The Video Games That Changed Storytelling

welcome to the cinema cartography the relationship between the medium of video games and high art has always been a strenuous one and if you live an intentional life of engaging with the highest icons of our culture as well as attempting to bring such art to the forefront of people's minds it becomes less difficult to see why the medium of video games is an art form and we hear time and time again from its engaging participants that they are to be considered as such this is true however in order for such a notion to be reaffirmed by the wider art world we must first consider one thing that out of every art form that one can conjure the medium of gaming in its present state is the most infantile and on an aggregate scale the least artful how does one come to this conclusion this isn't a critique on gaming's values although one could certainly make an argument for that we're talking exclusively within the realm of its artistic philosophy consider first the prestige of highly esteemed works of art think of the paintings of jan van ike michelangelo's sculptures include contemporary examples the films of mikael hanukkah or the activist work of ai weiwei there is across these various forms a commonality between them alongside the message that they aim to transmit it's their methodology and practice that's intrinsic to their conveyance the films of mikhail hanukkah discuss the uses of technology and its relation to the breakdowns of communication in society therefore in order to discuss this new societal impersonality he presents his works emphasizing the voyeuristic gaze of oz as viewers similar to how so much of our life presents information to us streamed through screens and bypassing the human elements michelangelo's sculpture of the biblical character david depicted him in a way never presented before rather than the gallant or heroic depiction after his victory of goliath we see a david prior to the battle his look is one that's inward and pensive this for michelangelo was the epitome of man the depiction of man as an ideal is the one not only of physical superiority but one whose thought is prioritized over all else these few examples take wildly different ideas and tell those stories through each medium but storytelling is to take such a concept or an idea and through the means of your medium create an abstraction outside of reality where wherein the full development of that abstraction is how the idea is transmuted this is where we return to our more playful art form most video games tell stories of one form or another there are some which are engaging and others where they're less so however disregarding the quality of the narratives for a moment we must acknowledge that no matter the quality of stories within games this is not the issue at hand the issue is one specifically of storytelling video games rarely utilize the abstraction of what a game is to convey any kind of artistic suggestion to the player to give a further example let's look at some highly regarded video games of recent memory the second highest selling video game of all time is grand theft auto 5. now gta 5 is a game that follows three protagonists of which you can switch between at any point in the game even if they're in the middle of something now this is a good example of a synthesis between storytelling and medium the most differing aspect of the medium of games is the element of reciprocation the person interacting with the game can decide and take the actions of the characters within the art piece this is a very unique perspective one that would be difficult to replicate in other forms the player is given the ability to control various characters at any point within a narrative with each character having a personality and style that's distinctly their own herein lies a storytelling problem because grand theft auto is in effect a story driven game there will always be a limitation on the amount of freedom we have in crafting the character we can choose to imprint our own personality traits on the character but ultimately the story must move at the pace it's already dictated regardless of how callous or righteous we make these people the actual story will be delivered to us however it needs to be we can't stop certain set pieces or decisions from being made the result is that in a medium wherein the person interacting with it actually has an impact on the manner in which the art presents itself it chooses not to highlight this unique form of expression instead we see what is the crux of the majority of video game storytelling it chooses to tell its story like a film the parts that don't actually affect the story you get to choose however you play them out but the part where the narrative continues you place the controller down and watch it with no input whatsoever novels sculpture painting all utilize the abstractions of their form to offer unique experiences of what can even be the same story games have neglected their unprecedented spectrum of interactivity and opted for mimicry of the most accessible art form for what i can only assume are reasons that delve no further beyond similarity the idea that you could take the unlimited possibilities of storytelling within games and reduce it to such a finite degree displays that when it comes to telling stories people are writing like movies the movies themselves also often write reality-like movies however this is a discussion for another time there have been attempts to remedy this approaching narrative many classic rpgs attempt to match the style of play