Storyboard for Non-place Documentary on Lost Ark

 Storyboard:
Non-place Documentary on Lost Ark

The revised scenario starts with my narration describing examples of ‘non-places’ and their characteristics, explaining the concept of non-place. Then I will compare it with ‘place,’ and how they differentiate from one another. Folklores as a traditional form of escapism will follow, and how game has occurred as the modern form of alternative reality. That is when a brief summary of Lost Ark will follow and is declared as the main topic of this documentary. This chapter will last about a minute.

 

I will then address certain footages from the game where I felt alone, alienated and unidentified, following the traits of the non-place. I will compare Lost Ark with taking a subway, which is the standard non-place. The NPCs address me as the hero and the savior of the world, but that was not a special word, rather a coded message for all the players who play the game, just like how I am merely one of the passengers in a station. Daily routines of the game, also called as ‘homework,’ makes the repetitive contents tiresome and boring, just like taking a train to commute to work every day. I interact with the signs, texts and directions suggested by the game and act accordingly, just like how I follow the signs in a station to get to work. Subway stations are just like the way they were 3 years ago, almost seeming like the time has stopped, like how I play the game in the same system and landscape I played 3 weeks ago.

 

However, the place aspects of the game will then be addressed. How the interaction with other players through text and ping system is nothing similar to one another, how heartfelt sayings and interpersonal dialogues occur. How Lost Ark has become the meeting place with a friend from high school that lives far away, just like we used to hang out back in the days at the internet café. My relationship with the character has also built a strong bond, like how my character getting stronger fulfills my mind, and me wanting to show it off, just like how one would show off his car or a house.

 

I will conclude by addressing how game used to be one of the examples of a non-place but is now shifting into a new form and how it holds two contradicting aspects of place and non-place at the same time.