Email: Angsty Games

Okay Malstrom, are you just trying to be controversial now?  :)

When games DO make their characters have *issues* and *backstory*, universally gamers get angry and annoyed. Much mocking commences. An example would be gamers mocking the heroes full of *angst* in the latter Final Fantasy games.

Now that is really a stretch by any definition.  It would be more accurate to say these sorts of characters are divisive to the fanbase.  For every person mocking FF7 for having angsty heroes there are 2 more talking about how awesome and badass they are.  Universally angry is not correct.  Furthermore the people who bash these sorts of games are the sort of elitist “counter-culture” gamers who attack anything that is popular.

No, I’m not trying to be controversial.

In novels and movies, the characters are the center of the drama. Sure, there might be armies and empires rising and falling depending on what you read or watch, but the writers make the character the eye of the drama. You sympathize with the character.

That way just doesn’t work with gaming. Can you think of a game where it is just about the character and his/her issues? The only one I can think of are MMORPGs and that is when the players are insane and going crazy and have *issues* themselves. From early PC gaming to today, I can’t think of any game where the issue was character development.

So when a developer puts in character development to imitate movies or novels, it sticks out of place. Think of Dom in Gears of War 2. Games where some people think are character driven are actually plot driven such as Final Fantasy 4 (nothing more than a series of plot twists after plot twists).

Hamlet is entirely character driven. So is Citizen Kane.

However, Alice in Wonderland is not, curiously. Alice in Wonderland is not really about Alice. Alice does much crying, but the book isn’t about her.

What I’ve found games have most in common are the pre-Socratic legends and ‘plays’ that were done before the invention of writing. Think of something like Beowulf. All the stories are fundamentally the same. The order of the world is messed up by the villian. The hero then arises and the tale/play is about all the things the hero does to vanquish the villian and restore order once again. Almost every game shares that same frame. From Donkey Kong to Chrono Trigger to the present.

The people who make games are programmers which means they know math. Interestingly, the creators of those ancient tales also were primarily mathematicians. They were obsessed with the calendar.

Alice in Wonderland was not made by a poet or grand writer. It was made by a mathematician.

Metroid: Other M is said to be all about Samus, to be about experiencing her more as a character. So I am raising the question of what other successful game is there that was based on the character’s issues? There are none. So either Other M is going to turn into more of a plot orientated game or we might see a big trainwreck. I just don’t see how a character orientated game can work.