Wow, one month since our last post? Amazing how time flies…

In our last article in the “Someone to Be” series, we discussed the importance of characters in the narrative setting.  It sounds obvious, but I really believe that characters always need to be the focus of a great narrative and that, while the plot may be gripping, it will not sell the audience unless they have convincing characters to connect with.

Most great fiction tells a factual truth with an imagined story.  In the film version of V for Vendetta (which is one of my favourite movies of all-time, though I acknowledge that it’s quite different from the graphic novel, which I have not read yet), V tells Evey that “artists use lies to tell the truth,” which is what gripping stories do, but that’s not enough.  This story needs to be told contextually through characters and environment.  It is through these characters that our great plots unravel: Through their feelings, experiences, obstacles and very importantly, through their connection to other characters.

In the previous installment, we experienced the plot through one character’s eyes, but now, it is time to further explore the connections between characters and the importance of the ensemble cast.

Ensemble Casts in Television

The series finale of Lost airing tomorrow, this seems like the best example to begin with.  While it could be argued that Jack, Kate or Sawyer are the central characters, it really is an ensemble cast in its truest sense.  By “ensemble cast,” I mean that all of the principle characters have (roughly) equal importance in the story and EVERY character in that show has had a back story episode while continuing to interact with others on the island.

With regards to Lost, the most engaging part of the story is watching the characters unravel the mystery of the island.  Again, it sounds obvious, but the plot is so convoluted, vague and confusing that we associate with the characters’ confoundedness because we have it ourselves as we are watching the show develop.  They are all so unsure of what is going on together that all of their relationships are strained and difficult that our voyeuristic tendencies (as the audience) completely gravitate to these struggling characters.  But, with the amazing writing going on in this show, the vagueness (and reciprocally, the overwhelming mystery) of the plot force us to focus on the characters; again, because of the absence of a really clear story to follow.

Now that the writers have the attention of the audience (to the characters), they can start developing them, which is exactly what they do.  Every episode (except the ones that are entirely backstory) has a second component where it focuses on another aspect of the character, usually a backstory, to explain the obstacles that the character needs to overcome and with such an enormous cast, there is usually one element to which someone in the audience can relate.

For example, Sawyer saw his parents killed and went on a lifelong mission to kill their murderer, masquerading as a con man throughout his journey.  Now, while that is an enticing story, the results of it leave Sawyer as a deeply troubled wanderer who has serious identity issues.  Furthermore, by jumping into other aliases, he avoids his own problems and everyone has avoided difficult problems, it something to which we can all relate.

Another character that manifests qualities that we can easy relate is Sayid, former interrogator in the Iraqi National Guard.  He tries to be helpful throughout the show, making many references to not being “the man he used to be.”  Later in the show, we learn that he was involved in the torture of many citizens and has all-encompassing feelings of remorse; again, this is somewhere we have all been, and we connect with those characters through our shared and mutual experience.

While this element is present in many (if not, all) shows with ensemble casts, I believe that Lost demonstrates it best.  Other popular shows that have had successful ensemble casts are M*A*S*H,  Battlestar Galactica (re-imagined), or Arrested Development… but what about video games?

Ensemble Casts in Video Games

The Cast of Final Fantasy VI

Most role-playing games have ensemble casts – some have a clear protagonist with a party of subordinate characters (like Breath of Fire 1, for example), but most RPGs have ensemble casts of developed characters.

Similarly with television, every member of the ensemble cast needs to have depth or else the entire cast suffers.  Literary convention calls the trope of having every member of the play have a purpose and backstory as “Chekhov’s Gunman,” named after the author, Anton Chekhov.  What “Chekhov’s Gunman” really means is that the author should not put a character into the story if they do not have a purpose or will move the plot forward.  Furthermore, to have a character effectively contribute to a story, they need to be contextually connected to the environment of the game – in other words, they need to exist in the universe of the game, not be plunked in at an opportune moment, and they way to involve the character in the timeline and atmosphere of the game is to give them a history.  In short, you need to give them someone to be.  Concurrently, when the game’s atmosphere gives them someone to be, they give the player the same gift.

