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Sep. 4th, 2007 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
egypturnashAs a side note, since some people seem to want to convince me that Bioshock is actually a really good game - an opinion you're welcome to have; it's clearly a finely-crafted instance of an experience I simply don't care to have - I would like to note that so far, the only FPS I've actually enjoyed as a game is Thief, which I've been playing on and off the past week via Rik's machine. I had fun with System Shock 2 a couple years back but by the end, I was sick and tired of the basic game mechanics and just wanted to find out what happened to SHODAN. I really don't like FPSs.
As I've gotten older, I've slowly learnt how to see people as, well, people. I'm not very good at it; I never was. As video-game technology marches on, the creatures the games pit you against have gotten more like people. When I play some games made in the last decade or so, I can feel them training me to see people as just things. I'm still working out what factors make this happen; it's only a handful of games that do this so far.
I really think that the increasing drive for 'realism' in video games means that the game industry has a big moral quandry coming up. The forty-year-long focus on the hurt button as the core mechanic becomes creepier as the things you hurt become more and more like people. What happens when the project lead on a game focused on killing and blood plays his game and feels that weird sense that it's gnawing away at something in his soul? What happens when this is a regular occurrence?
A few major choice-points over, there's another me who went into video games. Is she (or he; I might never have transitioned in that life-path) getting ever more uncomfortable with these themes, or has it been completely burnt out of her by this point?
As I've gotten older, I've slowly learnt how to see people as, well, people. I'm not very good at it; I never was. As video-game technology marches on, the creatures the games pit you against have gotten more like people. When I play some games made in the last decade or so, I can feel them training me to see people as just things. I'm still working out what factors make this happen; it's only a handful of games that do this so far.
I really think that the increasing drive for 'realism' in video games means that the game industry has a big moral quandry coming up. The forty-year-long focus on the hurt button as the core mechanic becomes creepier as the things you hurt become more and more like people. What happens when the project lead on a game focused on killing and blood plays his game and feels that weird sense that it's gnawing away at something in his soul? What happens when this is a regular occurrence?
A few major choice-points over, there's another me who went into video games. Is she (or he; I might never have transitioned in that life-path) getting ever more uncomfortable with these themes, or has it been completely burnt out of her by this point?
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Date: 2007-09-05 03:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 03:51 pm (UTC)I think an interesting choice would have been to change the flow of the game based on how you play. The traditional guns-blazing "shooter" approach sends you down the "Leadhead" path. Loading up with Plasmids and harvesting Adam sends you down the "Splicer" path. Protecting the Little Sisters sends you down the "Big Daddy" path. Sneaking around and avoiding trouble sends you down the "Thief" path.
I think it would be a lot more interesting if you could fix things instead of just wrecking them, making you a voice of sanity instead of a force of destruction. I like games where you can make allies, and I think that would have fixed a lot of the "me and my gun against the world" aspect of Bioshock. Imagine if you could find a way to cure Splicers, even if you have to kill a lot of them in self-defense at first. You could slowly work your way through the city of Rapture creating pockets of something resembling order. Imagine if you could find a way to make Big Daddies more "human" so they could help you as intelligent allies in your quest to restore order. While Rapture might never be truly "normal", at least you could leave it in a better state than you found on arrival.
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Date: 2007-09-05 05:46 pm (UTC)This principle needs to be applied on a much larger scale. If you're not busy today, found a religion immediately please. :)
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Date: 2007-09-05 06:08 pm (UTC)The complicated part is that fixing things and wrecking them often look a lot alike at first. The difference between a scalpel in the hands of a surgeon and the same scalpel in the hands of a killer is intent.
Imagine being a child undergoing major surgery for a life-threatening condition. You're going to a strange place with strange people, put on a table in a room full of scary machinery, forced into unconsciousness, then cut open. You might not survive the operation, the operation might not work, and you will suffer pain and incapacitation for some time even if it does work. However, the alternative is death, so you have to go through it anyway.
Going back to Bioshock, the "restoration" path should be the most difficult but most rewarding. It is easier to destroy than to create, but creation is ultimately more satisfying. (At least you have something to show for yourself.)