension in games. Lisa Nakamura’s article, Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet, speaks to some of the environments in games, and she uses a very interesting example. In her article, Nakamura references a game called LamdaMOO. In this particular game, you can create your avatar to play through the game, but here’s the only catch, you have to pick a gender. Other than that, your description is entirely up to you. Nakamura, points out specifically that a player does not have to identify themselves with anything other than their gender (if it’s truly their gender at all), but people can elect to describe themselves. She writes, “Race is not only not a required choice, it’s not even on the menu.” This is relevant because it allows the other players to assume what they will if they choose to pass judgment on a player in-game. The player that is because judged may be little Nigerian Girl with the screen name of Bruce Lee with an avatar and description of a 6’3” Canadian male with green eyes and red hair. At least one player could and probably would throw hatred at her for having a famous Asian superstar’s name some Caucasian character, because they assumed something of this person’s identity.\n\nYou are really ready for this to be done so you go back to sleep and try feel better. Right then, your computer tells you that the next segment is ready for you. [[Segment 1.|Random Piece 5]] [[Segment 2.|]] [[Segment 3.|]]
So far so good, at least you haven't had to write in any new text for your essay so far and it is all being recovered well. The next portion reads as follows:\n\n\tAlan Wake, contains many puzzles to be solved, the first and pretty much the crux of the story being, who took Alice, Alan’s wife. But also, why are there random manuscript pages all over the place and what is the story they tell? Throughout the story you are accosted by the minions of the Dark Presence. And there is a specific way you have to “kill” each of them. These challenges make a game like Alan Wake fun and entertaining. Additionally, if you want to collect all of the manuscript pages and get the full story, you have to play through the game in Nightmare mode. This is exactly what McGonigal and Aarseth are talking about. It is voluntary unnecessary obstacle to up the ante with the harder level, but also non-trivial because it is the only way you can get all of the manuscript pages in the story. \n\nYou are getting in a familiar pattern. If this continues, you should have your essay recovered in no time at all. You smile slightly as the sun is now bursting through your window and onto you and the screen. You can barely make out that the next segment is ready for you to check. [[Segment 1.|Random Segment 6]] [[Segment 2.|Random Piece 4]] [[Segment 3.|Random Piece 1]]
You begin debugging your file. 'Hopefully it won't be too bad,' you think to yourself. The program you are using debugs the first file it can. It is...[[Segment 1.|The Title Page]] [[Segement 2.|Works Cited]] [[Segement 3.|Random Piece]]
You run into the shack and frantically look for something to baracade the door, finding only a beat up chair which really won't work as the door has no knob or handle. You glance around in the darkness, the pale moonlight flickering through the dark clouds and illuminating the inside of the shack via the window. You oddly enough remember the character in the one game you were playing, windows comprimise structural intregrity. You chuckle Something causes the shack to rumble. [[Stay in shack and look for something useful.|Look Around]] [[Run like crazy until you find a safer safe haven.|Run for It]]
You go to the bathroom. Little plug-in night lights illuminating the way, like little air strip lamps just for you. In the bathroom you look in the mirror real quick. You look like a mess. Your face looks haggard and your hair is all askew and every which way. You turn on the water and splash some on your face a few times. Afterwards you look in the mirror again. Not much changed since a few moments ago except your eyes were opened a fraction more than before. You turn off the bathroom light. It's sheltering rays evaporating into the darkness. You are thankful for your plug-in lights though as you are still not all that steady on your feet. You stare at you bed through the hall and how inviting it is, but then you see the computer power light flashing. [[You ignore the damn machine and catch some shut-eye.|Start]] [[You check on the computer to see what's going on with it.|Go to Computer]]
