Fort McMoney: Can I be a megalomaniac ruler?
This week’s task was to write about our experiences with Exoriare (a graphic fiction novel) of Fort McMoney (a documentary game). I tried Exoriare first and was bored quickly and couldn’t quite follow the story. It also felt too static for me. Maybe it’s me being dim. I was looking forward to having fun and playing!
So, I quickly moved onto Fort McMoney. After my initial frustrations of battling to log in using different browsers, I managed to get in and spent some seven hours or so (on and off) playing it so that I could write about it comprehensively.
I was intrigued with the game being described as ‘film marries video game’ and thought it was a pretty cool idea. It also inspired to think about my own ideas for my individual project and how I could do literally anything.
At first, I didn’t know how to play Fort McMoney. As I can be persistent, I was not going to be defeated and I continued exploring and pressing different buttons (yes, I admit I am very curious and like a kid sometimes).
I also saw between seven and 11 other people online when I played but didn’t know how to play with or interact with other players (I am now wondering how many of these players were fellow Interactive Media colleagues?).
Although the subject matter of this game doesn’t interest me, I found myself thinking that the game was really well done the more I played it. It gives a very good insight into the city of Fort McGarry, the oil industry and how it has affected people lives (positively and negatively), people’s views and feelings about their city etc.
I did at times find driving in the car from one location to another a bit tedious and would have liked the option to get the location with just one click.
This game is similar to a text based adventure game that I used to occasionally play as a child. I loved being able to imagine and visualise scenes and become immersed emotionally while playing adventure games. And I must admit, I prefer the text-based adventure games to this documentary game because everything visually was there in cinematic format. I do, however, applaud the director, David Dufrense, for doing an exceptional job with this game, though.
I was, at times, frustrated when I was informed the task was completed because there were still other sites or situations I wanted to explore. Also, some of the characters I chose to talk to only spoke French and it was annoying because I didn’t understand and the subtitles button didn’t work, despite relentlessly clicking on the button!
I also wanted to go to the river but I wasn’t allowed to choose this option - which was greyed out - because I had to complete other parts of the game first. I am normally a very calm and patient person, but with this game I did find myself becoming a little impatient because I just wanted to go to the river with one click (instant gratification) and see what was there. I was also unclear about how to use my influencing points which I collected / increased by talking to different people and how the voting thing with debates worked on the dashboard.
At one point, I randomly found and glanced over the ‘how to play’ manual but don’t think I took it all in. I did a Google search for Fort McMoney and it was only when I read about it on Wikipedia that is became clear that I, as the player, could choose the future of Fort McGarry and responsibly develop the world’s largest oil sand reserves. This gave me a nice powerful feeling and made me think, could I become a megalomaniac, ruler of this city and run rough-shod over it with an iron-first (after all it’s just a game). I think it would have been nice to have the option of playing different types of characters too.
I also enjoyed Sanjay Patel’s book signing in the library, only because he shares the same surname as me.
In summary, Fort McMoney grew on me the more I played it but there is a lot to learn and take in but at the same time also easy to navigate with a simple click on locations/objects. It is very well done and gives you a good insight into the life and culture of the city, and the oil industry. Well done to David and his team :-)
