Back when the gaming industry was in its infancy, only sprites and pixels made up the games’ characters and they were nothing more than a gun or moving object on a 2-D plane of existence. It was up to the player to give the avatar a set of personality traits and goals. The avatar’s true motivation was to get to the end of the stage without dying. And while that true motivation hasn’t changed drastically over the years, advances in graphics have changed how video games and their characters exist. Game characters in the 21st century have hopes and ideals that motivate them through the narrative that a writer and development team produced.
Rockstar Games, developers of the Grand Theft Auto series, is known for their investment and depth of their characters. Niko Bellic, the main character in Grand Theft Auto 4 (2008), was an Eastern European immigrant in search of the American dream and the man who betrayed his team in the military. John Marston from Red Dead: Redemption (2010) was a former outlaw who was being extorted by the government so that he could be with his family. L.A. Noire (2011), published by Rockstar and developed by Team Bondi, featured Cole Phelps, a young, up-and-coming police officer-turned detective. These types of character backgrounds really evolve video games past children’s pastime and really tackle mature themes and stories.
What prompted this topic was an article from IGN.com about Spec Ops: The Line, a third-person military shooter set in Dubai that resembles Apocalypse Now in terms of story structure. The lead writer for the game said “as the game progresses and Walker (the player’s character) becomes less and less a soldier and more and more – as his uniform tears apart – becomes more and more himself; a man.” He then discussed what the player would feel by the end of the game, which has multiple endings depending on the choices made throughout the game. “Some players will feel sorry for Walker… Some people are probably going to get so disgusted with him they’ll put down the game and not finish it. Some people at the end will think he’s a hero who’s done the right thing.” This type of emotional connection to a military shooter is welcomed in a genre full of ice-cold characters.
On very rare occasions, the main protagonist says nothing and only the player exists in the world and imprints their values onto the narrative. In Shadow of the Colossus (2005), a character called Wander arrives at a temple with his seemingly dead love and is told, by a disembodied voice, to kill sixteen massive creatures to revive her. The environment and the actions made convey a narrative of submission and obedience. In Half-Life 2 (2004), you play as Gordon Freeman and never speak a word. Yet the character development comes from the game’s objectives, side characters and the reverence other characters have for you while in their presence. This depth in game characters, whether spoken or unspoken, is indicative that writers are sitting down and thinking about the message they want to convey past “kill everyone in your way.”
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