You sit down in front of your computer. The power button is flashing, indicating that your machine has gone into hibernation mode. 'Well as long as the essay you were uploading for your final finished before the computer went on hibernation,' you thought. The screen came up and you read the message. Terror seized you. Not the flighty fantasies of your subconscious that scare you and tell about your worries. This was true terror. Not only had the essay you had spent the last week working on not uploaded, but the file was corrupted and fragmented. A mixture of intense anxiety and pure fear because you had until noon today, and it was currently 5:46 in the morning. "FUCKING GREAT! I wish one of those damn nightmares had killed me!" you shout. Now you had two options. [[Debug the file.|Commense Recovery]] [[Or write the whole thing all over again.|Start from Scratch]]\n
You wake up with a start. And that quick jerk was all that was needed for you to register the pain all along the right side of your face. It felt like someone dropped an anvil on your head, gouged out your right eye, and then clubbed you with a morning star for good measure. You noticed the flashing light of your computer and thought, 'Oh God, what now?' You also considered going to get something for your headache before addressing your computer. 'Because you know, EM radiation is always great for a headache,' you thought sarcastically. You contemplate going back to sleep because then at least you won't have to worry about feeling the pain you're in. [[Go take care of that damned flashing light.|Go to Computer]] [[Go take care of your pounding skull.|Go to Cabinet]] [[Roll over and go back to sleep.|Start]]
The Light guides the way, instantly erraticating any of the dark beings that come across your path. You come to the lighthouse, standing like a giant monolith of all that is pure and good. The Light, goes to the top of the structure. [[Go in the lighthouse.|The Lighthouse]]
You look about the cabin unable to find anything to fight the darkness or its minions. You try to rest and hope you can at least catch your breath. As your breath and fear subside, the shack shuttered. "Great!" You said aloud to nobody in particular, "I'm being chased by an unstoppable demonic prescence and now an earthquake is going to bring this place down on top of me. Oh joy!" The shack shuddered again more violently. You look out the window and notice that nothing else is shacking. And a black wisp creeps along in front of the window. The shack shakes violently again. You are worried that it has now become your tomb. The door won't budge, and you dare not break the window. That last thing you need is the darkness creeping in on you. However, that means you are trapped in the shack with the darkness slowly closing in around you. The shack rumbles violently again, but this time the center beam falls and pins you underneath it. What happens? [[You are killed by the collapsing shack|Wake Up Call 1-2]] [[You survive.|Survive but Trapped]]
You go into the lighthouse. Interestingly enough, you only see a few shadows that anything nasty could come out of at you from. The light from the top of the tower is incredibly bright and intense. After a terrifying and strange night you sit atop the lighthouse bathing in its warm comforting light...[[until you wake up.|Wake Up Call 1]]
Armed now, you have something to fight back against the darkness with, you hope. The man says, "You have to get them in the light, then you can destroy them." You answer, "Thanks for helping me out of the shack, but I'll be alright from here." "You should stay here," he says, "it's well lite here." "Thanks, but not thanks. I don't know you. You could simply be another monster that is trying to kill me." "You have to trust me," he fires back. "No," you say, "no I don't." [[And with that you turn and run off into the night.|Keep Running]]
You travel along the path through the woods to the forest. A few times jumping at nothing, or you hoped it was nothing. Strangely enough, nothing happened to you as you made your way to the lighthouse. Standing before it, the building seemed to be a safe place to wait out the night. [[Head in the Lighthouse.|The Lighthouse]]
You walk up to the tent. You can make out the sillohette of a person inside. Since the wind has calmed and the sense of danger has lessened you ask the shadow, "Hello? Is anybody in there?" There is no answer. "Hello? Interesting weather we're having tonight, right?" You ask awkwardly. No response. [[Walk over to Picnic Table.|The Picnic Table]] [[Raise your voice loudly|Shout Loudly at the Shadow]]