with the path that the character takes features such as permadeath and blocking certain storylines on missions is a good way to mediate this others have attempted to make pure story games where the gameplay is secondary to the story that's being told this harks back to the genesis of role playing and games as a vessel for storytelling the choose your own adventure style but these approaches have too varied in quality but the majority of games fall somewhere in the middle a place where narrative and gameplay exist in binary realms very rarely crossing one another some games do have compelling and interesting stories on their own however my issue lies in the fact that when it comes to games good storytelling has become synonymous with cinematic this is the antithesis of games cinema should not be within its realm especially when idealized as the most triumphant thing a game could be not all games need to tell good stories you can create art purely through the experience of a person inhabiting an artificial character and the mastery in how well you can convey atmosphere and other emotions through this resident evil 4 super mario galaxy tetris animal crossing bayonetta halo chaos theory doom these are games that choose to tell as much or as little a story as possible but prioritize the excellence in their experiences which elevates them to levels we now see as the barometers of excellence but when it comes to high art we have to not only acknowledge the games that fit into this category but understand precisely what it is that makes them so and perhaps if we recognize this our perception of the medium can be changed and re-evaluated for the better this video is brought to you by mubi a curated streaming service showing exceptional films from around the globe try movie free for 30 days at movie.com cinema cartography that's mubi.com cinema cartography for a whole month of great cinema for free the nature of video games lies in the essence that there is a player conducting all of the goings-on within the piece every piece of progression is a direct result of them in one way you could think that all games are rpgs in that sense however based on the fact that there must be some finite limits within the possibilities of what a person can achieve within a game then the freedom of choice that the medium of gaming must be hinged on will always be somewhat of an illusion the notion of choice has been expanded upon in certain games a game like mass effect has you making decisions that will alter your journey for the remainder of the game some characters that you've grown to become fond of their survival will come down to very drastic decisions that you make play that we can handle ourselves go back and get williams williams radio joker and tell him to meet us at the bomb site yes commander i it's the right choice and you know it ash these are crossroads decisions wherein the path onward diverges at a single point this allows us to shape the journey in more salient ways it allows the story to continue to be told in piecemeal chunks if you actually analyze it there are only a handful of variants due to the controlled number of these crossroad decisions and thus the main narrative can continue to be told at its natural pace simply replacing the specific variants with the a or b decision that's emerge at each crossroad how can you not see what this means to the krogan this base can't be destroyed i won't allow it these krogan are slaves of sarin puppets tools to be used and discarded if there were a handful of large decisions to be made and each of those decisions had two divergences you'd still be left with a manageable handful of variances in the narrative that you wouldn't lose control over most stories have to have a level of coherence and in video games the idea of forging your own path is at the heart of the medium however video games striving towards making artistic pieces still require a degree of control from an artist we think of developers and programmers when we think of the production and not creation of video games but behind every individual journey that's a player crafts are the individuals that designed it to be so within all of your virtual experiences it's still ultimately their story if they give the means to you of how to tell that story then it's still the methodology of their art form you have the power to free us or return our people to the silence of memory i won't destroy your entire race you'll go free an example of this we can see more in telltale's the walking dead the construction of choice hair is less pertinent the game disguises its choices through gameplay many of its choices pile on top of one another based on the way that you interacted with your world we should go motels run its course and it's not safe you're damn right it has we pile into the rv and don't pull over till we see water and if lily's dead set on stay in then well that's the way it goes characters will choose to stand by or desert you based on the culmination of your actions in truth this feels like a larger evolution than on occasional one-off decisions because there's a complexity added to the weight of each action you truly have to consider the results of your seemingly insignificant choices mixing both emotion and rationality as opposed to an a or b scenario you've always been there for me lee always had my back when it mattered what kind of friend would i be if i wasn't there for you now but the thing is even with this network of choices that influence each other in the walking dead we're still left with the same finale for every single