i am (not) me >> player-characterisation in videogame narratives


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		Modern life has asked people to diffuse themselves, becoming a collection of faces. At work, they may be the professional, the receptionist, or the courier. At home: the mother, the handyman, the neighbour. When shopping they're the customer, the client, the shoplifter. Grant them technology, and they become multiple personas recognised by several nicknames, and their biological bodies are hidden behind pixellated representations of who they would like to be. Technology may be blamed for reshaping society, but it has been allowed to do so by those whom will be affected. This is in flux, for society's values have also influenced the development and application of technology. Videogames offer people the chance to be someone else that the Real World need not comment on, and the worlds they present are consistent and unswayed by life's daily complexes. Hence videogames, as an artefact of technology, have expanded interactive and identity options. But it does not leave virtual worlds ignorant of what is real. It is now generally recognised that the videogaming subculture has reached critical mass: that it has diseased the mainstream. There is a wealth of magazines, Internet sites, and entire stores devoted to videogaming, alongside billboards, television, newspaper, even product placement advertising. People become involved within videogames through accepting the role of a character with a prescribed description. They may become the driver of advanced anti-gravity vehicles in the wipEout series (Psygnosis); the fastest thing on feet, taking control of Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega/Sonic Team); the internally-confused Cloud in Final Fantasy VII (Sony/Square 1997), who begins bombing a city's power sources for money, yet later is swayed by (scripted) emotion to save the planet. The characters seamlessly fit the construction of their worlds and its systems, and every goal they could possibly strive for is attainable. Players have been offered escape from their regular worries for instances of excitement, and the illusion of being someone they usually are not.
		Yet players cannot escape themselves entirely. The characterisations, as devised by the game's developers, have been crafted to selected ends, and to this, the player must accept. The player, being the entity of human emotion, memory, habit, and will, has attached portions of themselves into these gameworld-trapped soulless avatars. The mind will re-align happenings to these characters as their own, a situation where player and character have united as one. In all regards, both have already proved otherwise, being individuals relegated by Worlds, identity, and ability. On exploring the issues circling player-characterisation in videogame narratives, the role-playing/fantasy genre is most poignant. All games could be considered role-playing, for players are acting out the occupations of a character. However, when striving for action, level design and reflex skills override the concern for characterisation and plot. Character can rarely be isolated from narrative, and one will breed the other should it be lacking. To personify the experience of wipEout races, the player assumes to be a pilot, although this pilot is never seen. RPGs however go to great lengths in describing and evolving characters, and the plots gather great momentum. There are three components to this dissertation: THE PLAYER.. First are the players themselves, for who they (think they) are and their motivations will influence their gameplay preferences. The player is the single most significant variable of any game. Thus without a player, the game cannot be. THE GAME.. Secondly, the game design will favour particular player styles, hence the negotiation of player-characterisation takes varying biases. The most important features of the game are the narrative's plot, the gameworld as setting and logic, and the characters to which all this is experienced through. THE COMPLEXES.. The issues of blending player and character will be deconstructed to highlight the distinctions of each entity in the third section. The argument will be that characters are held to the world in which they exist, and that player and character can never truly merge to offer such fantastic gameplay scenarios. Instead player and character merely serve each other.
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		© June 2002 :: Mathew Carnaby Bachelor of Arts :: Deisgn Honours Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia