For this week’s Critical Play, I decided to explore Florence.
I believe Florence was the best game I’ve played for this class, and maybe even the best game I’ve played ever. I hesitate to compare it to other gaming categories we’ve explored because Florence is more like an interactive graphic novel. Many of the mechanics that you would associate with a game (objectives, oppositions, choice and chance) are not present. But Florence is unique in its disposition as a narrative first, and finds ways to bring along players into that narrative in an immersive and interactive way.
Florence demonstrated interactive storytelling at level of beauty I have not seen in gaming and have not experience in any other medium of storytelling. It was absolutely captivating. And keeping with the objective of this week’s critical play, I can’t help but wonder how much of this particular genre and flavor was brought about through a feminist storytelling lens. After reviewing this week’s accompanying reading, “Play Like a Feminist”, where Shira Chess’s argues for the importance of feminine representation in game design, I actually thought that Florence was designed primarily by women creators. It is hard to tell what representation for the creation of this game looked like as Mountain studio (the developers) did not disclose their team, but the director, Ken Wong, appears to be male. Regardless of the representation, it is clear that the creators of Mountain studio did something not commonly found in game design, that is, de-centering the narrative, graphic design styles, and character representations most appealing to a male gamer audiences. I cannot help but think that this contributes greatly to the unique richness of the experience that Florence provides, which only validates Shira Chess’s argument about the enormous potential that stepping outside of the patriarchal status quo can have to offer to the gaming world.
There are ways that Florence’s feminist disposition goes beyond the medium and genre used to create the experience. At the storytelling level, a player is first captivated by the journey of love that they join Florence along. This was revolutionary in the world of game design in its own right but the game does not stop there. Throughout, there’s an impactful story of dreams, self-rediscovery, and agency that does not stand in obvious opposition to the journey of love, but in subtle and appreciative ways, complements it.
As a feminist and woman, it is easy to feel complex emotions throughout. I was delighted to move through a story of Florence finding someone who added so much joy and color to her life, yet questioned the emphasis this placed on women needing men to do such. I even picked up subtle nods to gendered-power imbalances in their relationship, like needing to help Florence choose which of her many items would need to be put into storage in order to make space for Krish’s in the Moving In chapter. Also, I thought it was powerful the way the argument thought bubble exercise was played out; in an argument scene, while the player needed to help Florence slowly piece together the puzzle pieces of her sentences (indicating confusion), Krish’s sentences came quick and snappy, and we watched as Florence shrunk in the the back and forth if we could not help her keep up with the pace of Krish’s sentences. Still, the beauty of the relationship was richly expressed through sound and illustration, making the downfall of their relationship hard to watch and hard to participate in. Just like Florence, I didn’t want to take apart the fragments of his memory in her life.
While Florence’s relationship with Krish reignited her creativity and inspiration, it could not go unnoticed that her dreams were not fostered beyond that. Meanwhile, there were moments in the story where Florence’s role in encouraging Krish to go after his dreams as a Cellist were highlighted. I found myself wondering: what about Florence’s dreams?
In a classic feminist narrative, this may be the tension that leads to their demise and Florence’s self-discovery, but I appreciate that in this story, it’s not. Instead, Florence’s self-discovery, return to art, and ultimately building a thriving life and career out of her passion for art comes as she rediscovers this medium as a love in the midst of her heartbreak.
Florence does end in a classic feminist triumph of an independent woman that discovers herself in spite of the presence of a man in her life. But I love that we can’t ignore the overall positive role that her relationship with Krish played in getting her there. Even if the relationship was not meant to last. This complexity is what captivated me most with this game and, again, I believe its a layer of complexity only achieved through the specific ways Mountain Studios chose to de-center common gaming genre’s, narratives, and characters commonly found in the deeply patriarchal gaming industry. It’s what won me, and encourages me to dive deeper into this genre of gaming, therefore further validating Shira Chess’s passion for using feminist narrative to bring more women into the gaming world.
