Blog - Fate in games
Saturday, December 13, 2008On the Writer's SIG mailing list there is discussion of theme in games again.
Something I was just watching earlier today made me think of themes dealing with fate.
I'm personally not fan of the concept of fate, but I find that it's often featured in stories.
I wonder if fate is attractive to storytellers because fate is a metaphor for how characters function in stories.
Characters are intentionally created, built to do specific meaningful things, and fill certain voids. A storyteller's characters are literally fated to perform their roles.
So, if that's true, then I'm wondering to what degree games can (and do) shake this up.
While NPCs are characters in the traditional sense, any player character is granted a kind of free will. Players can often choose to ignore their intended role. They can challenge their 'destiny'. (Whether or not the game will accept the challenge is another matter...)
I'm sure quite a few games have already addressed this struggle. Bioshock springs to mind.
Many stories support the notion of destiny, fate, etc. How many games do, and if so, why? When it comes to the dynamics, games seem in opposition to the notion of fate. After all, when a game forces the player down a certain path, the game is derided as being "on rails".
Even (especially?) as players, humans crave free will. posted by Brian Shurtleff @ 5:19 AM
1 Comments:
dsilvers said...
If you want to talk fate, there is no better series to look to than Legacy of Kain. The belief system followed by the characters in-game runs on a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, and every being is given a destiny on this "wheel of fate." It seems as if there is no escaping it, especially in Soul Reaver 2 where you play out a pivotal moment in the main character's life that puts the events from the first game in motion (lots of time travel involved). But we eventually learn that because he was resurrected without ACTUALLY having been "reborn" as it were, he has free will because he is not attached to the wheel. Deep stuff. Highly recommend if you haven't played.