Time-Lapse in LA Noire

Time-Lapse in LA Noire

I've been playing La Noire in my spare time lately and I wanted to write something about this game. The topic I will talk about will focus on a cloud of thoughts that emerged within my own gaming adventure, without making any claims. When I put down the controller due to distraction during the game, an interesting feeling/aura started to attract my attention. As soon as I let go of the controller, the characters reacted automatically due to the requirements of the game medium, which made me see that the entire magic of the game evolved in a different direction at such moments. When I stopped playing, the detective partner would warn the main character. So to whom was this warning addressed? Was this warning included in the narrative? Or was it for the player himself who left the game? This emotional state gave rise to the idea of a time-lapse within the narrative. The reaction of the game’s AI to the distraction I mentioned above pushed me to think about this. And I thought it would be possible to see this momentary gap arising from the conflict of the narrative with the form of the game as a time-lapse.

While we are in action, a momentary giving up of our current task has the function of breaking our identification within the game. The player's momentary hesitation sort of renders the game itself futile. In other words, momentarily abandoning of the experience based on a classical narrative, as in similar of noir films, turns this experience into a world of lies. So, is the game form the only responsible for the breakdown of identification here? Or does the aura and tone that noir film represents have an impact on what I'm talking about? Frankly, I may have had similar feelings in open world games. This needs to be examined in more detail. But I remember experiencing this especially while playing Red Dead Redemption 2 which is a genre game. This raises a new question. I wonder if the charismatic elements contained in genre films outweigh the technique? Does the weight represented by all the references and possible possibilities want to suppress our momentary hesitations with time-lapses? Are we talking here about a feeling that underlines the artificiality of the modern myths created?

Identification is the prophet of the narrative. The hesitation of identification calls into question the myth itself. Therefore, when we momentarily abandon identification, myth floods us with a feeling of disconnection. When we watch genre films with this awareness, culture opens new doors for us. Even questioning this may be reason enough for us to enjoy what genre films contains. Because there are already signs of a false world in the fragility of the narrative. It is natural for this to happen. I know that these words are not enough the explain this issue; but I just wanted to note my feelings upon the open-world game experiences.