DIGITISER
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ

THE FEEL THING by Mr Biffo

14/4/2015

13 Comments

 
Picture
So, Ken Levine - lovely Ken Levine, creator of Bioshock - is apparently working on a game that is going to treat video game narrative and character in a whole new way. 

Speaking to GameInformer, here's what he had to honk: "The whole system that I came up with, and that we’re developing, is based upon the fact that to make an interesting character, you have to have a character who has a bunch of passions, wants, and needs. 

"The player now has the ability to facilitate those wants or needs or go against those wants or needs or ignore those wants or needs."

It's difficult to know how that's going to play out - as "Le Vine" describes it, such a system feels dangerously close to something like as emotionally disconnected as Heavy Rain or Fable. Plus, I'm hesitant, given that Bioshock Infinite was a collection of interesting concepts on paper, but - even when they tried to force Elizabeth down our throats (She's a really rounded character, honest!) - I still felt oddly detached from the gameworld. It was so abstract and unfamiliar that there was never any way to separate from it being a game. I didn't care.

But... I'm all for a game that tries to facilitate greater emotional engagement with our games. Ever since The Last of Us, I've realised how important emotional investment in a game's characters is to me. But - and this is what I hope Le Von bears in mind - characters, without storytelling, are nothing.

Picture
HOME ALONE
There's an ever greater move towards building character in games. The indie games scene is now where a lot of that is to be found - character-building often seems secondary when it comes to AAA titles (despite it being the reason why blockbuster movies such as Avengers, or the Pixar films, do so well). Spectacle without character is a hollow feast.

Yet titles such as, say, Gone Home - while revolving around the exploration of the life of a well-realised character - effectively casts the player in the role of a ghost. It's all very disembodied. Similarly, the Telltale Games adventures are well written, but those games are barely one step up from the interactive movies of old: even with branching narratives, it feels like they lack a road in for an individual's emotions. They're essentially a passive experience.

People talk a lot about the supposedly ground-breaking storytelling of Dragon Age: Inquisition, but for my money - much as there is plenty to like - the storytelling in that game is just horrible. 

There's tons of backstory, tons of information, but it's stuff that - were you dealing with a movie - would never make it to the screen. The characters don't feel real to me, the acting is terrible, the dialogue mostly clunky (with some exceptions), and the way the story is told, and the characters portrayed, it feels archaic. It's done in a way that is old-fashioned, and that gets in the way of that emotional connection I so wanted to feel with that world. When you're dealing with fantasy it's all the more important to nail down a way into the characters for the player.

Often when it comes to writing characters, even in, say, big BBC1 dramas, simple is the way to go. Yet I've worked on kids TV shows that have had 50-page documents full of richly researched backstory and character notes - Kenny-Boy's passions, wants and needs. And believe me... as a writer, you hardly ever refer back to it. 

However, I've also worked on some major productions where the character bios were just bare sketches. The unspoken reality of writing and character creation is that, often, starting from a base of an archetype, and a few one-word character traits, allows for greater depth, and greater viewer engagement. Depth and backstory is often used to cover up a lack of experience or confidence; you're doing too much work for your audience. 

GET RIGHT
So what is it that The Last of Us - and the Left Behind mini adventure - get so right? 

Most obviously, great writing and great performances, but the games' format (which Naughty Dog perfected over the course of several Uncharted games) uses the gameplay to facilitate great storytelling; the action is underpinned by the characters' emotional drivers. There's something at stake for the characters with every story beat.

How much more compelling is the lightsabre fight in The Empire Strikes Back - a boy seeking revenge on the man who killed his father and his mentor (only to find out that his enemy and father are one and the same) versus the sterile, no-emotional stakes, three-way fight in The Phantom Menace? "Oh no! Quinn-Gon Jinn has been stabbed!"... Who cares? The story, the characters, never earned that moment. Great movie action - and now, great video game action - is always underpinned by emotion.

And yet, The Last of Us games borrow from cinema while never forgetting that they're games. The Tomb Raider reboot did the same (though, arguably, it was more influenced by Uncharted than anything else), and you can see the last big signpost on this path way back in Half-Life 2. 

But those games also succeed in engaging the player through familiarity: The Last of Us begins in a familiar-looking, ordinary location that we can all relate to (a house - not a sci-fi house, or a Hobbit hole, or a space bird's nest), with a regular, blue collar guy who just wants to protect his daughter (and later, by extension, the girl he eventually comes to accept as a surrogate daughter). 

Picture
KICK THE CAT
There's a technique screenwriters use called the "Save The Cat" moment: at some point in the first few pages of almost any screenplay, the main character - however reprehensible they are - will do something heroic and human. It grants the audience permission to go on an emotional journey with them, and want to see them redeemed, or succeed.