You click on the next piece of your essay that is ready and waiting for you to check it out. You skim it real quick just to make sure it's what you had intended. It goes like this:\n\n\tThe console versions of the Alan Wake games usually have achievements, well at least the Xbox version of the game. And while these achievements have some great names that reference different things like, Let There Be Light, the creators of Alan Wake, set the game up so that it keeps track of all the random statistics and collectibles you acquire throughout your journey through the story to see how far along you are on getting those achievements. In Peter Stallybrass’ article called, Against Thinking, he lists a number of things that can be helpful in understanding databases, which is what these game statistics end up creating. The 5th one is to do more with less (1584). He believes that databases create information overload which they can and do at times (1584). This can be very troublesome when a person is trying to find something very specific. However, in video games, especially those with achievements, that information overload is purposeful. Remember that Jane’s McGonigal is of the mind that games challenge us more than reality, and mastery of a game is the only time it gets boring. \n\nThat part looks ok. You think to yourself, 'I sure wish I could get an acheivement for all the crazy shit I've had to do for this dang project. Between then being chased by axe murders like out of The Shining though.' As you finish your thought the next segment shows itself to be ready for your careful eye. [[Segment 1.|Random Segment 5]] [[Segment 2.|Random Piece 2]] [[Segment 3.|Random Piece 1]]
You stumble your way into the bathroom. Fumbling about while clutching the door like you were going to be ripped into the abyss or hurled off a cliff. Finally you hit the damned switch and with a click, the light beats back the darkness allowing you to see where you are going. You take two of the generic headache meds and a handful of water from the tap to help force the pills down. You look back out into the darkness of the hall to see the full moon out from behind a cloud and shining through your window. It'd be absolutely serine and beautiful if that infernal computer light wasn't blinking every couple of seconds. You turn off the light in the bathroom and...[[Go take care of the computer.|Go to Computer]] [[Crawl into bed and drift off to sleep bathed in the pale moonlight hopefully to dream of more peaceful things.|Start]]
Fearing to face the darkness and madness chasing you. You come upon a shack. Perhaps a safe haven? [[You head inside the shack.|Inside the Shack]] [[You keep running, this is no time to stop.|Keep Running]]
You feel a stabbing pain in your back. Right in the mid-thorasic region of your spine. You lay on your back while pain subsides. You look out the window for a little bit relishing the glow of the full moon. You turn back so that you are once again looking at the ceiling. You back is no longer searing with pain, it more like an annoying twinge of pain. You see some light flashes frequently on the ceiling. As it looks to be coming from the end of your bed you sit up to locate the source. It's your damn computer. The power light is flashing. You really want to get back to sleep, but that infernal light may keep you up the rest of the night. [[You go address the computer.|Go to Computer]] [[You go back to sleep.|Start]]
You start to type out the beginning of the essay again. It goes as follows: \n\n\tStepen King said that the key to a good horror story is for the protaganist to keep asking why and never receive an answer. This is one of the opening lines of the video game Alan Wake. A video game that I think is amazing...you realize you can't find your notes and this essay will be shit because you are pressed for time. So as your head falls into your cradled hands as you decide it's probably best if you debug the corrupted files and fill in the blanks if you need to. [[Start the recovery work.|Commense Recovery]]
You click on the newly debugged segment to see what you've recovered.\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\tIt Not a Lake but an Ocean\n\t\t\t\t\tBy: 212313322111321323\n\n\n\n\n"Well I suppose it's something. Every good essay needs a good title page," you say aloud to no one in particular. The next segment has debugged. It is...[[Segment 1.|Works Cited]] [[Segment 2.|Random Segment 1]] [[Segment 3.|Random Segment 2]]\n
You survive the collapsing shack, but you are still pinned underneath the fallen beam with all this fallen wood around you. The darkness taking the shape of a human figure. You plead with it as you try to escape, "Why are you doing this? What do you want?" The shadows have taken the shape of a female. She smiles at you and says, "Writer, don't you rememeber? We had a deal. You were supposed to release me. And since you can not, I'm here to collect from you what I need. Naturally you'll die, but it is a small matter." You struggle more as your doom approaches. The dark one reaches out to touch you, to consume your very being. You close your eyes waiting for the inevitable. [[What happened?|The Light!]]
