Game Review: Slender

Very rarely do I find a game that can genuinely scare me. I’ve always enjoyed horror games, feeling the occasional tingle of fear when playing Silent Hill and the creepy scares that come with playing Amnesia, but Slender has to be right up there on the scare scale. This game had me literally jumping away from the computer, yanking out my earphones.

Slender, developed by ParsecProductions is based on the webseries Marble Hornets and has caused a stir across several websites, especially in social networking, with Facebook pages developing memes specific to the game.

Slender takes a simple approach to the horror/survival gaming experience, which I felt ParsecProductions molded magnificently to create the game’s feeling of impending dread. The game opens to the title sequence with the sound of footsteps on a gravel/dirt path and the rattle of a fence. It’s nighttime, a flashlight switches on brightly and the instructions to the game appear as nothing more than “collect all 8 pages”. From there the game begins. You are to find the pages and try to escape Slender Man.

While the game causes players to feel uneasy as they search for the pages, the gameplay and storyline, or should I say lack thereof, is incredibly basic. Because of this, a player can find they are uninspired in playing the game. There is only so long you can jog around the world, searching for the pages before you start to wonder ‘what’s the point of this? Who is this character I’m playing anyway?’ and find yourself becoming less immersed in Slender.  

It most certainly is not a game that everyone can enjoy. It relies a lot on prior knowledge to Marble Hornets. Also the horror theme of the game where you find yourself scared senseless also isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea either. 

For those who do stick it out through the game and reach the final page, I have to wonder; did Slender Man appear and kill you too? Or is that just what happened to me and the friends I have spoken to that also reach the 8^th page? I can’t even really describe the frustration I felt dying in the end after spending time to find the other 7 pages and nursing my several small heart attacks I seemed to experience throughout the game. 

Overall, the game certainly has an impressive scare factor to it, but aside from that, there really isn’t a whole lot to the game. The lack of storyline and gameplay options can becoming boring quite quickly, so I wouldn’t blame someone for giving up midway through the game because they just got too fed up to play through it. 

Because of how creepy the game is despite the lack of storyline, I’m going to give it a 5/10 for effectively freaking me out.

-Laura

JOUR1111 Lecture 13 Reflection - Conclusions to Course

In this week’s lecture, as it was the last week, things were run a little differently. There wasn’t any set area of journalism that we were going to look into; we had no PowerPoint or notes. Instead, we had a group discussion amongst the JOUR1111 students for this semester and some Jelly Belly jellybeans (which made my day!).

As a group we discussed a lot of things that came from what we had learnt over the semester. In doing this, I found myself thinking a lot about where I would like to go from here.

I have really enjoyed this semester, studying my first course in journalism. I found that the assessment we have gone through over the semester really didn’t seem like tedious work to me at all, instead I have enjoyed it. Writing this blog, especially the gaming reviews, has been a lot of fun. I have liked learning about journalism and gaining an understanding of what it’s all about and why it’s important, as well as enjoying the writing side of it. Because of this, it’s changed some of my plans for further studies. 

I’ve decided to apply to do a dual degree in Journalism/Arts, hoping to continue studying Journalism while also continuing courses in Criminology and Creative Writing, having also enjoyed studying in these areas.

I think I’d really enjoy a career in journalism now, if I could go into gaming or cosplay journalism for a blog like Kotaku or IGN.com it really would be a dream come true. Because of this, I have taken up continuing to write gaming and gaming/cosplay convention reviews and journal entries on personal blog on tumblr. I think this could be a way to take my first step of many into a future career that I know I could enjoy. Surrounding myself with my hobbies every day, as a part of a job, would really be a blessing. And any reason to play more games or cosplay more is totally okay with me!

If not, the idea of Investigative Journalism sounds really appealing to me. I think exposing the truth to the public, while journalists put themselves at risk to do so, could be called brave. The journalists that do it have my respect. Honestly, I really like Julian Assange, I like that he stands up to those in power and tries to expose the darker side of the truth for what it really is. The only problem with doing this is the fact that this can endanger lives. I’m not sure if I could disconnect myself from something emotionally and expose a story if I know I could endanger lives, or jobs, or homes, or something along those lines. I suppose that would all just come with practice and learning. 