player this isn't a detriment but an example that even a game based on choice is still telling a singular story so what's more important to be able to alter a narrative giving the player the ability to completely reject the game's premise or a malleable journey where the core experience remains the same what's exposed around both of these premises is that regardless of the choice all choices in video games are an illusion and perhaps the game that best utilizes this within its storytelling is bioshock and bioshock infinite was a man sent a kill or a slave a man chooses a slave obeys examining the world of infinite we see how the game offers varying instances of choices that appear to hold severe weight making you question the right course of action however in all of these decisions we learn that they make no difference whatsoever we just believe they do look at these they're amazing which ones you like more this one or or this the bird is beautiful and the cage is somber but there's really something special about it this approach is intrinsic in order to convey the rest of the story a story wherein we learn how our main protagonist booker dewitt exists across multiple realities as the infinite number of possibilities he was and could have been no no no no shut it do down give me back my daughter no [Music] the narrative and messages being that choice does matter but regardless of the choice that was made in some ethereal perhaps even emotional playing the alternate possibility still exists in this world look it's us not exactly they swim in different oceans but land on the same shore it always starts with a lighthouse i i don't understand we don't need to it'll happen all the same why because it does yes it has yes it was on the ocean of our subconscious but the consideration of any choice meant that for a brief moment that decision was lived and inhabited does that not make it real what did he mean huh you tell me what did he mean about my finger i don't know i i just assumed you were born with i i don't know your nose it's bleeding it exists somewhere perhaps in a lighthouse on the sea the choice has always been at the heart of bioshock in its originator it utilizes the philosophy of iron run's objectivism and measures it against the ethos of gaming and morality within the medium i rejected those answers instead i chose something different i chose the impossible i chose rapture for one facet that will always negate morality in gaming is the search for power the game is set in the city of rapture wherein the tenets of individuality are valued above all else but it appears that same rampant selfishness causes the chaos which results in the very downfall of the city the denizens disregard one another in their search for power just as paradoxically we are looking to critique this mindset yet in a video game what must we do we too must disregard others in order to gain power to achieve an objective however arbitrary will be fine is there thus a possibility that someone was to disregard others so much that it would be possible that they could create a system in which they can physically establish people's existence as an illusion of choice well in bioshock that's precisely the case not only shown through the goals of the antagonist but the very perspective of the creators of the game the only way to complete the game in bioshock is to accept the limitations of choice in essence to obey the kind of artistic tyranny the game has to impose on you its profound ideas of liberation for the players existing yet forever intertwined in a state of control the choices we can make in certain games are often free for us to make but even the choice of absolute failure of absolute destruction of narrative is first and foremost a choice from its creators and its implication in the world of bioshock is understood in its totality as a perfect form of storytelling you have come to wipe your slate clean but time will walk backwards before you find redemption some sins can't be forgiven oftentimes the greatest games have some manner of awareness of the medium that they're communicating through as a result they aim perhaps even inadvertently towards discussing the very medium itself but herein we discover a dichotomy aristotle discussed in his poetics the notion of catharsis that the purpose of tragedy is to purge the audience of its feelings whether it be fear anxiety or hatred to experience something without truly inhabiting it thus returning us to our emotional equilibrium but how could this relate to video games isn't there a glaring problem evident in its very name games aren't games supposed to be fun even i value some of the greatest pieces of the medium simply based on the efficiency of these most pragmatic terms but is it right could it even be deemed successful if a game were to not be enjoyable if an artist aims to abstract the realities of humanity that must inevitably involve the quintessential shadow of humanity and regarding the one artistic medium that depends on human to virtual correspondence that would mean that in order to delve into these gruesome troves the player must also experience some replication of its character's torment we all understand the joy of high octane action especially if the conduit for that action is a player someone who's instigating and engaging in grandiose set pieces very few people could ever have the opportunity of having in many ways we can look at this also as an element of aristotle's catharsis however is there not an unintentional degree of dishonesty here examining the prominent call of duty and