HorizontalIncoming LinksMarch 1st, 2021The Vertical is about Quest, Plot, and Narrative, while the Horizontal is about Things, Places, and Characters.I see two different aspects of this kind of game that make them so interesting as a lens to look at life. Maybe we can call them the Horizontal and the Vertical aspects. I see the Horizontal as Phenomenology and the Vertical as Teleology.The main feature of Open-World Games is that they open up the Horizontal aspect by making the Vertical aspect less predetermined. For the player, this is experienced in terms of Freedom.But as we see in 📙 Experiences of Depression, even this basic agentic freedom can be diminished. The depressed life is less “open” not because of external coercion, but through a malfunctioning in the Horizontal aspect.March 2nd, 2021This restlessness kind of feels like an intense inner conflict between the Aesthetic and the Ethical, or in the terms of 📝 Life as Adventure Game a conflict between the Horizontal and the Vertical, which then is like a tension between Phenomenology and Teleology.