Unmanned

After playing Unmanned, I feel I have a better understanding of Roger Cailois classification of games. Cailois classifies games in four different categories: agon, alea, mimicry and ilinx. He argues that all four not only represent a game structure but they can also be translated into the structure of society itself. I felt that in Unmanned   we can see all four structures to some extent. Agon, is described as competition against another team or person, like when one plays soccer or chess, in Unmanned you are not competing directly with anyone, but I feel the competition is with oneself. In every scene of the game, we have two screens, in one we answer questions as part of a conversation and in other we are interacting with the avatar. In one part of the game the player is asked to follow a target that could be the enemy, in one screen we follow the target and in the other we have to interact with other characters, at one point I was so focus on answer the questions and follow the dialogue that I lost the target and the mission was dismissed.

Alea, is described as chance, meaning that is an aleatory game. Unmanned have a lot to do with alea, the player has a lot of options on how to answer questions that the game prompts and depending on how the player answers either he receives a medal or not. Mimicry or role play, I feel is there throughout the game, because the player puts himself in the role of the character and answers the way he wants the character to be portrayed, like when the avatar has the option on how to answer to his son questions about the war.  At the beginning of the game the scene is very confusing the player doesn’t know what is happening; this could be as we talked in class ilinx or vertigo.