Frst a news update on Camp NaNoWriMo....>.> I'm still incredibly behind but with a bit of encouragement and competition I'm working to get caught up. I suppose it's just a matter of sitting down and actually hashing out my ideas with a chainsaw before I get stalled too much. Anyways I have a pretty good idea for where my story will be going and it actually seems to be something I'd consider reading! I hope...
Onto the blog proper!
Today I'd like to talk about the 'Silent Heroes' you see in video games (in particular FPS games). Now in a lot of cases games just simply don't have voices for the characters and that is just that, but sometimes you'll get a game where the character's silence sometimes feels as if it were meant to be. Just to give an example of a few games where this is so (that I know of); The Half-Life series, Portal, The Marathon Series, and The Bioshock Series. I probably am missing a few but these in particular I'd like to focus on. One reason why I focus on video-games however is that the 'silent hero' is something that I feel can only really be done in video games. After all a book where the main character does not talk at all would get awfully boring and probably end up being a side character. In a movie it would be easier, but still not as do-able as in video games where, while the hero doesn't speak the player still gets to be interactive with the story.
One of the things that has always intrigued me about this concept has been the question of the protagonist's agency. You, the player, control the character's actions, but the character is constantly put in situations by some 'other force.' On top of all that, your character never has a voice. Is your character a tool to be used, or are you an opposing force against those who put you in such a situation? I also find it interesting that sometimes the protagonist's lack of voice is sometimes commented on, as if other people note that it's strange you never talk. Everything in games like these seem to put the player apart from everyone else. The character is even put apart from the enemy and the allies, even if these two sides think it otherwise.
The Marathon series really puts to the forefront the question of the character being a tool or a natural/human force. I've already posted about Marathon in a previous post so check it out if you'd like a bit of background, but it isn't vital. Essentially I find it fascinating that Bungie was able to give you (the character) a conflict between yourself and your controllers that plays itself out in the objectives you pursue and yet you are still lead from place to place by anyone other than yourself. Granted, with gaming technology back then it would have been hard to come up with dialogue for your character inside of an FPS environment, and Bungie did give its hero a voice in the Halo series, but in Marathon I felt I had to ask myself why did Mr. Security Officer never talk? Indeed the whole game is about the hero's agency and freedom of action; one line that is repeated in the series is, "Escape will make me free."
Valve's Half-Life series is very similar to Marathon in this regard. Gordon Freeman is a man who, "Is the right man, in the wrong place," constantly. He is put in these places however. I have to wonder about what is really going on behind Freeman's glasses. Even when Freeman is about to break free at certain points, or seems to be making his own way, the story takes a twist and puts him right back in square one. Is Freeman a free man? Or is he merely a tool? We think of voice as playing a pivotal role in how we express ourselves and our agency, but if that were taken away...? I like wondering about Freeman's role in the story, and what kind of humanity he represents, and the story there would be incredibly complex. Sometimes he seems to be a hero at points, and others an unwitting ally of those with ulterior motives.
Tied to Half-Life is Portal, which I've posted about before as well. While my explanation for Chell in my second part of the post seems to negate what I've been saying about the silent hero, in some ways I still feel it to be valid. Perhaps it is more valid in Portal than in other games. In the Portal story you are actually a test subject in a laboratory and your goal is to escape. You are placed in a clear situation where you must break free of the entity that is directing you from place to place. When that control breaks down, literally the walls of the facility become meaningless and you then have to make your way. But, even your escape seems to be directed some how in subtle hints, left behind by painted symbols. Is Chell a test subject or is she choosing to break free from all tests? From here I suppose that these silent heroes are really silent so that they can have a multitude of voices. I feel now that maybe these characters are made this way to represent humanity in these types of situations.
The last series I'll examine is Bioshock 1 (I haven't played the others...). Again this game is very similar to the above games for it's silent hero who has no voice, and is set in a world that is a competition between nature and science. This conflict can clearly be seen to take place in the character himself as there are many points through the story where you are able to choose certain outcomes, and key story points where you cant. The whole world is designed as if to say 'this is what you really are, and there isn't anything you can do about it' but when in fact, the situation might be more complicated.
To wrap up, I feel that silent heroes in video games are an interesting symbol in stories. They can be done well or horribly, but when done well they really mess around with your head and get you to wonder just what the game itself means. To compare; Games where the player has a voice, the story is scripted. While the meaning (if it is a good game) can change just like when one re-reads books, the plot is still carried out in a particular way. The player goes through the game experiencing a situation in an almost complete manner. But when the character's voice is taken away, the player must contemplate just what that means in relation to the story. I constantly feel like I have to figure out why the game developers wanted a character to no be able to speak in certain key story moments. I don't mean to say that 'all' games should have silent characters; I do love games that have incredible stories however they are told. What I do think though, is that the ones where a seemingly vital part of any story is taken away, become interesting to puzzle out and analyze; Why was this chosen to tell the story? What does it change about 'us'?
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