âI love the way the playerâs body moves in Bloodborne: You can fly in any direction like that, like a nervous little bird. If you want to be close, you are instantly close, and if you want to be away, you are instantly away. What a gift. Of course everything is violent and wants to touch you, but if you are perfect, you will not be touched. There is a little secret here which perhaps you can notice: When the ugly monsterâs limbs reach out to touch the small humanâs body, there is about a tenth of a secondâmaybe lessâ where her body is invincible. It doesnât even matter if sheâs geometrically in harmâs way or not. She is safe because she timed it right, was perfect. See, even in this very hard game, there is something wonderful and fair: The game doesnât care about the way bodies actually intersect. If your timing was correct, it agrees: âYou were not touched.â Many games hide that tiny moment of invincibility within quick movement, and it feels so kind just knowing, no mater how bad you are, that if you could fit every moment of pain in that one tenth of a second you could be invincible for the rest of your life. Sometimes I wish I had this power in real life. If I had it would mean never having to say ânoâ in so many words, nor the confrontation that sometimes comes with saying no. But that perfect, flawless dodge is not sustainableâyou have to be devastated so many times to get the timing so flawless. And hereâs my bad secret: when I killed this one monster, I didnât do it by dodging flawlessly, but by mashing some awful weapon in her side while her limbs were flailing and she could not hit me back. Unfair and problematic of me, I know. So often, gamesâ expressive qualities are limited to the violent motion of virtual bodies, yet they can be extremely articulate within that vocabulary. As much as I want to be an untouchable angel of forgiveness and grace with a bottomless well of compassion for all living things, I keep messing up that dodge and I think itâs making me a bitch.â
gummygunk
theartofmadeline
janainaart
titsay
jacobvanloon
kaledo-art
snowghoul
