Face of Evil wrote...
TheMadCat wrote...
There is no natural connection between us as living beings and character in a fantasy world.
Sure. That's why we roleplay.
Roleplayings an interesting term here, it's the ability for us to become whatever we want to become within our imaginations, literally presenting unlimited possibilities. The problem is with Origins, all BioWare games, all video games, tabletops, fanfiction, group writings, even something like cops and robbers, everything can only be roleplayed within a limited context and in the case of Origins it's a very rigid, very narrow context.
The reality is we're not roleplaying in a BioWare game, we're playing the protagonist in a movie or the main character in a book, with us simply picking the lines and the order of the scenes. We can only go as far as the writers and level designers are willing to grant us. That's why I said we have to rely so heavily on the writers and the world in a game like Origins in order to bring the world to life and build a bridge of compassion with the people and the cities they live in, you can't contradict everything you see happening all around you by "roleplaying".
TheMadCat wrote...
If you watch a movie, a bomb goes off and kills dozens of people including a main character, do you feel as much for the extras you never saw in the movie before as you to the main character and the people close to them? No.
Sure. Humans often base empathy on proximity, not scale. "A single death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic," as good ol' Joey Stalin once said.
But acting in a heroic manner means transcending that dissonance and actually giving two s***ts about people you've never met.
Ironically Stalin made that comment in an attempt to lessen the realities that his mass genocide of millions was indeed one of histories greatest tragedies, but I digress here and onto the second part.
To an extent you're correct, the problem is there has to be a motivation for one to be a hero otherwise you wind up with a incredibly lame and unattachable plot and character. Luckily that's not an issue with Origins as that narrow amount of roleplaying I spoke about does a decent job here, allowing you to a certain degree define what drives you as a hero.
Of course neither of these first two comments have jack to do with my original point. I'm not going off about absolutely needing a reason to save every individuals life in that regard everything is fine as is. I'm going off about needing to create an emotional connection between us the player and the characters within the story in order to truly bring out the dark and difficult choices these scenes are supposedly trying to portray. It's a much darker, more tense scene watching Leliana or Alistair get butchered and devoured by Darkspawn then Random City Guard #21.
Maybe you'll get back to my original point later on though.
TheMadCat wrote...
And you don't need to care about every character obviously, that would be incredibly unreaslistic. But when the story is trying to make an emotional plea for a specific character or event you have to give the reader something to care about.
The preservation of life is not enough motivation to act? You should have to "care" about every life you're called to save or you shouldn't be required to do so? That's a prime example of protagonist-centred morality, something the game already has a problem with.
Getting better.
But again you're seperating the distictations between giving reason to save a character (Which I'm not actually claiming we need) and building that character or event in order to magnify the effect the scene will have on you. Take Ostagar and Lothering for example, by every right these should have been the two darkest, most tragic events within the game. In one scene the king, Duncan, the gray wardens and the bulk of the army of Fereldan is betrayed and slaughtered and in the other an entire village is crushed beneath the tsuanmi of evil that is the Darkspawn. And yet the impact actually felt from the events is minimal despite the game trying to pound into your mind that these are indeed dark and tragic events with what the Darkspawn do.
The question is why does the impact feel so minimal in contrast to what we should actually feel. Is it because we don't witness them first hand? I don't necessairly think so. A direct visual account can certainly intensify a scene, but in reality there has to be a connection to bring an event from "tragic" to actually being tragic in the players eyes. Everything in Ostagar and Lothering feels so lifeless and atrifical, you don't really develop any real bonds with people aside from those you take with you, all interactions feel so forced. It's just hard to feel for an army you never actually get to meet or a bunch of villagers and refugees who seem more interested in standing around repeating phrases and completely ignoring your exsistence rather then getting the
out of town. Ironically the scene with Jory and Daveth at the joining was one of the darkest, most tragic and stirring moments in the entire game because you actually had a chance to connect with their character, you grasped their personalities, their fears and joys and learn they actually had lives before you met them, you got to watch their characters grow and develop even in that short amount of time you spent with them. And suddenly they died, killed for a cause they didn't necessairly agree with nor had any desire to be apart of. That's how you create a dark story, that's how you set the mood for a scene, and unfortunatly it was all lost to the writers and world designers and animators past that scene.
This is the distincation I'm trying to get you to see, not that I feel we need to be given entire backstories and character development in order to save their lives, but rather develop them and create a bond with the player to intensify these moments of tragedy and difficult decisions. That is how you create a Dark Fantasy.
Modifié par TheMadCat, 14 octobre 2010 - 08:22 .
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