We Believe in Games
In humanity’s realm of beliefs, we have a common set of choices that exist as variables in society. Every decision we make incorporates individual beliefs, morals, or whatever one would call a stance on capital punishment, for instance, homosexuality or the limited power of government. These are always compounded by inconsistent factors. What would my father say? Will this affect my job? Will I still be able to shop at the same video store? How will my decisions affect my children? All of these are questions which will eternally lack a standardized answer, but have been challenged by various mediums. Media such as film, literature, music and now, video games, can make us reexamine our life choices and ideals through a cathartic simulation. But can the deepening interactivity that gaming allows challenge what we believe in a way we’ve never seen before?
There are answers to these eternal questions – moral, religious, or otherwise – but they are all dependent on how we identify ourselves within the society we live in – whether a strict Muslim community, the inner city of Dublin, or rural China. Part of being human is coming to terms with these questions, and living with those decisions. While gaming is moving towards a more socially accessible medium, much of the depth and introspection of games does not exist in that more casual niche of the industry. However, the exponential rate at which video games are changing provides alternative realities that can compare in their narrative scope with that of classic film and literature. These realities can make available to us worlds where the relative choices of beliefs we have made in life can be radically altered and lived out, consequences included. Whether this alternate world is fantastic, modern, realistic, or futuristic, the possibilities for humans to challenge their set beliefs are becoming more applicable as a mechanism of entertainment as daily progress is made in the industry.
We are allowed to invest ourselves in a world where we can alter and reexamine the decisions we, as real people, would not necessarily make. In games as (relatively) recent as Fable 2, Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Fallout 3, game designers are able to let players become someone great, not because the game would take us there on a strict linear path no matter what, but because we made the decisions and took the actions to get there. As gaming trends would show, our former choice of "Save the Princess" or "Game Over" will expand, allowing us to "Fall into a Loving Homosexual Relationship with the Princess,” "Rape and Kill the Princess,” "Sell the Princess as a Slave,” or "Install the Princess as Queen and Become Her Advisor, Ushering In a New Era of Peace and Prosperity for Your People.”
As game narratives progress and deepen, it's not hard to imagine a situation within a game where one's best friend has murdered someone innocent. Do we turn him in or do we instead hide his guilt because of our relationship? Do we hold true to our beliefs in justice, and let the system process his crime or do we take matters into our own hands? Even within that, do we approach vigilantism a la the Punisher with capital consequences or as Batman would, believing in society’s justice over man’s corruption? As such an immersive experience would show us the debatably realistic consequences of our decisions in a virtual world, we can take those choices that we made in-game and later contemplate our own beliefs on such things based on our overall experience.
As the expanding communities of online games provide incredible anonymity, we can see decisions and beliefs play out in a much more realistic setting, where the other characters are played by people and not AI. While the in-game offerings may differ, one's online persona can be a veritable testing ground for difficult life choices. Coming out as a homosexual can be among these difficult decisions. Coming out to family or friends can be daunting and provide a wide array of virtually permanent outcomes. If coming out to your guild or clan yields intolerance, find another guild; an annoying experience, garnering harsh words and insults at the very worst. However, this can provide a valuable experience that can be applied to real world concerns and issues later on. No matter what the gaming mechanism, such proximity to other people will always give us such challenges.
Perhaps among the biggest creative problems gaming faces today is censorship. A recent calamity involving Mass Effect's sexual content caused somewhat of a media uproar at how games are coming to grips with more mature and often difficult subject matter. The game allowed for many varied experiences therein, from ignoring romance and focusing on one's duty, to entering into a homosexual inter-species relationship. The media here mistook open-ended possibility based solely on the player’s choice for insistence and indoctrination. Presenting these situations in an M-rated game is no different than similar experiences in our everyday lives, save for the fact that all intended consequences are clearly imagined and can be reset or reenacted at any time. That, and the whole interspecies gay space marine sexy time thing.
A medium that was once concerned only with scoring points and reaching the end of the level now finds itself facing a demand for realism that involves complex moral decisions, and living in the aftermath of them. Gaming is certainly heading towards morally open terrain in these more open ended games. How far will we see it go? What might happen if Yoshi refused to let Mario ride him because he tends to always be sacrificed to make that nearly fatal jump? Within a fictional setting, we can choose to do things that, in reality, we find appalling and horrific. No game will ever persuade anyone that speeding a tow truck down a crowded sidewalk could be fun, or that hacking up kids and hookers isn’t a bad a thing to do on a Saturday night. Evidence abounds that games do not have such a perverting affect on people. Still, can games ever delve deep into the conscience as to force players to challenge or at least reexamine their own sets of beliefs as they enact the persona of another character? Will censors see choice and exploration as coercion and suggestion, and impede such progressive measures?
