Empathy for games characters

[Kakistos153]

Its come up a lot in recent years. The morality of gaming

I want to preface this by saying that i don't think that gaming needs any sort of moral guidance. Movies haven't for years. embraced themes that are utterly repulsive to anyone with any kind of good social conscience but do however make good stories. From paedophilia (Lolita 1997) to human experimentation, mutilation and poop eating (the human centipede 2009 did anyone know there were 3 of these fucking movies?) to incest (old boy 2003). These are themes that we really aren't expecting to pop up in games any time soon. And i don't see why not. Perhaps they wouldn't be interesting, but i think a good writer could certainly include many of these themes in a well made immersive story driven game. Apparently abortion cropped up in a final fantasy game on the snes way back when though.


But i have had intense experiences with games that have made me laugh, made me cry, games that have made me angry and games that have made me wrathful and right now I'm wondering; have you ever had an experience where you felt legitimately BAD for doing something that you either HAD to do for progression or simply chose to do because you had the option in a game. and which was it (optional/compulsory)?

This was optional. In MGS3, I was standing in front of a soldier I was holding up at the top of a set of stairs. I was shaking him down for his dog tags. When i eventually shot him dead he reached out to me, as i watched, the life left his eyes he fell backwards down those stairs. I felt bad for doing something for the first time ever while playing a game. In the past i had been pissed off by things that games made me do that i didn't want to do. Like in FFVII letting Aeris die. That kind of thing. But never had I experienced such a moment of literally feeling bad for doing something. It only lasted a moment but it was definitely a feeling of remorse.


This is an experience in entertainment that is almost exclusive to gaming. When you read a book or watch a movie, you may empathise with the characters that bad things are happening to. But in those cases it is completely out of your hands. You neither see yourself as any character in the movie, or the protagonist in the book, and even if you do, when the protagonist does something that's against your conscience, you quickly distance yourself from that act. In games this isn't so much a possibility. You don't have the option to distance yourself from the acts that you yourself are guiding. At the end of the day its down to you to actually pull the Proverbial trigger.


TL;DR
You ever feel bad for doing something in a game?
Was it optional or compulsory?

 

[Scrustle]

Killing the antagonist in The Darkness. There's no big boss fight or anything, once you get to the guy and shoot him once it goes in to a little cut scene. He falls on the floor and he starts begging to you. He's just another human, like you. He's not some big powerful monster, like most video game antagonists, he's just one little human. A human who has been made weak and pathetic. Stripped of what power he had (all the people around him) he lies on the ground before you, broken and grovelling. Completely at your mercy.

But he doesn't deserve empathy. He's a piece of shit. He used you as just a disposable pawn, and when he had enough of you he tried to get rid of you. When he found he couldn't kill you by destroying your body, he did so by destroying your spirit. He killed the one thing you loved, the one thing that meant something to you. The only thing that you felt was worth protecting. The only thing that kept you going, that kept you human. And he killed her right in front of your eyes. The scum bag deserved to die for that. He deserves to suffer, just like he made you. That's what this has all been for. Revenge. He pushed you over the edge and turned you in to what you are. He brought this on himself. There's no point in trying to be the "better man". There is no such thing at this point. Just give him what's coming to him. You know you want to. You went so far to get to this point. You can't stop now.

But that's what The Darkness wants. It sent you down this path. It fed this hatred, in doing so it fed itself. If it wasn't for The Darkness you would have been dead right at the start, and Jenny might still be alive. It stopped you from looking away when she was killed. It stopped you from killing yourself when you saw it. It wanted you to get revenge. The rage feeds its power, and you needed that power to have your revenge. But the power isn't truly yours. It belongs to The Darkness, and as it grows so does its power over you. When you end the life of this focus of your hatred you see before you then you won't be able to fight it any more. You will have gotten your revenge. Your desires will have been fulfilled and you will have no more drive. That last action will lose you any last ounce of humanity you have left. If you kill this man, your life ends as well. You cease to be. The Darkness envelopes you.

Is it worth it? Was any of it worth it? If you kill this pathetic grovelling creature you see before you, and succumb to The Darkness, will any of it matter any more? What's the point of getting revenge if you die too? It's too late to ask these questions now...

