daaaav wrote...
It is hard to adequately engage the reader or player with characters who are motivated solely by grand issues such as saving / conquering the world. It sounds ridiculous I know, but all you need to do is examine the world wide apathy regarding climate change to see the truth of it. Whats more, Bioware appear to understand this since Mordin explains it quite well in Mass Effect 2 when he reveals that he fights for his favorite nephew, not to save the galaxy because the galaxy is too big and impersonal.
That's a very good point, and it becomes more apparent when you consider the indifference towards the grand issues within our own history. Forget empires with elves and orcs (see darkspawn), if we really wanted a rich fictive world to explore would we need to go any further than our own bloodsoaked and treachorous past?
Yet even historical fiction tends to drive its narratives with more familiar, human themes, with the grander issues usually just forming the stage on which the smaller, emotive issues are played out. It's these emotive themes that form the rollercoaster that leads to that release, the catharsis, that rams the story firmly into the human consciousness. The grander themes barely tend to register.
Here's a bit an example of how this has worked in history: Let's step back to 480 bc and the Mediterranean, where an epic tale unfolded. Around 400 battle-weary allied Greek triremes sailed into the Saronic Gulf to confront over 1000 imperial Persian warships. The Battle of Salamis is often referred to by historians as the most important battle in human history, for good reason. This is were the newly flowering concepts of western democracy and individual liberty came close to being snuffed out forever. It's one of the first times were an entire people forsook the materials essential to their survival: their homes, lands and their possessions, to fight for an abstract concept - freedom, and against overwhelming odds.
It's as epic as it gets, yet it barely registers. Name the antagonists, such as Themistocles (a guy who should have burned his way into our consciousness), and most people won't have an idea who he was. Before films like 300 most folks wouldn't have recognised the name of Xerxes.
Now, roll the clock forward a few centuries, and move a little across the med to another naval battle, the Battle of Actium. This is pretty much insignificant compared to Salamis - just another rebellious Roman client kingdom trying to assert its independance, and duly put down accordingly. It's a footnote, or it should be, yet just about everybody has heard the names of the antagonists here: Anthony and Cleopatra.
Theirs is a tale that has been burned into our popular history and retold so many times it's hard to tell fact from fiction anymore. Given what's been said already on the thread, it's pretty obvious were I'm going here: there are certain fictive themes that give tales a grandeur far beyond their actual scope, as far as a catharsis-hungry audience is concerned.
Modifié par shootist70, 21 février 2013 - 03:23 .
:innocent:
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