{"id":6039,"date":"2019-12-04T16:30:09","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T14:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/playlab.uta.fi\/?p=6039"},"modified":"2019-12-04T16:30:09","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T14:30:09","slug":"black-mirror-bandersnatch-is-it-the-game-or-the-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/black-mirror-bandersnatch-is-it-the-game-or-the-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Mirror: Bandersnatch – Is it the game or the movie?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The border between games and movies is blurry, and Bandersnatch is a perfect example of that. <\/span>Black Mirror: Bandersnatch<\/span><\/i> published by Netflix. The game is part of the Black Mirror series. People say Bandersnatch is a movie because there are real actors and it\u2019s on Netflix.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to say what is a movie and what is a game nowadays. These two are getting closer and closer to each other all the time. Interactivity combines games and movies as both strive towards. When the player or the viewer can take part in the game, they will be more immersed in it and more likely to finish it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Black Mirror series focuses on displaying dystopias, for example, of the dominance of technology. Bandersnatch emphasizes that your own choices can change the outcome. It may be a protest against the present state of the world, and on the fact that we should do something differently. Many traditional games have similar features.<\/span><\/p>\n

The game is interactive and player\u2019s decisions affect the game\u2019s ending. The <\/span>Player makes decisions for the main character, who is a young programmer named Stefan Butle<\/span>r (Fionn Whitehead)<\/span>. He wants to make his own choose-your-own-adventure video game within the story.<\/span> Bandersnatch<\/span><\/i> is set in the year 1984. Butler’s own reality begins to be disturbed when the game progresses and he gets deeper and deeper into his own game. His awareness of the player’s presence changes and the fourth wall crumbles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mohan Thaku<\/span>r (Asim Chaudhry) <\/span>and Colin Ritman<\/span> (Will Poulter) <\/span>are both working at a video game company that wants to publish Butler\u2019s game. They are trying to help Butler in finishing his game. Butler\u2019s father, Peter (Craig Parkinson), <\/span>wants Butler to see a therapist and to talk to Dr. Haynes (Alice Lowe) about his mother’s death and Butler\u2019s current behavior while developing his own game.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gametime is only 90 minutes<\/span> for the default path<\/span>, but the replay value is high. In the game, you decide many things that can feel useless. For example, <\/span>which breakfast cereal you want to eat or what kind of music you want to listen to. Any choice you make can have a significant effect on the game\u2019s ending. The game has five main endings and a couple of hidden ones. The game may also end at any point when Butler\u2019s game is released as a flop.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bandersnatch has many of the same features as Quantic Dream\u2019s games. For example, in <\/span>Detroit: Become Human <\/span><\/i>the player can make decisions that affect the game endings too. As well Bandersnatch has many different endings. <\/span>Detroit: Become Human<\/span><\/i> uses real actors as models for the characters. This makes the game very cinematic.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, is <\/span>Bandersnatch <\/span><\/i>a game or not? I\u2019d say that it is. Games are becoming more and more realistic and movies are becoming more interactive all the time. G<\/span>ame companies have begun to use real actors to make games more realistic. I think it\u2019s only a matter of time when fully acted games become the new norm. The biggest thing that makes Bandersnatch a game is multiple endings. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m also thinking about this text: can it be a game review or is it movie review?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Director: <\/b>David Slade<\/span><\/p>\n

Producer<\/b>: Russel McLean<\/span><\/p>\n

Writer<\/b>: Charlie Brooker<\/span><\/p>\n

Players<\/b>: 1<\/span><\/p>\n

Playing time<\/b>: 90 min<\/span><\/p>\n

Release Day<\/b>: 28 December 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

Genre<\/b>: Interactive movie<\/span><\/p>\n

Age<\/b>: 16+<\/span><\/p>\n

Picture screenshot by the author.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The boundary between the game and the movie is blurred. Is Black Mirror: Bandersnatch really a movie?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":7320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[1064,556,1035,1068,863,1067],"class_list":["post-6039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-analysis","tag-english","tag-freeform","tag-interactive","tag-movie","tag-netflix","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tuni.fi\/playlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}