Who Do You Play?
Warning: Minor, vague spoilers for Fallout: New Vegas and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Despite conventional wisdom, role playing is at the very core of all video games. Unlike all other media, where the audience passively watches as characters live their lives, make decisions, and complete narrative arcs, video games require the player to act. In that action, all gamers are forced to assume the role of something outside themselves. From Pong to Doom to Skyrim, the player must learn to be someone, something else for a brief period of time. Those of us who know the power of that consciousness transference have learned to take full advantage of it by a process called “role play” in an effort to maximize immersion.
The common use of the word immersion is as a gauge of how much importance a developer places on maintaining continuity and establishing lore, setting and character. While this is certainly an important factor in a game’s critical acclaim and lasting prestige, it’s moot if the player doesn’t meet the developer half way. Role playing is the key, taking a game like Fallout: New Vegas from middling shooter with a ton of talking to an unrepeatable, unforgettable, entirely personal and solipsistic experience.
Like any acquired skill, there are tiers of role playing proficiency. At the bottom, there are those foolish enough to play New Vegas as a mindless shooter, blowing away everything that moves for the sheer visceral pleasure of watching heads explode. These mindless brutes are so disengaged from the experience that they can’t be bothered to care about plot or faction status. As you would expect, when asked what they thought of the game, the common response is something like, “It’s a shitty shooter. I didn’t really get the point. Call of Duty is more fun.”
At the next (and probably most common) tier we have the follower. This is the equivalent of watching a movie; the player will participate in dialogue and follow the story, but they always choose the responses that they think the developers want them to choose, usually the “good” responses. These players aren’t actively choosing a role, they are just filling the role they think they should, acting as little more than the mechanical hand of fate pushing a hero along a pre-determined track. Even if this type of player plays through a game twice, it will usually be at the extremes, always picking the “saintly” or “evil incarnate” choices. While this is a more enjoyable method of role play than none at all, it still lacks the element that video games champion: player input.
The final tier of immersion mastery is player-generated story. Fallout: New Vegas begins with your character tied up, about to be shot in the head. Yes, the game eventually provides a backstory of why you, a simple courier, ended up in that unfortunate circumstance, but only to a point, only as much as the narrative needs. It doesn’t explain why you are a courier in the first place, where and how you grew up, why you are, even at the beginning of the game, a decent shot with energy weapons in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, or even how you feel about your current predicament. All of that can, and I argue should, come from the player.
When you create this narrative in your head, everything that happens in the game takes on a whole new meaning. When asked to make simple moral choices, it’s no longer “I’m a good/evil guy so I will choose A/B.” Now, it’s all about context; if you learned about energy weapons because you’ve decided that you’re a former Brotherhood of Steel Knight that left the order because you grew tired of their dogmatic principles, each encounter with new factions or characters becomes its own little vignette. You no longer ask yourself, “What’s the ‘best’ dialogue choice here?” Instead, you ask, “What would my character really say here?” and as long as you stay true to the principles that you’ve bestowed on him/her, the choice will always be both obvious, and refreshing. Suddenly, you’re talking to others like a real person, with a real, setting-specific point of view and getting reciprocal responses that make sense. It allows for your otherwise good-natured former Brotherhood Knight to violently explode (either verbally or physically) at a random NCR soldier because, ignorant of who you used to be, he bragged about killing your friends at the battle of Helios One. That kind of event would never happen to someone who followed the generic “good guy” script, and thus, he will forever miss out on those unique memories that anchor certain video games into our memories.
When given the tools, a dedicated role player can stitch together a deeper character than anything movies or TV ever could. And the best part is that it’s all yours; no one will ever play the exact same character and make the same choices you did, even if they started from the same imagined background. When you think back on your time playing, you don’t remember it as a game with fun shooting mechanics or outlandish set pieces. You remember it as that other life you briefly lived.