battlefield franchises both base their settings in fictional and real-life conflicts throughout history they're the most famous instances of games attempting to showcase the horrors of war most notably through their attempts of pushing the barriers of realism taking military-grade knowledge and applying it in the games the weapons the language the procedures they're all based in what it's like to be a soldier what is being a soldier fun when we think of the responsiveness of controls the constant sense of reward given by twitch shooters there's a massive prioritization on giving the player a sense of power even in death the low times between being killed and running around again is minute you have to return immediately to the battlefield and earn your award that reward is more killing there's a detachment at play here in aiming to craft a more realistic experience the creators of these kinds of games have in fact developed the exact opposite turning war into something playful we're only questioning is this a good thing let's look at one game in which being fun is not the priority spec ops the line conrad the united states arms evacuation dubai and this is complete failure death toll too now if you were to look and play spec ops you would assume you'll be playing a bang average third-person military shooter one of the dozens you can find anywhere it plays rather sluggish the weapons aren't memorable and it engages in all the tropes and cliches you'd expect of the genre it opens on a large on-rails set piece it offers nothing to the cover and shoot mechanics that become almost second nature to the genre but why is this important because this methodology is entwined with the story that spec ops tells the story is based on joseph conrad's heart of darkness in which a man is sailing up the congo river to meet kurtz a man that's established himself almost as a god amongst the natives in spec ops you play as walker a soldier journeying through a dubai that's been destroyed by a deluge of sand you journey to confront conrad a soldier gone awol that's cast himself much akin to kurtz as a new great leader rumor is conrad was ordered to abandon the city he defied that order and the 33rd stood with him you clunk through as the typical hero of the narrative until there's a tonal shift there were over 5 000 people alive in dubai the day before you arrived how many are alive today i wonder how many will be alive tomorrow i thought my duty was to protect this city from the storm i was wrong the game asks you to make choices but as we know we're discussing the very nature of choice we don't actually have one in spec ops the idea of killing in a game is brought into question perhaps the most pertinent question being why are we the players doing this i tried 1300 men women children dead because of my arrogance and now you want to finish off the rest if you will not learn from my mistakes then there's nothing more i can do throughout the journey white phosphorus is used in order to forge a path only to find we've burnt civilians alive are those civilians where'd they come from there's no camp here they took them from the nest that hotel back at the storm wall no no no no those can't be the cities that got kidnapped it's not possible we're ordered to decide which of two innocent people most deserve to die five innocent people are dead because these two animals couldn't control themselves i get it we're meant to choose within all of these sequences we descend further and further down into the heart of darkness getting closer and closer to our own personal health i know you're listening colonel so hear this this war is over dubai will be evacuated and you will be relieved of your command the game fantastically uses geography having us constantly descending downwards to the point where we should be below the planet's surface the game's utilization of hallucination and psychedelic sequences actually attempts to put us in the perspective of a soldier in war coping with ptsd for all the atrocities that we witness anywhere else would just be another action set piece another large spectacle for us to enjoy the reality however couldn't be further for what spec ops ultimately aims to show is the futility of aiming to create art in a medium based on the joy of violence the game itself begins to present itself in ways that do not highlight its enjoyment we become swept along for the ride constantly moving forward yet making the situations wherein worse and worse in four days this city will begin dying of thirst just like riggs wanted this is your fault walker you did this not me the game reaches punishing levels that are bestowed on the player and if this level of masochism wasn't enough the game expands beyond its own limits beginning to strip apart the device of the gaming world to converse with the player directly messages from the loading screens become more and more cerebral urging us to not only question our actions but ultimately question if we want to be engaging with this at all however by persevering towards the game's finale its messages come full circle walker is not a character he is the player his own broken psychology when it comes to the call of duty and to violence have been so warped that he invoked any reason at all so that he could engage with his acts of violence just like the players glamorizing the death and carnage that war brings imagine the separation that has to occur so that a player can feel the elation of a soldier completing a mission with no adverse effects whatsoever all in the comfort of their own homes and this is exactly who