Over the past few weeks I have been giving a great deal of thought to the storytelling aspect of games, more-so than usual. While I do constantly think about things — especially video games, nerdy topics and geeky stuff — something hit me. There have been more and more games that don’t have happy endings; that have left players with uneasy feelings or even left them feeling downright depressed.
I don’t think this is a bad thing. I was thoroughly impressed when BioWare announced that it would be possible to “lose” Mass Effect 3. Also the mixed feelings I got from Gears of War 3’s ending produced a need for me to better understand my feelings on the end result.
As video games advance more toward in depth, drawn out, photo-realistic experience simulators, players become more and more attached to the characters and situations they are thrust into. We have seen this time and time again when developers mess with beloved long standing video game intellectual properties. Perhaps it was for this same reason that longtime Mass Effect players demanded more from the game’s endings and that SpecOps: The Line’s message to the player held such an impact.
[Spoiler Alert: Splinter Cell Conviction]
For me, a similar experience presented itself with my play-through of Splinter Cell: Conviction. While the majority of the game is engaging it is not inherently fun — especially when you reach the writing. To see the emotion of a hardened Sam Fischer when he discovers his daughter is alive; to see the pain in a character that I have followed since the very beginning of the series — that is four game titles and quite literally years of investment later — It really does something to a long-term fan of the series,
[End Spoiler]
It all boils down to this. If we want to think of video games as interactive experiences with real-world environments we need to ensure that players aren’t growing accustomed to a fantasy world where everything is rainbows and sunshine all the time. In a universe that is facing great dangers that unfortunately means that you don’t always win.
In real life, you don’t always win.
Video games as interactive experiences have the ability to greatly impact our lives; their use to increase the cognitive capability of people to solve problems is quite profound. Simultaneously, the formation of increasingly realistic worlds in which the player always succeeds, I would argue, promotes arrogance and ignorance.
The power of interactive media is that the experience is in part shaped by the user. It is our job as consumers to not pressure developers to make the game we want but instead, take what they give us and make it into our own. It is for that reason that I believe games shouldn’t always be about winning or being the best.
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