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What is Being Witnessed?
Jan. 4th, 2020 10:59 am
R has been playing this really neat game called The Witness while we're trying to shake off this cold. It's really his type of game: something like Myst, where you're wandering around an interesting structured environment and playing with puzzles that may or may not lead you somewhere interesting. Along the way, you can find audio clips of passages from books or quotes about the nature of reality and our means of experiencing it. Albert Einstein is a favorite, and I didn't know he had such mystical thoughts about humanity and our place in the universe.
What's most fascinating about the game is how it uses both language and symbols as a form of communication. The puzzles are basically making a line through a grid. One corner is a circle, and that's your starting point; and there's usually a "peninsula" somewhere indicating your endpoint. The intersections or squares will have symbols that indicate certain rules; for example, the line MUST pass through an intersection with a black hexagon. You can't loop back over an intersection you've already crossed, so figuring out how to complete the puzzle can take some trial and error. But mostly patience.
Also, knowledge loops back on itself. At first, the puzzles are all on clearly defined panels. But, as you get further in the game, you begin to notice that from the right perspective the environment ALSO has starting circles and paths that lead you to the rounded peninsula of an endpoint. You start to become fluent with the game's language, and the experience becomes more intimate that way. In a way that doesn't lean on concepts or abstractions, you're actually communicating. Each new puzzle is a beckoning closer, a chance to discover a new mystery. In a lot of ways, it feels like the game is an engine for cultivating curiosity and patience.
I'm honestly not sure if The Witness would be everyone's cup of tea. I'm not sure I would have the patience to work out the rules of some of the more complex puzzles, which require you to hold a lot of specific dos and don'ts in your head at once. But I do think it's a crucible worth pushing yourself through. It's one of those few games that challenges you and stimulates you without aggression. The game is a collaborator, and you're really working against your own limitations.
One of the video clips in the game comes from a fellow named Rupert Spira, who gave a talk at the Science and Non-Duality Conference 2011 in San Rafael, CA. The whole speech is up on YouTube here, if you'd like to take a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJtVLASoiQE
It's profound and hypnotic, and really helped to nudge me back on the path of Zen. I'm not sure I follow every leap of logic he makes, but there's something about the conclusion that really struck me: the idea that love, peace, and happiness are all the base state of awareness and that in order to achieve these we merely need to stop trying to escape who we are, where we are, when we are. In order to achieve love, we must stop seeking it and simply rest in the awareness that we are ourselves love.
I don't know if there are many games that feel like an emotional experience in and of themselves, but they're absolutely my favorite kinds of game. Flow, Journey, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, What Remains of Edith Finch?, and now The Witness are the kinds of game that really speak to me. Games that encourage you to observe and absorb, that transport you into a meditative, accepting space just through its very nature, that's what I'd love for video games to be.
Today, the plan is to keep writing, cleaning up the burrow, reach out to friends. This is the last weekend before I head back to work, so even if I can't exercise I'd like to make sure I'm doing the things that get me prepared and closer to my ideal habits.
What's most fascinating about the game is how it uses both language and symbols as a form of communication. The puzzles are basically making a line through a grid. One corner is a circle, and that's your starting point; and there's usually a "peninsula" somewhere indicating your endpoint. The intersections or squares will have symbols that indicate certain rules; for example, the line MUST pass through an intersection with a black hexagon. You can't loop back over an intersection you've already crossed, so figuring out how to complete the puzzle can take some trial and error. But mostly patience.
Also, knowledge loops back on itself. At first, the puzzles are all on clearly defined panels. But, as you get further in the game, you begin to notice that from the right perspective the environment ALSO has starting circles and paths that lead you to the rounded peninsula of an endpoint. You start to become fluent with the game's language, and the experience becomes more intimate that way. In a way that doesn't lean on concepts or abstractions, you're actually communicating. Each new puzzle is a beckoning closer, a chance to discover a new mystery. In a lot of ways, it feels like the game is an engine for cultivating curiosity and patience.
I'm honestly not sure if The Witness would be everyone's cup of tea. I'm not sure I would have the patience to work out the rules of some of the more complex puzzles, which require you to hold a lot of specific dos and don'ts in your head at once. But I do think it's a crucible worth pushing yourself through. It's one of those few games that challenges you and stimulates you without aggression. The game is a collaborator, and you're really working against your own limitations.
One of the video clips in the game comes from a fellow named Rupert Spira, who gave a talk at the Science and Non-Duality Conference 2011 in San Rafael, CA. The whole speech is up on YouTube here, if you'd like to take a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJtVLASoiQE
It's profound and hypnotic, and really helped to nudge me back on the path of Zen. I'm not sure I follow every leap of logic he makes, but there's something about the conclusion that really struck me: the idea that love, peace, and happiness are all the base state of awareness and that in order to achieve these we merely need to stop trying to escape who we are, where we are, when we are. In order to achieve love, we must stop seeking it and simply rest in the awareness that we are ourselves love.
I don't know if there are many games that feel like an emotional experience in and of themselves, but they're absolutely my favorite kinds of game. Flow, Journey, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, What Remains of Edith Finch?, and now The Witness are the kinds of game that really speak to me. Games that encourage you to observe and absorb, that transport you into a meditative, accepting space just through its very nature, that's what I'd love for video games to be.
Today, the plan is to keep writing, cleaning up the burrow, reach out to friends. This is the last weekend before I head back to work, so even if I can't exercise I'd like to make sure I'm doing the things that get me prepared and closer to my ideal habits.
