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In ‘Walden’ Video Game, the Challenge Is Stillness In ‘Walden’ Video Game, the Challenge Is Stillness
(35 minutes later)
It’s certainly a long way from “Grand Theft Auto.”It’s certainly a long way from “Grand Theft Auto.”
Henry David Thoreau’s classic “Walden” is the inspiration for what Smithsonian Magazine is calling the world’s most improbable video game: “Walden, a Game.” Henry David Thoreau’s classic “Walden” is the inspiration for what Smithsonian Magazine is calling “the world’s most improbable video game”: “Walden, a Game.”
Instead of offering the thrills of stealing, violence and copious cussing, the new video game, based on Thoreau’s 19th-century retreat in Massachusetts, will urge players to collect arrowheads, cast their fishing pole into a soothing pond, buy penny candies and perhaps even jot notes in a journal — all while listening to the author’s meditations on nature. Instead of offering the thrills of stealing, violence and copious cussing, the new video game, based on Thoreau’s 19th-century retreat in Massachusetts, will urge players to collect arrowheads, cast their fishing pole into a tranquil pond, buy penny candies and perhaps even jot notes in a journal — all while listening to music, nature sounds and excerpts from the author’s meditations.
The game aims for “a kind of stillness at its core,” its lead developer, Tracy J. Fullerton, the founding director of the Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, told Smithsonian. While the game is all about simplicity, it has actually been in development for nearly a decade. The lead designer, Tracy J. Fullerton, the director of the Game Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, came up with the idea as a way to reinforce our connection to the natural world and to challenge our hurried culture.
The game is six hours long, starts in the summer and ends a year later — offering players tasks such as building a cabin, planting beans or chatting (virtually) with Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Games are kinds of rehearsals,” Ms. Fullerton said in an interview. “It might give you pause in your real life: Maybe instead of sitting on my cellphone, rapidly switching between screens, I should just go for a walk.”
The game — which Ms. Fullerton said is likely to cost $19.99 — takes six hours to play. It starts in the summer and ends a year later — offering players tasks like building a cabin, planting beans or chatting, virtually of course, with Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Should you not leave sufficient time for contemplation, or work too hard, the game cautions: “Your inspiration has become low, but can be regained by reading, attending to sounds of life in the distance, enjoying solitude and interacting with visitors, animal and human.”Should you not leave sufficient time for contemplation, or work too hard, the game cautions: “Your inspiration has become low, but can be regained by reading, attending to sounds of life in the distance, enjoying solitude and interacting with visitors, animal and human.”
Failure to heed the warning will see the vibrant colors dim and the musical backdrop fade. Failure to heed the warning will result in a dimming of color and thinning of music.
“It introduces Thoreau and ‘Walden’ to an entirely new audience,” said Kathi Anderson, the executive director of the Walden Woods Project in Massachusetts. “These are people who are interested in interactive games. Maybe they’re not the same as the people who would sit down and read Thoreau’s book.” “You can choose how to spend your time, what to emphasize, the ways the game can play out,” she said. “You might spend all your time in the woods, you might focus on bean farming, you could become a famous author — sending off articles to your editor, Horace Greeley — or you could become an activist, working on the Underground Railroad.”
Professor Fullerton consulted Ms. Anderson’s organization, along with the Huntington Library in Los Angeles, to create the game. At a time when the most popular video games include the active participation of the player — slay that knight and you can enter the castle — the Walden game seems passive by contrast. But Ms. Fullerton said it’s no simple stroll in the park. Players who fail to forage for food, for example, will start to faint in the game.
Some have criticized the project as unworthy of $450,000 in funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. But perhaps more important, would Thoreau approve? He was clear about dismissing new technologies, if this quote is any indication: The goal is not to win in any competitive sense, but to achieve work-life balance.
But he was also an inventor. And Ms. Anderson said the game — to be released this spring in time for Thoreau’s 200th birthday anniversary in July — “reinforces the connection that we have to the natural world.” “You’re not only trying to survive, you’re seeking inspiration in the woods,” Ms. Fullerton said, “If you spend all of your time grinding away on survival tasks, the environment will become less lush. The winning is based on whether you meet your own goals.”
“The user of the game experiences Thoreau going through Walden Woods,” she said. “The whole essence of the nature that he encounters.” The project has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, though some say video game research is unworthy of federal funds.
But guardians of Thoreau’s legacy say it could introduce ‘Walden’ to a whole new audience. “These are people who are interested in interactive games,” said Kathi Anderson, the executive director of the Walden Woods Project in Massachusetts. “Maybe they’re not the same as the people who would sit down and read Thoreau’s book.”
Ms. Fullerton — whose group also created the popular 2005 flying game “Cloud” — consulted Ms. Anderson’s organization, along with the Huntington Library in Los Angeles, to create the game. They went to considerable lengths to get the 1854 details right — the types of trees, the sounds of historically-accurate birds.
Would Thoreau approve? He was clear about dismissing new technologies, if this quote is any indication:
But Ms. Fullerton said the game — to be released this spring in time for Thoreau’s 200th birthday anniversary in July — re-examines the very questions “Walden” raises about the personal costs of progress.
“Thoreau was sitting in a moment when life was beginning to speed up and he identified that, asking ‘Are our lives better because we now live on railroad time?’” she said. “We have to ask ourselves the same question today: ‘Are our lives better because we live on internet time?’”
“Maybe we don’t all have the chance to go to the woods,” Ms. Fullerton added. “But perhaps we can go to this virtual woods and think about the pace of life when we come back to our own world. Maybe it will have an influence — to have considered the pace of Walden.”