I related a lot to some parts of Chapter 5, such as the agency associated with navigation in games. I play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the nintendo switch and one of my favourite parts is the sheer amount of walking around and exploring you can do in the game. There’s always something to climb, or collect or look at, even if you’re not doing one of the main quests. In fact, the distribution of the shrines in the game ensures that you have to move around as much as possible and explore the landscape. It’s sort of like “orienteering” as mentioned in the chapter.
I also really liked the paragraph Giving Shape to Anxiety- Zelda does this partly through sound. There’s different sound tracks for peaceful walking, sneaking around and being near or under attack from monsters. As you play, you tend to recognise the sounds and you know from the tones what is happening around you.
In general, I really liked the ideas of agency brought up by the text- the sense of control felt by the participator is key. What I think is important to note, is the fact that agency might be real or imagined, but as long as it is felt by the person playing the game, it matters. What I particularly liked about this chapter was the fact that it says that agency is more than simply participation and action. It is the experience of feeling autonomous, and taking pleasure in just experiencing the circumstances of the game. It also mentions the challenges of moving narrative to computers; we have to find a balance between narrative and game structure, when they both complement each other rather than one being overshadowed by the other.