lain of the wired wrote:There's sort of a difference between the fun anarchy of running over faceless, random NPCs and being handed a story that requires you to get directly involved with rules and religions that aren't your own.
Yeah, Grand Theft Auto was just a really easy example of a game where people are playing someone without their own morals. Of course Silent Hill would be a completely different situation. It's a story-driven horror game, so it's expected that you should be able to put yourself in the character's shoes. Some people may not be able to do that if the character is drastically different than them, but I don't think trying is an idea without merit.
I know that I personally don't have to completely agree with a character to put myself in their shoes and enjoy the game with them as my avatar. For another not-so-perfect example, I hated pretty much every single thing about the main character of Star Ocean 4. As the game went on I hated him more and more. I couldn't connect with him or his choices a single bit. But I was still able to understand and appreciate why he felt the way he did and did the things he did, and as a result I was fine playing as him and was able to enjoy the game (for the most part, but that's irrelevant).
As a background idea (like playing an RPG cleric where the religious choice just dictates what spells you can cast), religion and beliefs are fun to play with, but have you ever played a serious, story-driven religious game? No matter how fun the gameplay, the narrative gets preachy and boring. I tried playing
Left Behind once.
Once.
Hah. No, I definitely haven't played a serious story-driven religious game. I'm amazed you even tried. But, still, there's a difference there too. With a game like that, the game is made to be preachy and "follow this religion"-ish. If the game is dealing with a fictional religion, it probably wouldn't get preachy, since both the developers and audience don't actually believe in the religion. Of course, this really just comes down to how well they are able to pull off the story and if the writing is good or not.
For example (and going back to what I was saying before a bit), a lot of people were able to sympathize somewhat with Claudia. They don't agree with her actions and they can't relate to her character at all, but they understand where she is coming from and that makes her a sympathetic antagonist. If they can take that idea and play it up for the role of a protagonist, making us able to understand the emotion and reasoning behind them, then we'd be fine even if we don't agree or connect with it personally.
I agree, if they made the protagonist a cultist, that would be fucking awesome, and I'd love to give it a try. My point was that it would be very hard to make it as immersive as a sympathetic good guy plot, and I question how well it would test well with companies. Also, based on how pissy we all get when they inundate us with the cannon of the cult (*coughSHHcough*), it may be better to keep everything alluringly mysterious like it used to be.
Yeah, it's risky and if not done really well it could fall flat on it's face and none of us will be able to care remotely about it. But, for the sake of argument, if it IS done well then the payoff could be worth it. Perhaps it's not the best idea or the safest idea, but I think there is merit in the idea, at least.
In the end, I'm not really saying the cult idea itself can be done perfectly, and I'd definitely be worried and hesitant if they tried. Personally, I'm done with the cult and I don't even really
want to play as one of them as I don't see how the story can work. So I'm not arguing for that story itself. All the same I'm not against the base idea behind it. What all I am saying comes down to is that I don't think the writer needs to always pander to the audience in order for us to connect with the work. I'm willing to put some effort into what I am experiencing as well, and I think the writer and/or developer should be able to ask the audience come with them even if they aren't pandering to them... so long as it's well done and there is payoff, of course. Otherwise we won't want to or feel cheated that we did.
...Also, now that I think about it, if it got any kind of publicity, it would probably get boycotted by Walmart, super right-wingers and conservative religious communities, claiming video games are now trying to induct kids into cults. On the other hand, that might boost sales with the stupid anti-establishment teenager demographic, so... *shrug*
That would be amusing, at the very least.