You see it even in Grand Theft Auto V where, fairly early on, Franklin is shown to be someone who loves his dog, and Michael is trying to put his past behind him while raising kids who seemingly hate him. That said, the "story" of GTA V is a whole other article altogether (perhaps tellingly, the first thing I did when firing up the next gen version of Grand Theft Auto V was accidentally kick a cat to death...). 

Saving his daughter is Joel's Save The Cat moment in The Last of us, and we go with it. It might be formulaic, but - frankly - there isn't anything like that in Dragon Age: Inquisition, or Bioshock, or Bioshock Infinite. They're just too abstract and weird and unfamiliar, and that isn't what I want anymore from games that aim to tell a story.

The GameInformer article states that: "The characters Levine created for BioShock are not defined by one trait. They are complex people with varied motivations, exhibiting authentic diversity, even within the fantastical setting of an underwater metropolis."

That might be the case, but who were we meant to be rooting for, other than the disembodied avatar we, as players, were inhabiting? In both the Bioshock games there have been some interesting narrative techniques, some important themes, and some brilliant world-building, but if Levine wants us to care, then he needs to step up his game (literally) for whatever he's attempting next.

When it comes to how he realises a character, Latrine goes on to state, somewhat obviously, that: "The first thing you think about is, ‘Who is this character, and what does he want, and what’s in his way?’ That’s how you develop a character.  If you start from, ‘This is a black dude’ or ‘This is a Jewish dude,’ you’re kind of missing the point. I try not to look at characters as their skin color, race, sex, creed, or their gender. I think that’s an inauthentic way of thinking about character, because that’s not what defines people. What defines people is their experience.”

Which is true, of course, and pretty much the baby steps of Character Creation, but more importantly you have to think about how you make that character matter to the player. Character is shown through action, and in video games that's more important than anywhere.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
  • I WAS A BAFTA GAMES JUDGE by Mr Biffo
  • THE POWER OF NOWSTALGIA by Mr Biffo
  • BOTH SIDES OF THE FENCE by Mr Biffo


13 Comments
Nick the Gent link
14/4/2015 07:46:22 am

Great article Biffster. It's a balancing act - finding the sweet spot of characterization, story and plot, and of course actual gameplay. I like the point you made that the action is underpinned by the characters and their motivations. If it's character for the sake of it, then it's just an interactive movie and it leaves you cold. The best games put you in the character, with all the emotional impact that your actions entail.

The Last of Us set this bar really high with the father/surrogate daughter thing. And - thankfully - there is little melodrama, no "I won't lose you!" moment.

Reply
Mr Smith
14/4/2015 09:15:51 am

I can't take Levine seriously any more after he justified excruciatingly long crunch times for his staff by basically saying: "My awesome game isn't like other people's lame games. Get back to work troglodytes and fulfil my epic vision!" while possibly flying around and shooting lasers from his eyes.

Well, maybe not quite. But I got that impression in an interview:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/188266/Ken_Levines_justification_for_BioShock_Infinites_crunch.php

He just seemed... Kinda mean?

Reply
Bear_of_Justice
14/4/2015 09:21:35 am

Is it just me or does Latrine's "The whole system that I came up with..." make him sound a little arrogant? Couldn't he have taken a leaf out of Cyber-X's book and shown a little hubris, something like "The whole TOP system of awesome TOPNESS that I awesomely came up ON MY OWN WITH NO HELP FROM ANYONE will blow your mind like a big bag of drugs"?.

Reply
kelvingreen link
14/4/2015 11:32:36 am

This is an excellent article. Digi may be known for scathing funnies but you don't get pieces this thoughtful elsewhere. Nice work.

Reply
Mr Biffo
14/4/2015 01:06:53 pm

Cheers, y'all.

Reply
Keith
14/4/2015 01:09:55 pm

There was a small moment in The Last Of Us that for me felt like a giant leap in terms of linking character and story to game mechanics. It's such a small moment that it feels a bit silly to say I get goosebumps remembering it, but throughout the game there is a method in which Joel directs Ellie to climb up to higher platforms to then give Joel access to ladders or other ways of getting up. At a stage in the game where Ellie is kind of coming to terms with what is likely to play out in the near future, she seems distracted, and on just one occasion when Joel needs Ellie to help, she doesn't immediately respond, and then apologises and kind of sighs, and clearly seems not OK. Then she helps anyway. It's a tiny, beautifully done moment, and it's one that directly plays into the game's climax as the player plays through a last mission that I actually can remember feeling actual guilt as I played through it.

Reply
Mr Biffo
14/4/2015 01:15:39 pm

Oh yeah! I know when you mean. They made those characters so brilliantly human - the dialogue back and forth as they moved through the world... just sheer genius.