Just like in a single-protagonist game, the player assumes the role of the character and they unify together, but what happens when there are multiple characters to control? Often, but not always, the more characters that are involved, the more emotional connections that can be made with the player.  I say “often, but not always” because there are games with single protagonist that do this exceptionally well – Aquaria comes to mind, where Naija (the protagonist) takes the player through a gauntlet of emotions.  But, to return the point, most characters in an ensemble cast have a backstory that will deliver a clear emotional package to the player – let’s use Final Fantasy VI as an example.

The game came out for the SNES in 1994, well before photo-realistic 3D graphics and full orchestras in gaming.  The game is 16-bit with a synthesized soundtrack, outlining the story of a rebel group seeking to overthrow a villainous empire and save the world.  Now, within that story, there 16 other stories going on: The stories within the characters.  Terra, the girl stricken with an identity crisis; Locke, the rambunctious treasure hunter who protects every woman he sees; Setzer, the zealous gambler or Sabin, the “wrestler escaped from the gym,” among others.  While these characters sound like traditional archetypes, they connect together and teach each other about the world.  As they teach other (and as the player controls them), we learn the stories that motivate them and the emotional connection that they forge with the player; taking those same characters, let’s analyze how the archetypes evolve into rounder characters:

When discovering her past and her “race” (being an Esper), Terra feels a lack of belonging and uncertainty of where she fits in within the social fabric of the game; upon reaching Kohlingen, we see that Locke’s protection of women is motivated by a mistake he made with an earlier love and tries to redeem himself with other women; while being a gambler by nature, Setzer had lost his motivation to good after the loss of his lover, Daryl (or “Darill”) and takes absurd risks to forget about her; and lastly, we discover that Sabin was actually heir to the throne of Figaro, but left because many citizens were interested more in politics than the death of his father, as well as his fear of the pressures of rule.

This is just a fraction of the stories, but the same applies to all: The backstories and connections within the characters, as well as between, engage the player to escape into their universe because their stories (though, fictional) resonate with the story of our own lives.  The same can be said about Lost, M*A*S*H* and other ensemble casts.

Engaging the Player

We understand the importance of strong characters to create a strong narrative, but how do we hook the player into diving down the rabbit hole and into the plot of the game? That will be the next article in the series: How the cast engages the player.

I hope that this article will not spawn comments of “TLDR” or “Too Long, Didn’t Read,” but thanks for making to the bottom of the page! Please leave comments and contribute to the conversation!

Until next time!
Kenley!

“People can’t just give up a story… you can’t just stop being in a story, you have to have another story to be in.”

- Alan Lomax, Ishmael

While I am not a game designer by trade, I have worked on many different types of games and am intensely interested in the ideas of narrative and storytelling within gaming.  Most of the developers that I have worked for have really wanted their players to become immersed in the atmosphere and continue living within the framework of the game, fostering a strong sense of connection and (to some degree) escapism.

I’m really interested in what enables that escapism and what allows some games to achieve that and others to fail in its pursuit.  One idea that I’d like to explore in this series of articles is my own belief that it is character and/or role that allow us to suspend our own life and become immersed in another.  In a more complicated explanation, we can also escape into a story with the interaction between great characters, such as RPGs or RTS-style games (or, to be fair, other styles too).

Any great story is made up of great characters – let’s explore this.

Part 1 of this series focuses on individual characters and how we engage in the game through their eyes, arguing that escapism is largely due to the contextual relationship between the player, the character and the environment.

Individual Characters in Film and Literature

Sometimes, it is a single, individual character that captures our attention and steals the stage from all others.  One book that deals greatly with this ideal (and quite well, I may add) is the “Fictional 100” by Lucy Pollard-Gott, Ph.D, which lists the 100 most influential, colourful, historical, well-known and/or those with the greatest impact on the history of literature.  There are heroes, villains, side-characters, lovers, fighters… you name it.  The official website for the book is http://www.fictional100.com/ and I recommend checking it out… (though, in fairness, I am also a huge sucker for Top-Anything lists, so take it with a grain of salt!)

