The Human Condition

I’ve come across a lot of research that states how games must evolve in order to grow into true entertainment media (read: art).  In writing my dissertation, I cam across a series of videos about game design.  This one speaks about storytelling in games. Note: All the videos in this series are informative, funny, and all are right on point with their messages.

I wrote last time that games are on the cusp of becoming art.  And I do realize that “art” is subjective to say the least.  Well in order to be considered art, a game must effectively address the human condition.  We need to care about the characters and what happens to them.  This applies not only the main character, or the person I play in the game, but also to the non-playable characters (NPCs).  A good example of this concept can be found (almost) in Mass Effect 2.

As many gamers know, in ME 2, you can either import your character from ME1 or you can create your own hero. Your character, Commander Shepard, can be male or female.  You can also select one of three back stories for your hero. As you play through the game, you choose if your character will align with paragon (good) or renegade (evil) actions.  There are benefits to leaning one way and not straddling the middle.  I find I have become quite attached to Karen Shepard thanks to multiple trips through the two games.

In addition, in ME2 you have to recruit a team for a suicide mission.  However each person you add to your team has issues and so you soon find that need to criss-cross the galaxy on “loyalty missions” so that each teammate will not be distracted when final mission starts.

These missions reveal a lot about each character, and depending on what choices you make, can also lead to that character’s death at the end of the game.  Of course one of the purposes of these missions is to get you to care about each character. For example, your first officer, Miranda Lawson, must rescue her younger sister from her estranged father’s agents.  During the mission, we learn a lot about Miranda’s motivation for kidnapping/rescuing her sister years ago and the relationship she has with her father.  However a single loyalty mission is not quite enough to make me really care about her death, if that should happen.

Rather what needs to happen, and what developer BioWare is usually good at, it getting different NPCs to interact with each other during the mission.  The world of Mass Effect is so large that players spend a great deal of time moving from place to place, sometimes in combat, sometimes in exploration. For each mission, you take two team mates along for companionship and to aid in combat.  There are brief periods where your team mates will speak on different subjects.  These however are great places to have extended conversations about things both great and small. The problem with this is that with the different combinations of teammates available, hundreds of lines of dialogue would have to be recorded for the multiple pairings if the writers wanted players to get to know these people better.  That is a difficult, though not impossible task.  BioWare has shown it is willing to go to extra lengths to inserts as many lines of dialogue as possible.  Game developers need to realize that it is in those stolen moments that real characterization emerges.  While ME 2 makes a good effort, more is needed.  Unlike movies, where the viewer can experience everything, the branching nature of the role-playing genre means that players will never encounter some places and scenes.  That’s okay.  There has to be enough there so that I feel like I can’t wait to get to the game to see what happens to Karen, Miranda, and the others.  Once developers can combine that human condition with high production, good voice talent, a superb script and memorable game play, then we researchers and critics will be in a better position to say, yes, this game is art.

The Great “Games Are Art” Debate

Film critic Roger Ebert recently set the video game world in its collective head with his “games can never be art” post.  I have read quite a few web pages and blogs blasting him and asking gamers what they think.  It amazes me that this debate has gone on for as long as it has.

Read the first two words of this blog post again: film critic. Ebert has no business making professional comments on games.  His problem is that he, and so many others, think that video games and film should be compared.  If it were the case that game developers wanted their products to be the new film, then Ebert would be the right person to comment.  However video game are not movies any more than movies are books.  Yes, some games strive for photorealism and immersion, but never forget that games are interactive media.  The game experience is different from the film experience. For far too long critics, researchers, and gamers alike have been applying the language of cinema to video games.  Let’s be clear: video games are not, nor should they ever be, movies.

As a gamer and a video game scholar, I would think my opinion counts as much, if not more, than Mr. Ebert.  So let me jump into the debate by stating that as of 2010, video games are not art.  However I believe that games are on the cusp of becoming art.  Ebert writes that games will not become art in our lifetimes.  Not true.  What games need to do is to tell good stories.  In order to do that, games need to make us care about the characters and what happens to them.  To date games are action driven.  And while that makes for a good time, playing a game is not as memorable as the greatest television shows or movies.

Simply put, we don’t care about the characters like we should.  When I become Marcus Fenix or the Master Chief, do I want to see what happens to them or is it simply that I want to play a great game with constant action?  Do I even remember the names of the characters from Modern Warfare?

Now there are some games that have come close.  The Mass Effect and Uncharted series have done a lot of the little things right that make me care about the characters.  But not enough.

Next time I will dive in Mass Effect 2 and write how developer BioWare can move the franchise from great gaming to art.