Reply
Virtual Hermit link
15/4/2015 09:38:03 am

I have the Last of us which came with my PS3 when I had to buy a new one. I just can't bring myself to play it, I feel like what I have seen of the stealth sections will infuriate me, also I'm sick of the uncharted games and thought it would be more of the same, coming from the same dev's n'all that. I might give it a go or watch someone's play-through of it instead, I need to know why this game gets so much praise.

Superbeast 37
15/4/2015 01:41:50 am

I don't get this placing of The Last of Us on a pedestal in terms of characters and story.

As Razorfist said, it is no better than a typical episode of The Walking Dead and that is far from the best written series on TV!

Sure, by the rock bottom standards of video games it might seem exceptional but we really should set our sights higher.

Reply
Mr Biffo
15/4/2015 01:26:09 pm

I think you and Razorfist are right - it is no better than, say, TWD. But as the first video game I've ever played where I actually CARED about the characters, that's a huge leap forward from everything else.

Reply
lilock3
15/4/2015 04:11:56 am

I'm beginning to think that I’m alone in feeling this way, but I really couldn’t care less about the story in games. I play games because I like solving puzzles and testing my skills and abilities. If I want a good story I’ll watch a film, except I don’t watch films because I’m generally not fussed about hearing a good story as a form of entertainment! (No offence to Mr Biffo and his real profession.)

Give me a single line to set the scene like “Repel the space invaders!”, “Clean up after your drunken party!”, “Rescue the princess!”, “Avenge your murdered girlfriend/father/unicorn!” and I’ll happily give up 50 hours of my time if the gameplay is good. Only Nintendo and indies seems to be able to satisfy my desire for this kind of "pure" gameplay these days.

I suppose at 33 I’m too old for all this convergent media, no distinction between games, films and TV, mumbo-jumbo…

Reply
Super Bad Advice
15/4/2015 04:21:39 am

I think one big problem games face with characterisation that films/books never do is that because you have control you can make even the most serious character in the most serious setting act like a complete dick or have to do something bizarre, which utterly ruins it. In some cases it can be accidental (though still mood ruining), but in some cases you have to do it. For example, in The Last Of Us, inbetween the harrowing story of two people forging a relationship in a terrifying, ruined world you also have the adventures of 'obsessive compulsive collection man', grabbing bits of rags and bolts off of shelves like a demented shopper regardless of danger. Then there's comedy weapon time, as he sellotapes a pair of scissors to a pipe like something out of Viz comic.

Heavy Rain was even more daft. You could just wander round that mall and make him spin about saying "Jason?" for ages until you hit the point to trigger the next event. Any atmosphere is immediately ruined by Ethan immediately seeming completely deranged, and no one around him reacting to this.

That'll really be the next step - the freedom to act like a loony but the game steering you down the story by having people start to react to you like they would in real life. The Order would be a lot more interesting* if you could get sent to a Victorian Asylum for spending 10 minutes stood in a street alternately squatting and standing up.

*OK, maybe not - it'd still be a clunky game. But you get the gist.

Reply
Mr Smith
17/4/2015 01:00:31 am

This... Sounds exceptionally excellent.

A game where there's an overall goal (think any game here), but overlaid on this is an extremely strict set of rigid rules - almost Demon's Souls in its intensity - where the player not only has to contend with standard tasks, but also not behaving in a way perceived as insane by the game populace.

It could be terrifying. You sit on a bench momentarily, to recharge HP, but are too afraid to swing the camera around too fast in case the bobbing of your head alerts authorities.

Players standing in a crowd, whispering to themselves: "Please don't think I'm insane, please don't think I'm insane..." Must conform to the Zeitgeist!

I envision it as being almost Kafkaesque in its nightmarishness. Where the mere act of always trying not to seem insane in-game, actually induces a kind of madness in the player.

Obviously the story would need to encompass some kind of totalitarian regime, maybe with a dash of Equilibrium thrown in, but it has potential.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    This section will not be visible in live published website. Below are your current settings:


    Current Number Of Columns are = 2

    Expand Posts Area =

    Gap/Space Between Posts = 12px

    Blog Post Style = card

    Use of custom card colors instead of default colors = 1

    Blog Post Card Background Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Shadow Color = current color

    Blog Post Card Border Color = current color

    Publish the website and visit your blog page to see the results

    Picture
    Support Me on Ko-fi
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    RSS Feed Widget
    Picture

    Picture
    Tweets by @mrbiffo
    Picture
    Follow us on The Facebook

    Picture

    Archives

    December 2022
    May 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014


    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • MAIN PAGE
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Game Reviews
  • FAQ