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Showing posts from October, 2015

The Knight Stereotype

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Growing up, fairytales are filled with the stereotype of a "knight in shining armor".  It's one of those many things you accept as a child and never question.  It is only when I was playing HerInteractive's Nancy Drew games #24 The Captive Curse.  A traveling storyteller, Renata, says to Nancy that people should not want a "knight in shining armor" because he never helped anyone otherwise his armor would be dirty and dented.  It seems such an obvious thing once someone says it and I wonder why that phrase has survived for so long. A knight comes to mind, one who is, by far, not in shining armor and that is Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote.  Don Quixote is a man who created stories and lived them.  He is famous for charging a giant with his lance extended when, in fact, the giant was only a windmill.  I love the portrayal of Don Quixote by Scott Bakula in the television series "Quantum Leap"(Season 2).  In it, Bakula sings as Don Quixote the son

Nancy Drew's Game World: Beyond the Boundaries

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For those of you who have played Nancy Drew games by Herinteractive , you will know that sometimes you can't explore everything.  You approach the staircase and you think you can ascend the stairs and see Nancy's room or temporary quarters, but then a window pops up to ask you whether you want to make it 'day' or 'night', or the scene simply fades to the next day.  Herinteractive's Amateur Sleuth blogger Little Jackalope wrote an article on how players' access is sometimes denied , but now, she has created two videos that break the boundaries to which the games have confined players.   The first one is centered around the 11th Nancy Drew mystery The Curse of Blackmoor Manor and the 27th game The Deadly Device.  I've played the 11th game and one difference between the game and the video is when the man, Nigel exits the room, we don't see him leave with the doors opening and closing; we only hear him and the door in the game.  Seeing the doors op