Here’s my proposal for my research essay for my interactive storytelling class, on Disco Elysium:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Research Question:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Disco Elysium is a roleplaying game\nabout an alcoholic amnesiac detective who\u2019s tasked with solving a grisly murder\namidst an ongoing labour dispute at the local docks, all while trying to\nrecover his forgotten identity (or construct a new one). Upon release, the game\nwas immediately lauded for its nuanced deep-dive into politics and its\nintricate skill system and how said system tied into the game\u2019s dialogue and\ncharacter development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the essay, I am interested in analyzing the game\u2019s character creation, skill and dialogue systems<\/strong> in order to understand how they allow the player to create a rich and intricate player character with a comprehensive character identity<\/strong> that encompasses personal history, personality and political ideology<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Discussion\nof Primary Source:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The primary text will be the videogame Disco Elysium, released in 2019 by Estonian studio ZA\/UM. The game was met with critical acclaim upon release and was placed on many \u2018Best Games of the Decade\u2019 lists by critics. Disco Elysium\u2019s character system is mechanically defined by three main systems: the skill system, dialogue system and the thought cabinet. The skill system directly affects the dialogue system, allowing for incredibly dynamic conversations. The thought cabinet allows for character identity to be defined along defined lines like \u2018communist\u2019 or \u2018nationalist\u2019 or \u2018homosexual\u2019, allowing for richer player characters as well as exploring the tension between player freedom and moral perspectives on certain ideologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Expected\nFindings and Contributions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In Disco Elysium, conversations are not just the words that\nare spoken between interlocutors. Conversations are constructed out of social\nrules, and the ability to break or bend them provides a means by which\ncharacter identity is revealed. Furthermore, every conversation in Disco\nElysium is rich with internal commentary provided by the player character\u2019s\nmind. The internal commentary provides rich and varied interpretations of\nconversations that reveal the player character\u2019s opinions and perspectives on\nthe world around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disco Elysium\u2019s thought cabinet does not exist in a vacuum.\nIt\u2019s deeply linked to the conversation system. The thoughts that can occur to\nthe player character are spawned and prompted by conversations. If the thought\ncabinet is a codification of the character\u2019s identity, then the conversations\nare expressions of that, and it is through consistent expression of\nperspectives or ideas that prompt these thoughts that come to form identity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Through player-driven conversations and cognition, Disco\nElysium shows us expression forms identity<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here’s my proposal for my research essay for my interactive storytelling class, on Disco Elysium: Research Question: Disco Elysium is a roleplaying game about an alcoholic amnesiac detective who\u2019s tasked with solving a grisly murder amidst an ongoing labour dispute at the local docks, all while trying to recover his forgotten identity (or construct a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-videogames"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parallelsuns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parallelsuns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parallelsuns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parallelsuns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parallelsuns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/parallelsuns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84,"href":"https:\/\/parallelsuns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions\/84"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parallelsuns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parallelsuns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parallelsuns.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}