Overall, I’ve found this course incredibly enjoyable. I’ve learnt things in the past 13 weeks that are going to stick with me for sure. Even now, as I watch the news, there’s small things I manage to pick up on or critique that I can relate back to things I have learnt in JOUR1111. I look forward to any future Journalism courses I find myself in, for sure.

-Laura

26/10/12

JOUR1111 Lecture 12 Reflection - Investigative Journalism

What is Investigative Journalism?

“Isn’t all journalism meant to involve questioning investigation of facts and opinions presented to us?” (Ross Coulthart, Australian Investigative Journalist)

But what is the job of an investigative journalist? “… to discover the truth and to identify lapses from it…” (Hugo de Burgh, British media theorist)

“ … what somebody somewhere wants to suppress…” (Lord Northcliffe, Owner of The Times, The Daily Mail)

The Five “in’s” of Investigative Journalism:

• Intelligent – well thought out stories. Have to know what you are doing before entering people’s lives. Look at things like what corrupts people e.g. sex, power.
• Informed – know the facts; you inform the public so you must be informed yourself.
• Intuitive – knowing something isn’t right and always tuning your skills.
• Inside (Intimate?) – getting inside the intimate parts of people’s lives
• Invest – inevesting something in yourself. Can be draining emotionally, mentally and physically, one needs to know when to draw the line.

Taking a deeper look into the purpose of Investigative Journalism we can see 4 key functions:

•   Journalism that is critical and thorough

-          Critical = the journalists are active participants, in and amongst it à ACTIVE INTERVENTION

-          Thorough = journalist dedicates substantial time and effort to a particular story

• Custodians of conscience

-          challenging what is considered to be the status quo -  EXPOSURE of real issues in society

• To provide a voice and power to those without them

-          Social justice - PUBLIC INTEREST

•  Fourth Estate/Fourth Branch of Government/“Watchdog”

-          Fourth Estate: journalists represent the interests of those without power to balance the power of government

-          Fourth Branch of Government: ensuring freedom of information for the functioning of democracy by interrogating those in power

-          “Watchog”: journalists make accountable those who have an impact on social and political life in society

The message that can be seen from these four key functions is hat Investigative Journalism is about cutting through the typical agenda and seeking out the truth to benefit the public.

Investigative Journalism is not a new concept, the last 200 years has seen pioneers who have really defined the meaning of Investigative Journalism.

•  1826, Edward Smith Hall – exposed bad treatment of convicts in the Sydney Monitor

• 1885, W.T. Stead & Salvation Army – uncovered the reality of child prostitution that was occurring, resulting in the legal age of consent to be raised from 12 to 16 years of age.

• Julian Assange & Wikileaks

All of these changed the world and society in some way, usually by challenging the government or large corporations in power. This really shows that once a journalist can get their audience to listen to what they have to say and what they have discovered, they have the power to start to make a change. But to do this, situations, issues and people concerned in the matter need to be investigated.

Various types of investigation interaction (legal and illegal) include:

• Interviews
• Observations
• Documents (law suits, tax records, legal documents etc.)
• Briefings
• Leaks
• Trespass
• Theft

 The threats to Investigative Journalism have been mentioned several times across the semester, mainly the threat of online news and public relations. Online news and public resistance against having to pay to access it results in less revenue for journalism. Without money, there isn’t enough incentive to put in the hard work required for investigation and exposing stories. Journalism requires PR to gather information, however PR is selective about what they want to release, allowing them to spin the truth or suppress some things. This making the investigation process even more difficult for journalists. 

Despite this, the future of Investigative Journalism can still be seen, in citizen journalism, much like what Julian Assange achieved. Blogs and websites such as Youtube are taking over. However, revenue is still an issue. People won’t work for free. Therefore, Paywalls are currently the potential successful answer to making this work out. This way we will continue to have journalists uncovering the truth for us in the future. 

-Laura

20/10/12