010: 10 years of Her Story
Post modern post fiction
Episode:
Listen to the latest episode of Dialogue Tree here:
All other platforms can be found at dialoguetree.cc.
Introduction:
First of all, I must note something I neglected to mention in the episode itself; the soundtrack work of Chris Zabriskie. If you’ve played the game, listened to the episode, or engaged with his music elsewhere, you’ll know he’s pretty good at his job. I think the vibes of this episode, such as they are, are decent, and that’s entirely down to his music. I bought the songs I used on Bandcamp, and I encourage you to support him over there as well:
By design, playing Her Story feels like an act of discovery, something mildly transgressive. It taps into the illicit thrill that comes with seeing something you’re sure you shouldn’t. In this game, the interface, the explicit lore of the trashed archives, the implicit details that litter the script, all give off the impression of a secret that needs to be buried, but has clawed its way to the surface.
I liked how you could pursue this secret as much or as little as you liked. Once you get to a certain point, and it seems like it would fairly difficult to not reach that point, a chat window pops up asking you if you’d like to finish your investigation. If you’re satisfied, with either your perceived understanding of the story, or your enjoyment of the game, you can answer yes, and roll credits. I postponed, trying to dig deeper, to uncover as many of those 271 videos as I could, to try and leave no ambiguity as to what was going on. I didn’t achieve that, and I think I had a handle on around 75% of the events being revealed, without correctly deciphering how it concluded. As I touch on in the episode, in Her Story, the process is the game. Whether you fully understand her story, you’ve still made your own.
I haven’t seen much media marking the 10th anniversary of this game. I hope there is some. It’s a neat reminder of the capacity for art to still surprise us, to blend established forms to create something new. The 10th anniversary of Immortality will be 22nd August 2032. If this show is still around, maybe I’ll cover that then.
OK. I’ll try my best to remember.
The history of Her Story and Interactive Fiction:
"Open Up For Me Max: The Magic of the FMV Video Game"
Ian Bryce Jones:
All blog posts on Intermittent Mechanism tagged with 'Her Story'
"We had a list of rules": An analysis of Her Story
Emily Short:
Her Story, Further Reflections
That book that made me cry and vomit:
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami