I had a weird dream the other night, wherein I was playing a video game so good, that I burst into tears and began writing letters to people in my past whom I had once wronged; I was a changed being, a better being, with greater moral values, a whole new belief structure and felt happiness beyond that of a hyena on ecstasy.
As usual with dreams like this, I could not for the life of me remember what the hell I was playing, but it did get me wondering if there could ever be such a game that could move a very large majority of players in the same way. I'm not just talking about the industry altering moment where Aeris died, or the first time you hijacked a car in GTA 3, but a game that gets under your skin. A game that will not just make you shake like a giddy pug in the cold, or call your friends and scream unintelligible shit for 5 minutes (Yes, I have done these things), but will possibly take the wind from your sails and force a kind of self realisation that leaves you speechless and either particularly proud or profoundly humbled.
Gamers love statistics, and knowing how you have stacked up on your kills, purchases, money earned, travelling distances can give the player a good idea of how they have been playing the game. In some games, you can set attributes of your character before even playing the game allowing the player to get a head start on creating their own alter-ego straight away. But what of the mind? What of the moral construct of the player? What of the importance of socialising over lockpicking? What does the play-style of a gamer actually say about them? This is something that has roused curiousity as of late, as there have been times playing a game wherein the simple "good and bad" construct has not seemed quite as black and white as the developer may like.
"Unlikely", you say? "Fuck you", I say! Forever dreaming of a day where a video game will create pause of thought and allow judgement of the self to take place, I would love to see a developer challenge players on, potentially, their least comfortable subject. Their own character. While morality slides has been involved in games for a good several years, it is usually a case of "You are a BAD PERSON!" or "You are a GOOD PERSON!" or "You are ON THE FENCE!", which is all very good and well, but I want to be judged on more than a hot or cold scale! The separation of "real world" to "game world" immediately alleviates the sense of responsibility, guilt and culpability. A perfectly natural reaction and indeed one of the full draws for people towards a game that measures morality; making decisions without personal consequences. It becomes more of a trial; testing someone against themself, and in some cases actually pushing the moral boundaries with surprising results. I usually play the good guy in games of "Hot or Cold" moral scales, just because I find it more rewarding and actually in trial, it turns out to be more fun, for me. I see different paths towards being "good", whether it is helping someone out, helping everyone out, or realising that an NPC is not really someone to help, and thus hinder their progress in achieving.
Development cycles for games creating such a dynamic scale can be exhaustive, I'm sure; Telltale's The Walking Dead: The Game was an incredible effort of displaying trees of story branching constantly to give the player an impression of multiple outcomes, results and consequences. What is difficult, is getting the player to feel wholly responsible, but not opening up the world so broadly that the main story or cause is lost. The other challenges arrive in the form of genuine involvement of the player. It would mean giving the player enough of a motive to force them to think very carefully about their decision. If the final goal is something of value to them and they are not sure how exactly to achieve it, the choices put forward can actually promote forethought and moral construct. This is where I would love a game to go.
I look at all the tools available for this kind of psycho-analysis, and cannot struggle to see it being put into a game; not to say it would be an easy project; but in terms of an experiment it opens up both a philosophical and psychological side of video games that perhaps can have a strong part in the mainstream market of the industry. While it is always of the utmost important to ask "Is it fun?" during the development of a game, and some will argue that indeed it is not fun to find out that actually you're a sociopath, or a sex pest, or a secretly deranged serial-killer, games have been fun and educational more times than we know. Greek Mythology has been taught in God of War, multiple corners of history are taught in the Assassin's Creed series, and heaven only knows what we have all learned about what could happen if the zombie apocalypse was in fact possible. Game developers love to get the facts right, and should it ever come to understanding people's choices and outlining the construct of their decisions, they could have a whole load of fun.
Like I have said already, no one wants to know something truly bad about themself, but it does not have to be a case wherein the player has been told they have serious parental issues or have issues with long term relationships, but if they are indeed actually honest, if they are actually easily motivated, whether or not they are actually good at making big decisions under a lot of pressure. At least, this is something I would love to see in a game. They can challenge you on your reflexes, on your conscious thought and response process, but what of the subconscious; a part of the mind the player had yet to truly explore. Can it be done? Could it be done? Would players be willing to take on that kind of challenge? Possibly. It simply becomes a matter of context. Make the right game and it could become more popular than anyone predicted. In a sense, I look at the attribute system in Fallout; and while your final character has all the attributes built the way the player wants, it would interesting if the game took all of this and then outlined what kind of person you were as a result. Just an example.
If you have anything you wish to share with me or indeed the readers, feel freeto comment or e-mail me at twentyfiveand0@hotmail.co.uk - Don't forget to check out the What Have I Been Playing pages found on the right! OR Check out my channel at www.youtube.com/ike1luv
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