Of course, as I stated earlier, some games and developers make all of this role play easier by providing a plethora of decision points and dialogue (it’s the reason I’ve relied so heavily on Fallout: New Vegas as illustration). But, to varying degrees, you can apply this level of role play to almost any game out there as long as you care more about immersion than power gaming. Rico, from Just Cause 2, is tasked with blowing up everything owned by the evil government regime of Panau in order to generate “chaos points.” But if you were actually Rico, a one man army invading this small island nation, presumably in an effort to help the citizens free themselves from tyranny, does it make sense to destroy every last civilian gas station on the island? Yes, you get points for doing so, but what would the context-specific consequence of that be? This strange white guy from America arrives and destroys the infrastructure that you, a destitute local factory worker, depend on to get to your job and feed your family. By ignoring role play and mindlessly racking up chaos points, Rico has suddenly turned from liberator to terrorist in an already oppressed and starving nation.
Obviously very few (probably no) players ever stop to think about it that way. Indeed, in a game as silly as Just Cause 2, it probably isn’t worth the effort to role play. But the point is, it’s possible even in the most unlikely of games, and that can have a profound impact on how one approaches all games. Why exactly are you using non-lethal means to take down every enemy in Deus Ex: Human Revolution? Yes, you get a worthless Steam achievement for doing so, but is that really the best reason? Isn’t it far more interesting to imagine that Adam Jensen, witnessing the brutal murder of his ex girlfriend, solemnly decides that despite sharing the same augmented limbs of his enemies, he will never become a robotic homicidal monsters like they have? And then, at the end, when he learns who is really behind it all and the frivolous rationale for why so many people were made to suffer, does Adam snap? Does he kill this depraved mass-murdering architect? And if he does, if Adam destroys this pathetic, physically feeble, utterly defenseless man in the name of justice, of vengeance, or in a simple rage, what does that, then, make him?
These questions, and the circumstances that lead up to them, can only be experienced by someone truly inhabiting their video game roles. It’s such an extreme difference in experiences, that I would argue that those not role playing, at least to some degree, aren’t even really playing their games, they’re just mindlessly ambling through them.
You often hear gamers ask each other, “What do you play (what genre of games, which consoles)?” or “How do you play (what skills do you pick upon level up, are you thorough or do you rush)?” Those questions, and their answers, bore me. Instead, I want to know: who do you play?
Great article. (nm)
Thanks!
Most game only let you follow the all good or all bad role/ all this or all that/ 0 or 1
Personally I’m more a jack off all trade characters wich makes it harder for me to actually move allong than a straigth typical class.
Same for roleplay once you start playing a grey character you’re usually punished for it.
Agree completely. That’s why I like games like New Vegas, especially with the faction system. Sure you might be a goody-goody overall, but your character can still have a vendetta against the NCR if it fits the roleplay.
I rather enjoyed your article, and agree with it on many points. I very much enjoy role-playing, and this is probably the reason that Bethesda games are my absolute favorite. I can do whatever I wish and be who I want, be they good, evil, or somewhere in between. Mods help immensely, and I also like making in-character journals to sort of get into the head of my character. That helps me figure out what they would want to do next or where they would want to go. Who they are, really. I’m currently taking a little break from Skyrim and going back to my lost love of Oblivion and am finding it surprisingly enjoyable. There’s so much to love about the Elder Scrolls!
That said, the only thing I might add is that really, in the end, this is just a matter of perspective and personal taste. I don’t think that someone who plays through Fallout with the express purpose of murdering every thing that moves is necessarily having any worse a time than someone who wants to enjoy every moment as an inhabitant of the same Wasteland. My brother, for instance, played Neverwinter Nights back in the day. He killed every single NPC in the game, save for the essentials, for no other reason than because he could. And he thought it was fun. I, of course, played through it in a more “Immersive” fashion. And you know what? I think he has fonder memories of it than I do. We both loved the game, but we both came for different reasons and got we wanted out of it.
By all means, I think more gamers should give this immersion (being your character and your character not necessarily being you) a chance. But I don’t think it’s something that will appeal to everyone, and they should be viewed as no less for it. Heck, if you ask me, people get into the role without even realizing it, in small ways. The Same brother of mine dubbed himself “The Bucket Headed Killer” in Oblivion because he murdered people and put buckets over their head for no reason. I still get a kick out of that!
