I began playing Life is Strange a little while ago. Having almost completed the game, I figured now would be a good time to reflect. When Dr. Shannon announced that this was the game that we would be playing, I was excited. I have played other choose-your-way games in the past, and enjoyed them immensely. Unfortunately, Life is Strange did not live up to my expectations.
The game centers around Max, a teenage girl struggling to fit in at a new school. While sitting in a photography class, she discovers she has the ability to rewind time and "re-do" situations. Throughout the game, Max is placed in very adult situations, and forced to react and re-react to them.
When I play a game about making choices, I expect to be able to make choices. While the game does allow you to make choices that have consequences, many of the game's major choices are "fixed". By this, I mean that the game will force you to play and rewind until you pick the options that it wants you to. For example, at the beginning of the game, you walk in on Chloe and a guy she's arguing with. Although you are presented with the option to confront them, the game will not allow you to do so. Instead, it forces you to pull the fire alarm and evacuate the school. Another scene that comes to mind is when Max goes to the junkyard and Chloe accidentally shoots herself due to a ricocheting bullet. Again, the game forces you to rewind and make other choices.
I'm not saying I want to go around to kill characters, but I wish the game was more flexible in this sense. For example, in The Walking Dead, a similar game by Telltale Games, the character that you play as is allowed to make choices that can result in death (ending your game early), or the death of other characters.
The game wasn't awful, it just wasn't one of my favorites. However, I don't know that I would want to use it in an ELA classroom. There are a lot of mature/triggering themes throughout the game (like what the hell Mr. Jefferson?), and I'm not sure that the idea would go over well with parents.
However, as a future educator, I think it was a good idea for me to play the game. It reminded me that even though no one should have to go through the situations that Max and her friends are placed in, adolescents do. They probably do experience such things more often than we realize. Even if I didn't necessarily enjoy the game, it made me pause and think about the struggles that adolescents deal with on a daily basis that adults are so quick to dismiss.
I agree that there are many adult themes and situations here that do not make (the entire series) appropriate for young adults in a classroom setting. (although I'm certain teenagers are playing this game). I don't think we make the argument that this is "for" the classroom, but hopefully our gameplay and experience of the text can help us to think more broadly about how we define "text" itself. I think this kind of "out of the box" thinking is what will drive the innovation that we need in order to make our classrooms relevant and rigorous teaching spaces for the 21st century and beyond. Mostly I'm interested in hearing how this narrative structure differs from more traditional ones. Though, I do agree with you that there is a facade of choice here....not "real" choice. Still...it presents an interesting narrative structure. Not one that we encounter often.
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