Let me preface this by stating I am a huge fan of video games (VG). what did you think that this blog was all about politics please I'm not that crazy! Being the fan that I am I love to see innovation in the form and I personally believe that VGs could become an honest to goodness art form. There are however large and glaring problems that few, if any, developers have tried to rectify. One that I will address here is the lack of character development and death.
To begin with let's consider the characters. The vast majority of them are incredibly dull. Their main problem is that they have little depth. Where is the inner conflict? Where is the turmoil? Let's look at a classic fantasy story line. A rather unimportant farmboy, or commoner, is living his life. Suddenly his villaged is attacked by monster they had never seen before! What does our intrepid young hero do in almost every game. He charges right into the fray! Weapon flying around as if he had been working a sword for years, which he hasn't. No qualms, no fear, and often little shock at seeing nightmares come to life. How is this a natural reaction? Oh that's right...it isn't. Most farmboys seeing their nightmares killing before their eyes would be puking their guts out and trembling in fear, or running blindly for their lives. In the event that the boy does pick up a weapon the only way he will get out of there alive is by shear dumb luck or by some more experienced person saving him. If a development studio were to add this to the beginning of a game I think that a bit of character believablity would be added.
However there is more to a character then going from a farm boy to a warrior. No there is also the change in his character as certain events assault him. Say he finds out that the evil guy is hunting for him specifically. Out of all the other people the main antagonist is going after him. How should he react? Often there is no reaction just a throw away line and the character remains unchanged. The reaction should be is the charcter should at first be fearful and yet also perhaps a bit prideful. Of course I have been a bit...generic but most avid gamers can think to a game that they played, enjoyed, and had similar elements that I am describing. There is something that is unforgivable. That is when a formerly trusted comrade betrays them and there is no pain, no anger just a simple matter of fact said person dies. I'm looking at you COD: MW2. What there should be is a good cut scene going through and the characters arguing, debating, wondering, then coming to the conclusion to kill or capture their former comrade.
There is a third point to character development and that is the necessity for a large and dangerous character flaw! I have seen no video game that has done this well. Sure we have some jerkish anti-heroes but their flaw is more endearing and BA than it it is potentially fatal to him. Look at the popular video games of the day no character really has a large character flaw that they overcome through the process of the game.
At this point the detractor might say, "Ah but Scott the point of games is to be fun and enjoyable. To make you feel like the character." I respond with of course you are correct in that assessment but simply because we are to control the character in the action sequences does not mean that we should sacrifice the character when going through narration. Many FPS, action, and RPGs all have cut scenes few RPGs have the "morality choice" therefore to make the game more interesting the character should have a flaw to overcome. Something that is inherit within both himself but also humanity. The easiest is pride. All of humanity battles this vice and is the down fall of many. Why not have a VG character have the same flaw that he has to battle until he overcomes it at the end of the game or series. This would add a whole new element to the game.
To close I would like to say that I am not disparaging older games because they did not have this. They were a lot of fun to play and I still play. Neither am I saying that all games should have deep characters sometimes that is just not necessary. What I am saying is that there is a lack of character development for games that would lend themselves to such. What I am further saying is that this is a glaring problem for video games, on the whole, where such is possible. I think it's time for a revolution where character takes its place along side gameplay and graphics.
(Also as a bit of a teaser I will look later at other forms of art that had the same problems. That as well will come sometime after finals)
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