You try to stop but cannot. The bear trap snaps shut on your leg with a sicken sound of flesh being torn. You cry out. As initial tears flow forth you hear it.You hear a manical laughter erupt from the darkness. You see a figure, comsumed in a violent swilring shade. In a twisted and malice filled speech that fluctuated from high-pitched whining-like tones to deep primal grunting tones it says, "I've got you, urg now. Like a rat, caught in a trap." As it approaches, you turn to your leg. You try desperately to free it to no avail. You try bargaining with thing twisted corrupted used-to-be humanoid thing. You shout as it stands over you sledgehammer in hand, "Please! Don't kill me! I don't understand! Just let me go!" It bent down, smiled, and said, "That's the point and you never will." Horror was etched into your face as it raised the hammer into the air. As the moon glistened off the head, you raised your arm in a feeble attempt to protect yourself. [[You wake up.|Wake Up Call 1-2]]
"Hey!" You shout. "I can see you in there! Are you going to let me in? It's crazy out here tonight." The old woman at the picnic table behind you chuckles wryly at you, "Indeed it is," she says. The tent opens and a hand springs forth from the inards of the tent inviting you in. "Come in," says a strange voice. You are completely creeped out by the two individuals here now. You're not sure what to do. [[Go into the tent.|Inside the Tent]] [[Talk to the old woman at the picnic table instead.|The Picnic Table]]
You turn to face the darkness. Fear gripping you, but a spark of courage ignites in you to face this invisible terror. You scream into the black, "Why are you hunting me?" In the dark you hear a manical laugh, and you hear a voice, "Because creator, I can, and I need you." You look around unable to see, paralyzed with fear, trying to figure out what to do. You don't even feel the axe blade start cleave your skull in two. [[You wake up.|Wake Up Call 3]]
Charles Knapp
You were able to stop before the teeth of the bear traps tore into your juicy flesh. Strangely enough though, along the path you see a structure. There is a lamp post over it drowning it in light. You run inside only thinking about the light and resting. As relaxation and a sense of calm start to wash over you, there is a buzzing noise that reaches your ears. Soon followed by a bursting or shattering sound. The light has gone out. The terror rushing back to you and fear once again flooding your system. The wind suddenly picks up and gusts of it are blowing your coat every which way. \n\nYou see two wisps of pure black shade creep out from the swirling darkness. You bolt for the exit, but the wisps instantly shoot to the gates of both exits slamming them shut, forbidding you to pass. you tried grabbing the gate only to be shocked terribly. You look around trying to find a hole in the surrounding fence. Then you hear a noise. It sounds like birds. Paralyzed with fear you look around and see all the eyes. All the menacing red eyes, cawwing at you. You fantically look for an exit as the birds swarm together, make a pass overhead and dive at you. The swirling storm of talons biting into your skin and the beaks spearing your tender areas is enough to force you to the ground in immense pain. You succumb to your wounds but not before you have the luxury of watching one of these horrible little dark feathered demons pluck out your right eye and gobble it up. [[Then you wake up.|Wake Up Call 1-2]]
Thank goodness for your quick reflexes as you are instaneously able to avoid a bear trap. 'Who would do such a thing?' you think to yourself. "So much for common courtesy," you say aloud to nobody in particular. Then you hear it, a snarl from the bushes. You turn in a panic and run knowing that something had heard your wisecrack and didn't find it funny. You are running as fast as your tired legs can take you until you come to the edge of a cliff. You turn to see what is chasing you, but it is too late. All you are about to see is a giant paw with 5 black razors for claws coming down at an angle towards your face. You reflexively jump backwards, but not far enough as some of the claws connect and tear through so of the flesh on your face. You fall off the cliff into the raging river below. [[You wake up.|Wake Up Call 1-2]]