This reading really helped me (re)orient agency in terms of creation. Much of my thinking currently revolves equally around our class projects, as much as my introspection into theatrical experiences as my Capstone becomes more of a real thing over time. The things that stood out to me firstly was how Murray spoke about the idea of a world, the role of the player, and comparing it to participatory theater. Looking at what the role of the world might be, and then transitioning into thinking about the world design in context of mazes. To think about how the context of a maze could change wildly based on things like the story, and playing/non playing characters inside said maze. The example I found very exciting was to think about say, in replacing a cloudy happy visual of a maza with “Kafkaesque” characters and wordplay, all of a sudden the “player” could be transported to questioning, and more importantly experiencing an elevated introspection of things they might be already experiencing in their day to day societies.
Looking at the questioning of the story, it’s unfolding around the use was another aspect I want to take from this reading. Thinking of (under the pretext that gaming seems to be the most clear connection most of the reading takes to think of interaction with the user) how the question might arise as to who is the author, I particularly resonate with how Murray cautions us to not be carried away in thinking that this would make the user an author. That instead, what might be misinterpreted as authorship is actually (name of the chapter!) agency!
In the realm of agency the thing that I liked was also thinking of user interface modules. He speaks about how the object we hold in order to “play” the game also makes a difference. This also reminded me of the Robin Hunicke video we’d looked at w.r.t the difference of the body and it’s orientation. Murray spoke about how in playing the same fame with a different controller, the simplicity with which he felt connected to the world of the game immediately reduced. This also resulted in him feeling more disconnected, and having a lesser sense of agency.