I love role-playing. And my favorite games are the ones that allow me greater freedom to be what I want, while still providing a world or setting that I love. But there’s no right or wrong way to enjoy something, I think. It really depends on you. Though again, fair point, I think everyone should at least give it a try. It certainly can add longevity to a playthrough, and you’re definitely right about it making memories.
Aside from that, really like your article. Good job. I always enjoy reading someone’s views as to getting into a world (Particularly enjoyed what you said about games that don’t necessarily lend themselves to that same kind of immersion), and I’m always curious to see more thoughts on how to do so. Sometimes it gives me something new to try for myself. And I think I’ll always have room to improve.
And I don’t mean to sound pretentious or rude. I sure hope I don’t seem that way. I guess I just see things a little differently.
Thanks for the good read!
P.S. Only just now looked at what your thoughts on Dragonborn were, as well as your thoughts on Skyrim. Elder Scrolls may not have been the best example for me to use, heh heh.
Hey thanks for the kind words. And yeah I completely see what you are saying about how someone can have fond memories of a game while never really immersing. I would argue than in your example, though, of the “Bucket head killer”, he actually WAS immersing, since he came up with an in-game persona and imagined how people in that universe would react to finding tons of dead bodies with buckets on their heads. I’m not saying you can’t roleplay a mindless killer (it’s actually very easy to do so). I’m saying that lots of people mindlessly kill and never give a second thought to their persona (like I said, they play it like Call of Duty, all reflex and no thought).
To your larger point of “Should people who don’t think while playing be viewed as ‘lesser’ than those who do think?” My personal answer is yes. I respect people who choose to apply their minds and their imaginations vs those that auto-pilot their way through life. I have the same judgement for people who watch nothing but reality TV and other “switch my brain off” material. If you look forward to experiences where you “don’t have to think so much” (something I hear waaaay too often), then I’m going to think less of you (not you, specifically, the general “you”). But like I said, that’s just my personal judgement of someone, it’s not a universal. For instance, I also, personally, don’t think art is good if all it is is “escapism”. I want my art to matter in real life, say something important about reality, otherwise I’m wasting my time. But that’s a whole other topic.
Thank you for the response, and I’m glad to see I didn’t cause a ruckus. Or a frackus. And, uh, I’m sorry for the sheer length of my post, I didn’t realize it was so big ’til after I posted. Sort of got carried away, I guess.
I’d like to add just a couple thoughts, though I’ll try to be brief.
You’re right, those examples that I gave indicate some level of immersion. My point is more this…I think everyone does that. Almost everyone, at any rate. For the most part, they play the game just to play the game, whether to shoot stuff up, enjoy the story, or whatever the “purpose” of the game is. They don’t necessarily realize that they’re immersing themselves on some level. Some of them don’t even want to do it. Again using the example of my previously mentioned brother, he absolutely despises Role-players and all they stand for (I’d rather not get into that). But he still immerses himself on some level, consciously or not. It’s not as much as you or I, or in the same manner as you or I, but it’s there. I’d like to believe that most gamers do this. I admit, probably not all. And maybe not nearly as many as I believe. I’d still like to think so, though.
As to the the larger point, I think we’ll simply have to agree to disagree. I really don’t see people as any less for what they do or do not enjoy. And for me, that’s a good thing, considering how some people view some of the things I like (*Cough* *Cough* PONIES *Cough* *Cough*). It would be REALLY hard to adequately explain my view without going way off topic, so….I won’t. Plus, I don’t much like debating. Or confrontation, for that matter. At the end of the day, one side or the other (Or both) ends up frustrated and 90% of the time, no one changes their point of view.
I’m stubborn like that, I guess.
In the end, I do understand your point of view, at least to an extent. I don’t fully agree, but I can respect it. And again, really enjoyed the article as a whole. I must have, since I almost never post replies to articles like this. I usually chicken out.
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Was definitely really interesting and it’s something I’ll be thinking about for a while. It’s given me some food for thought. I’m hoping to have many more immersive and memorable virtual journeys in the future (Maybe before too long in Fallout 4! Eh? Eh?)
P.S. Sorry again for the length! I just add a teeny tiny bit more each time, and before I know it, the snow ball is more like a snow…uh…boulder.
Hah, no problem man, thanks for reading and talking. Have that ponies thing looked at by a doctor, though :p