Week 10- Story and Character

Characters in games are traditionally wooden and stereotypical. In a recent visit from a games artist, Ben Mathis, who has worked on characters for games such as Tony Hawk 8 and 9 and Oblivion, he explained that he is tired of the games industry creating typical muscly manly characters or women who are an idealist vision of what a man wants to see. He explained that with his characters he tries to avoid such stereotypes in order to create original ideas.

It is true that most games I have played, the women are attractive and the men are strong and violent. Generally, within all media this isn't true. I think the characters that I connect most with in films and books are men that are actually sensitive and just, mostly because it appeals to me more after seeing way too many explosions and butt whoopings.

The Bourne Ultimatum has become my favourite film and I think this is mostly due to the strength of the Bourne character: he is not just a killing machine, but actually has a concience about what he does to survive. Although not an incredibly expressive character, it is clear that he loves, fears and regrets. In one particular scene he says that he can see all the faces of the people he has ever killed but does not know what their names were. The incredible amount of guilt portrayed here is really attractive when it comes to his character, it makes him human.

One of the things that games are missing at the moment are beleivable characters that could have come out of everyday life. When I play a game, watch a film or engage in anykind of story, I want to see people like me thrown into incredible situations in which their full personality, weaknesses and strengths can be seen.

The stories that appeal to me most are ones that show the ultimate strengths or weaknesses of characters. One of my favourite films is Gladiator and I love the spirituality of this film and the way that strength and weakness are juxtaposed. When Maximus loses his wife and child he cries in a way that a typically masculine character would not, losing all sence of dignity and showing that he is just like the rest of us. The hope expresses in this film of the next life is inspiring, he is so sure of what he has to face. Why can't game characters be like this?

I think game characters tend to be very one dimensional, what you see is what you get. Why can't games try making complicated, exciting characters? This may be due to the interactivity of games. The character you portray could not do too much on his own otherwise you would not be deciding how he acts. However there is nothing stopping the characters surrounding you to becoming easier to empathise with.