Damn I love that game.

Oh, and by the way, I think you're thinking of Earthbound with that abortion thing. Not Final Fantasy.

 

[dimensional]

This is an experience in entertainment that is almost exclusive to gaming. When you read a book or watch a movie, you may empathise with the characters that bad things are happening to. But in those cases it is completely out of your hands. You neither see yourself as any character in the movie, or the protagonist in the book, and even if you do, when the protagonist does something that's against your conscience, you quickly distance yourself from that act. In games this isn't so much a possibility. You don't have the option to distance yourself from the acts that you yourself are guiding. At the end of the day its down to you to actually pull the Proverbial trigger.

Well I tend to find it easier to empathise with characters from a book or film purely because I have no control over them they are their own creations and I can think of them as such with video game characters if I can make them do whatever I want they are more akin to toys than characters and I dont really empathise with toys. When they show signs of their own character thats when I like them more they dont do everything I say they actually have some character as well the trouble is this dosent tend to mesh well with gameplay so they can say they are peace loving and hate conflict but then they turn back into mindless puppets that I can use to butcher 100000 harmless bunnies with allowing me to easily distance myself from them again.

If I couldnt distance myself from the acts that I was guiding in games I would think I was a mass murdering psychopath whos going to save the world/universe/whatever. I cant think of a single case where I have empathised with a character I have total control over as they are just puppets to me dolls to be played with its when stuff happens to them that I couldnt prevent because I have no control over them and they react in ways that I am not telling them that I can empathize with them and come to see them as their own creation even if its only in small ways.

I get the same problem with create your own character in story driven games because they all act the same so its not really anybodys story the character you created is just a faceplate anybody would have done and so I find it hard to empathize with create a bot 2.10.

I guess what I am trying to say is I think books and movies do a much better job of creating characters you can empathise with games struggle because of their unique offering i.e gameplay I believe its their weakness in storytelling and character development rather than their strength at least at the moment maybe far in the future they will be able to turn this around.

 

[TehCookie]

The worst I felt in a game is choosing an option I wouldn't just to see what happens and reloading it to go on the route I want.

Also not discovering the true end in Persona 4. I didn't want to leave and I felt like there was something more I could do, but a game wouldn't let me stay longer I have to follow the rails. Then I read there was that option online, which if I didn't resign so early I could of found it.

 

[Lazy]

Killing the antagonist in The Darkness. There's no big boss fight or anything, once you get to the guy and shoot him once it goes in to a little cut scene. He falls on the floor and he starts begging to you. He's just another human, like you. He's not some big powerful monster, like most video game antagonists, he's just one little human. A human who has been made weak and pathetic. Stripped of what power he had (all the people around him) he lies on the ground before you, broken and grovelling. Completely at your mercy.

Well, mostly. You'll notice that while he's begging you not to kill him, he's also slowly crawling towards his gun. Hesitate too long and he'll grab it and shoot you.

But yeah, The Darkness definitely pulled this off. Lots of memorable scenes that made you empathize with the "hero" and hate the villains.

 

[Scrustle]

Killing the antagonist in The Darkness. There's no big boss fight or anything, once you get to the guy and shoot him once it goes in to a little cut scene. He falls on the floor and he starts begging to you. He's just another human, like you. He's not some big powerful monster, like most video game antagonists, he's just one little human. A human who has been made weak and pathetic. Stripped of what power he had (all the people around him) he lies on the ground before you, broken and grovelling. Completely at your mercy.

Well, mostly. You'll notice that while he's begging you not to kill him, he's also slowly crawling towards his gun. Hesitate too long and he'll grab it and shoot you.

But yeah, The Darkness definitely pulled this off. Lots of memorable scenes that made you empathize with the "hero" and hate the villains.

Yeah I noticed that, but allowing him to get to it kind of kills the moment, because he kills you with it. You're not supposed to let him. I guess it goes to show just how much of a piece of shit he is though. Even though he's on the floor pretending to make peace with you he's still trying to pull a dirty move and catch you off guard to save his own skin, because that's all he really cares about.