Some such characters include the pensive, maniacal Hamlet, the clever Sherlock Holmes or the crafty Odysseus – the story hovers around characters.  We don’t even have to limit this to literature: We can explore Heath Ledger’s legendary portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, Howard Beale (acted by Peter Finch) in 1976’s Network or any of the James Bonds – and this is just film alone! What happens when we apply this concept to gaming…?

Individual Characters in Video Games

Not every video game has a central character: Tetris, Bejeweled, Sim City… but outside of some of casual games and puzzle games, almost every game EVER has some degree of centralized character.  IGN’s ” Top 100 Games of All-Time” (a pretty serious title) is one juggernaut of a list, and about 95%-of-games or over have central characters.

Outside of being vehicles of storytelling, central characters are also an excellent means of branding for the company: Mario, Sonic, Samus Aran, Pikachu, Kratos, Cloud, Rayman, Luke Skywalker, an enormous MechWarrior, Solid Snake, Bionic Commando, Little Mac, Manny Calavera, Tony Hawk, Leon Kennedy, Master Chief, Pac-Man, Simon Belmont, Alucard, Link… you see where I’m going with this

The above characters are a BRILLIANT form of marketing because playing the games enables us to assume the role of the character.  This sounds obvious, but it’s an absolutely crucial point: I loved Mario, but when I was a kid, I enjoyed playing Mario with my friends… like, in real-life, not on the console.  I was always Toad, that was my thing.

But isn’t that how the whole thing works? By playing the game, you become the character.  This is different than film or literature, where one is observing the unraveling of the story via its setting and characters, but one actively furthers the story through their actions.

This is where I think that the immersion and escapism piece comes in: While Tetris is addictive, it’s only addictive if you’re playing to compete; if you’re playing to further a story, you need someone to be.  This is where the Ishmael quote comes in: “People can’t just give up a story… you can’t just stop being in a story, you have to have another story to be in.”

Sometimes we play video games for recreation, just to kill time… but for most gamers, I would argue against that.  I think that for more people who play games in a more serious way (which is a growing number), their goal is seeing the completion of the story, existing in the space/atmosphere, being engaged in the relationships of the characters and, of course, having fun.  By assuming the role of the protagonist, the player immediately has a context within the game, a foot in the door to the game’s universe and, perhaps most importantly, a job to do.  When you assume the role of Master Chief, you have a rank, a placement in the game and you can interact with the other allies/enemies in a meaningful, contextual way.  For instance, when the characters are speaking to you, they aren’t speaking to you; rather, they’re speaking to Master Chief, but Master Chief happens to be you.

Someone to be... like Samus?

Now, imagine that you weren’t Master Chief, how would that affect your job in the game? How would that affect your immersion in the title?

You could play the role of “The Stranger,” as in games like Myst or Shivers, where you just happen to be present at the game’s beginning.  If we were taking the Halo example further, you could be a Private or low-ranking soldier that exists in the context of the game’s world.  That would be okay, but it’s because you’re still assuming a character, it’s just that the character is you.

Let’s take this one step further: Assume that you are 2010, Earth-bound human, living in your apartment on 32nd Avenue (or wherever it is that you live) in your blue jeans and Led Zeppelin T-shirt, how would that affect your immersion in the game? Hard to say – you wouldn’t exist contextually in the world, at least at the beginning, but it would be the Alice in Wonderland syndrome, where you are an outsider, but having no choice except to exist in the game’s environment.

The more that I think about this, the more that I really believe that if a game has a story, the player has no choice but to be involved as a character.  BUT, this does present one problem: What if there is more than one character?

That is a question for Part 2, which will deal with Ensemble Casts and the interrelationship between the player, the game and the multiple characters between them.

Feel free to dialogue about this on the post, I’m always excited to hear the thoughts of others!

Kenley