305: The Story Sucks

[ReiverCorrupter]

Damn it would people stop referencing post-modern writes just to be intellectual.Next movie-bob is gonna be comparing super Mario to Finnegan's Wake.

Why can't we get rid of post modernism period? It's fucking useless. Sure, we all build our own narratives of life, so what? It's still absurd to think that there are multiple realities for each person's perspectives. We might not ever know the nature of absolute reality as it is in-itself, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. None of post modernism's ideas are novel, they're all just pessimistic bastardizations of older, better thinkers like Kant and Nietzsche. And the cultural nonsense that has arisen from the philosophy is largely a bunch of pessimistic douchebaggery.

Well, that's certainly a valid argument in the rationality of the discourse you are stating it.

The post modern school of thinking is often plain misunderstood or applied in reflective (rather than reflexive) contexts. It isn't a science that includes any constants, so it makes no sense trying logically constructive approaches. Everything is context; the science itself is in a context.

Unfortunately, the thinkers I have found most interesting are so caught up in their academic word mangling that it's nigh on impossible to form a clear understanding of what the "method" of discoursive theory really is. Which might well be the point ....

As a natural scientist, I find the division between reflexivity and reflectivity artificial, but I do aknowledge that no formal theory is every likely to describe human interaction sufficiently.

I for one would be very sad if there were no Burroughs, Ginsberg or Kerouac -- all products of the post modern era.

Also, you haven't come across the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, by any chance? That's the post-modernism in current physics. There really ARE many worlds, is posits. And the number of them are relative to the observer; the absolute number of them could only be known by an omniscient and omnipresent observer.

Meh. There are coherence theories of truth that argue the same thing. Postmodernism takes it a large step further by thinking that somehow individual human perspectives can each constitute their own reality or version of reality. Blech. If we met aliens that operated by a different system of logic or mathematics, sure, then something like postmodernism would have to apply, but no: human beings share enough of the same intellectual architecture to use the same language and debate things within the same logical constrictions. What is needed is to simply clarify and fully explain the syntactic and semantic structure of the debate so that everyone is on the same page.

If you want something helpful to read to describe the limits of scientific theory, read Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

 

[Pugilistas]

Similarly, good storytelling isn't measured by complexity or plausibility but emotional gratification

Wow, I couldn't disagree more. In my opinion, all of those are important (depending on genre).

Absolutely. Emotional gratification can be delivered with hardly a well written word or plausible character. The Twilight series delivers tons of 'emotional gratification' to its intended tweener audience, despite poor writing and awful characters. Lots of modern fiction does the same.

Also, always thought Vogler's stuff was sorta paint by numbers instructions.

 

[ReverseEngineered]

Thanks for the wonderful article! I agree that too many games have just taken to action without a cause; characters without a reason. They start off bland and end completely forgettable because there is nothing to be said; it's all an excuse for guns and explosions.

Many great action games have been made that include a great and memorable story, but so many others have been churned out with no attention to narrative. With the industry focusing so heavily on building franchises, you would think they would want to put in the effort to build that narrative, giving the franchise body and a reason to continue, but so many of them think they can build a franchise on a name alone.

Focusing on building real, interesting narratives would make games better for players and developers. It would give us a reason to keep coming back and give us something to learn and remember from our experience. That's the difference between entertainment and art: art changes the viewer, whereas entertainment merely keeps them busy.

 

[TheSchaef]

I can't say that I agree with the notion that the Bioshock protagonist demonstrates how a blank slate character removes a feeling of significance from his choices.

In fact, while the silent protagonist with no discernible personality is common in video games, particularly in first-person, e.g. Wolfenstein, I think Bioshock may be one of the LEAST applicable examples.

We relate to a silent Link through the common method of projection but also through his expressiveness during story scenes. But even that is comparatively one-dimensional. Link is the quintessential hero: he's courageous, he's kind and innocent to a fault, and he shows rather single-minded concern for and devotion to the various iterations of Zelda. But that's the sum total of his character, or better or worse.

Yes, you're a blank slate in Bioshock but I think a very creative solution to that problem is built directly into the story. The whole Andrew Ryan confrontation as a culmination of the revelation of your character shows that the blank slate IS the person you come from at the beginning. You have no memory, no history, no family. Even the choices you make - convinced that you are determining your fate - turn out to be the result of vicious manipulation, through psychology as well as brainwashing.

Though the third act feels like a letdown after this, it is the one part of the game most crucial to your character development. There is a clear line of demarcation between your earlier actions, which are considered to be controlled, and your endgame actions, made free of external influences. You have no idea who or what you are, and so all you have left are your choices. Your choices DEFINE who you are as a person, imprinting a savior or a bastard onto the blank slate.

The resurrection moment comes in the end after making the final decision of what to do with the sisters, at least in the "paragon" ending. Having chosen to save the sisters, you see a montage of them growing up alongside you, having normal lives, getting married, and eventually being there at your bedside at the end of your life. The lesson learned is that the significance of our lives is reflected in the lives we touch, and especially in our family, our progeny. The payoff is that the character has changed away from a blank slate, and unlike other, similar games, the decisions have an impact on your character specifically because he starts out as a blank slate and ends the game as Something Other.