Repost: Horizon Forbidden West Part 2
My Game of the Year post is coming next week after I wrap up my 9-5 job for the holiday season. As such, I want to make sure readers are aware of my work with Horizon Forbidden West which I did last year from my Patreon before I had a website. I will add some H2’s but I don’t have any screenshots from Horizon. Horizon is a 4-part repost, so I will be doing those every other day. Then my Game of the Year post will be after this 4 part series.
New Information and the Trauma of Learning
I want to spend some time talking about what happens to people as they gain access to new information about the state of the world from a different perspective which causes a change in belief. In the world of Horizon, Aloy gets access to a device called a Focus which allows her to see weaknesses in machines and learn how the ancients (people 1000 years in her past) utilized machines. As such, she has a lot of knowledge that most of her contemporaries do not have and it places her in a lonely situation, where she does not have a tribe of her own and also struggles with letting people into the world she sees. Learning earth-shattering knowledge is deeply challenging. The most common incidence I have seen of this is when people break away from religious fundamentalism and have to grapple with the process of unlearning and relearning. Having gone through this process myself, the hardest things are the mental anguish from having to build a completely new symbol set for your own grounding and losing people who don't want to deal with what you are seeing. Relearning often means tearing through facades so it does threaten people who are grounded in limited world-views.
Horizon Forbidden West explores this cycle through its characters really well in a way that is accessible for many but I think has special meaning for people who have dealt with existential dread and trying to rebuild a community. In Horizon, Aloy is the stubborn one who wants to keep everyone at a distance. Aloy goes to explore and gather resources while the rest of her team is at their base reading and relearning together. Aloy does a great job of setting up others to safely take in new knowledge and have space for retreat and emotional experiences because of their new knowledge. This is the atmosphere I have always tried to establish in any small group or friend space I have created. I also have always sought friendship as a deeply independent yet deeply immersive experience of which I am still perfecting. Horizon: Forbidden West does a great job of looking at the confusion, the unknowing, the loneliness, and presenting a better alternative, even if the main character struggles with being embraced by the community she has built.
Avoiding the Trauma of Learning and Authoritarianism
We are in a challenging space right now around the world. Authoritarian narratives are growing, good information is getting harder to find, and developing critical thinking skills is a deeply unpopular stance. This is on top of all of the issue-based regression we have encountered as Americans in the summer. Horizon: Forbidden West gives a great example of how a community of people from different tribes can come together, even with differences of opinion once they are shown different sets of facts. However, it's hard to be the lone person in your environment who reaches out to learn, to try new ways of thinking, and resolve to act differently in the world.
Phenomena Gaming will be a community who brings people together to engage the brokenness of the world, each from our own place to see new insights and seek a better future. We will be leaders and growers. We will embrace each other when the dread is just too much and celebrate when we reach new steps of insight and grace. Come join us on this continuing journey.
