And just now, when I loaded it up, the world of the Zone was no longer as immersive and absorbing as it had been. It was just a bleak world in which I had to complete a number of tasks, most of which involved a hell of a lot of running. It’s a big game world.
Stalker had been bleached of its narrative force. And that gets me thinking about gamers in general.
Stalker: Call of Pripyat: game over?
That phrase he uses, “bleached of its narrative force,” is highly precise. The whole article, really, deserves a chapter in a book about the tenuous connection between gamer and game, and how it tapers off over time, regardless (or perhaps because of) of the initial “magic”.
