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2 years ago
Love Behind the Fourth Wall
This is a topic that has been on my mind recently, something I’ve wanted to take a look at. Feel free to give any and all feedback you want, I look forward to it.
The portrayal of love in videogames is something I find a little inadequate, allow me to explain. I’m a big girl, romance stories of any kind seem to hook me instantly. It’s just something about the medley of two people’s lives when they find themselves set on the stage of romance that I find interesting.
Now you can get your romance fix from loads of places these days; books, movies, songs and my personal choice - formulaic Anime and Manga (stop laughing). What of videogames? The very medium I hold most dear, that will forever remain my primary passion. I notice a distinct lack of love in my games.
Love is not to be confused with lust in this instance, plenty of games have that, two characters driven together through circumstance or coincidence and as a result, find attraction. This is not love, at least not in the sense of which I am speaking.
Love isn’t limited to the relationship and romantic escapades either, love for a singular character can be enough, and that is a love outside of gender, but are there really that many characters in games that can be deserving of that kind of attachment?
What I mean when I talk about love in games is twofold:
The unfolding story of two individuals who find each other in some manner and the progression and resolution of their story.
This is such a selling point in a story to me, this’ll hold me more than any world destroying whale…thing, or any sentient machine ship (and I’m a man who loves his sentient machine ships). Playing a game just to get to the next scene because all I want is to see what she says to him about this and that is something I really haven’t experienced yet, and I think that’s a shame.
I know a few people that would place Final Fantasy on this platform as their champion, I have to admit, if any game series was going to provide meaningful character relationship it’s that one. The chronicle that springs to mind is numbered VIII, the relationship between Squall and Rinoa. As a youngling I found this to be deeply moving, but as a youngling I found Dragonball Z to be deeply moving, so go figure. When looking at Final Fantasy VIII through more mature eyes I can see it for what I really was, a shallow, angst-ridden misadventure involving two truly detestable characters. But dammit if just thinking about it doesn’t make me want to start it all over again, then again I’m a romance Manga fan.
The players’ relationship with their character.
Is it possible to love a videogame character? I know it’s something that people can experience, have any of you ever felt something kindred to love to a character in any type of medium? The reason we cry at movies, the reason we don’t want to turn the last page in our favourite book, are these not types of love?
Think about it like this: the lack of intriguing romantic stories is directly related to the lack of intriguing characters. Now I’m not talking about Big Daddies here, because they’re a whole other kind of intriguing. I’m talking about emotionally interesting people, whose stories you want to see, whose adventures and reaction to those adventures keep you enthralled. While there are numerous examples of these kinds of individuals from books and film, their existence in videogames is sparse at best.
This type of discussion can be related to the famous gaming question “Did you cry when Aries died?” I didn’t, but then again, I’ve never cried at a game. No character death or departure, no joyous conclusion or twisted betrayal has ever left me emotionally committed enough to weep, yet the gates open for The Iron Giant, my cheeks are left sodden for The Green Mile. Why not the death of Gray Fox? Why not the supposedly torturous decision in Mass Effect?
So is the prospect of love for a videogame character a barren one? Many people will cite Alyx Vance in this case as a character with which people are emotionally joined. I personally disagree, although Half Life 2 does provide a character with which I can commune, not dearest Alyx, but her trusty d0g. This is a character I truly care about, and the prospect of its (his?) death leaves me fearful; it does seem like the kind of avenue that might be taken by Valve to give players a memorable finale to the current series. It is a path that, if taken, may well leave me locked in lamentation.
So there are the two foci of this little saunter, in only one can I find suitable representation. This should not be, where does the answer lie? Is there blame to be spread? I don’t believe so. It is my belief that videogames struggle in this narrative area for the same reason it struggles in all narrative areas, that people just don’t view videogames as an art form capable of offering this type of experience. The players’ refusal to believe that the medium is able to reach this juncture can and will nullify any emotional event before it has a chance to occur.
Is the uncanny valley to blame? That disdainful gorge to which all games are transported upon origination, a fluke of the human brain which causes each of us to refute anything other than 100% original home-grown human. Or is it just a pre-planted notion that games can’t deliver that kind of experience? That games just aren’t art?
This began as a set-piece but in the writing has become a journey; apologies if this has seemed far too rambled at points, that is just my way. The questions put forth here are personal; each one of you would have different answers, different experiences in gaming. I can see a lot of you disagreeing with me because of those experiences, and maybe you’re right to. Maybe I’ve missed all of these emotional encounters, like ships in the night. But to me, the singular moment of emotional resonance in this medium was of an old snake, crawling down a tunnel towards his fate.
- Jason Frost
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