Life is Strange, Episode 3: No Spoilers! Demiboy vs. Backlog, Game #5

It's becoming more and more difficult to write this series without spoilers for Life is Strange. But I think I can keep this blog spoiler-free for one more post! No promising I won't accidentally tip off something or other, but I'll do my best--and keeping it meta, I'm going to use this opportunity to talk about spoilers in the general sense.

Episode 3, which I just finished, throws a curveball so sharp it loops around and hits the pitcher in the back of the head. I had no idea this bit was coming. I got to experience Max Caulfield's "wtf" reaction right along with her! And thinking back, while I could say there was some thematic foreshadowing of the twist, it does basically come out of left field. If anything, the plot elements leading up to that point suggested the opposite of what was actually coming.

So I went into that unspoiled. However, I long ago osmosed a massive spoiler about Life is Strange as a whole: I know what the final "press X for this, press B for that" choice is, or at least the consequences that follow on from it. And it is a pretty shocking one! I find myself deeply curious about what events could possibly enable or precipitate that choice, and have planned for myself a loose rubric, a sort of litmus test, to determine which way I'll go on it.

I feel like that's about the best possible place to be!

Way to give the patriarchy a free pass, Max. Not exactly living up to your "feminazi" reputation there!

 
Spoiler purists are no doubt clutching their pearls and retiring to their fainting couches, at this point. But hear me out! A University of California study from a couple of years ago found that people tend to enjoy stories more when they know what's coming. Since I learned that, I've been fairly blasé about spoilage. Not brazenly spoiling things for other people, mind you (it's important to respect others' preferences on these things, whatever some U of C prof says!), nor necessarily making a deliberate effort to spoil things for myself before I consume them, but chilling out about the possibility of incidental spoilers. It makes for less anxiety surrounding media I'm planning to enjoy, and sometimes gives me tools to appreciate my first experience of a work in a deep, attentive way ordinarily possible only on a second reading or viewing.

Experiencing these two spoil-states regarding the same game has revealed something the U of C study may have accidentally elided by asking simply how much people enjoyed spoiled vs. unspoiled reading: there are different kinds of enjoyment at work! Increasing exposure to a piece of media changes the way we appreciate it. Consider:

1. Purely unspoiled, every moment of the work is new. Each twist carries with it the rush of surprise, or the gratification of having spotted it coming. Awe and wonder come easy.
2. Knowing a work's "big spoilers"--its twists, revelations, and ending--replaces some exhilaration of surprise with the mellower but more sustained enjoyment curve of anticipation and payoff. Individual moments can still startle or confuse, but some part of one's attention is dedicated to the intellectual exercise of fitting those pieces together with what's coming. More cerebral appreciation is easier to attain.
3. A repeat viewing (or reading, or playthrough) deepens and extends the shift from surprise to anticipation. Now even the smaller beats can be looked forward to, specific lines and moments awaited and delivered. Enjoyment is characterized by comfort and familiarity.
4. After many viewings, it's not just familiarity: it's memorization. There is a peculiar thrill in being ready to recite the actor's lines with them, to sing along with each theme, to be able to grin and signal one's companions: "wait for it...!" With games, this is where mastery becomes possible, learning ways to push the game to its limits due to being so intimately acquainted with its rhythms.

Snapped this screenshot to capture the sunset bus ride. Didn't notice until now that some creepy eyeless mannequin photobombed it. (SPOILER??)

 
People can have different preferences on those modes of enjoyment! If you live for knock-me-over-with-a-feather moments of joyful (or horrified, depending on genre!) discovery, avoiding spoilers is the only way to reliably attain that high. If you don't mind giving that up for quicker access to canny analysis and deep reading, a bit of spoilage beforehand is smart. If you've got time and energy and patience enough, you can experience all the flavors via repeated exposure, or an unspoiled experience followed by absorbing essays on the Internet, etc. But it's not clear to me that spoiled or unspoiled is a uniformly better choice, especially if you only have time for one go.

Luckily, I got a bit of both with Life is Strange. Once I've recovered from my Episode 3 bafflement, I'll crack open Episode 4, knowing just enough of what's on the horizon to let me crash blindly into whatever further twists are coming between here and there!

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"Demiboy vs. Backlog" is a blog series where I play each game from my considerable backlog until I finish it or at least a week passes, writing here along the way! I typically grab games at random, but you can instead advise me on what to tackle next. Life is Strange was selected by @curubethion. Check out the play queue and leave a comment here if you want to nudge it in a new direction! Think my backlog still isn't large enough or is missing some must-play title? I accept gift games via Steam, and will slot any game thus received into the queue at the nearest opportunity!