the game is talking to from the very beginning spec ops ensures that your name is present on the screen that the characters talk and point directly to you because by reaching the end of spec ops you're essentially punished for your actions you engaged in violence because you wanted to engage in violence you didn't have to put yourself through this but what do we expect from games to be rewarded to receive achievements the truth walker is that you're here because you wanted to feel like something you are not a hero the storytelling of spec ops is something that must be acknowledged in the medium of games for it takes a protagonist whose psyche is compartmentalized because as people willing to accept the illusion of accomplishment that horrific games offer we as players inhabit that very same mentality i know the truth is hard to hear walker but it's time you're all that's left and we can't live this life forever marcel duchamp brought to the art world the very significant and everlasting question of what is art and as of right now spec ups the line is the crowning jewel when it comes to bringing that level of discussion to the realm of video games is enjoyability a crucial element of games and if so what are the limits of what constitutes enjoyment after all to kill for yourself is murder to kill for your country is heroic but to kill for entertainment is harmless john is that you you tell me i'm done playing games john i assure you this is no game games aim to put you directly in the seats of the so called hero of the story but very rarely do they either have them question your actions or truly try to translate the sensorial experience of feeling the emotion they typically just display the emotion via the screen and you recognize that a character is feeling it rather than a synchronization occurring between the virtual and the real it's more akin to theater however some pieces do try to go the extra mile in utilizing the hardware and the medium of the form to instigate emotion eternal darkness is perhaps the most infamous example of transmitting the theme of its story through its experience a story dealing with the declining mental state of the character you also undergo the same process in which the boundaries between the game world and our own collide engaging in moments that legitimately make you question whether something you're seeing is planned or not this is a unique facet in gaming as playing with the hardware is a detail that makes the player ultimately helpless and the game aims to redirect the player's focus to that mode of helplessness moving in and out of this degree of certainty is something that can in many ways be best achieved through video games it's a feeling that can't be replicated in this manner through other mediums as we experience them in a linear fashion the random quality and experiential facet of games makes this the ultimate method of emotional correspondence yet perhaps the most significant singular moment in all of video games in this sudden obliteration of hiding its artifice comes from the infamous psycho mantis battle from the original metal gear [Applause] suey solid so you like azure dreams you like castlevania don't you is an ultra transgression of the role the player has making the only way to solve the puzzle a feat that must be undertaken outside of the video game's reality playing with the hardware itself making the experience somewhat exclusive to each player hideo kojima from the outset of his vision was aiming to redirect the former storytelling within the medium itself and although the literal rumblings may have been felt in his initial outing into the metal gear series this wouldn't be fully realized until metal gear solid 2 sons of liberty ryden turn the game console off right now what did you say the mission is a failure cut the power right now what's wrong with you don't worry it's a game it's a game just like usual you'll ruin your eyes playing so close to the tv in order to fully understand the storytelling of sons of liberty one must understand the totality of what the second metal gear solid game was its anticipation was insurmountable it was a sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time and it was to continue the story of a game which arguably changed the landscape of how stories were perceived in the medium one which made them mature convoluted fused with real world events and featuring a new cult protagonist that was to become a mascot for the era and from the game's announcement there was a ubiquitous parade of demos and trailers only adding to the speculation and excitement why is this important because metal gear solid 2 is a game that exists within the self-contained universe of a single game as well as an art piece that has reframed its context to examine itself from every conceivable angle there's no such thing in the world as absolute reality most of what they call real is actually fiction what you think you see is only as real as your brain tells you it is this is a game of transgressions perhaps the largest occurring around one to two hours into the game the hero solid snake dies and the story diverges into a less intriguing almost b-plot to the actual events that were just occurring the hero of shadow moses so that's why you changed my code name right but he can't be the solid snake he died two years ago on that tanker after he blew its sky high the grizzled charming snake has been replaced with the boyish whiny jack or ryden a character who is left out of the loop of all information complains and even chastised by his girlfriend if it weren't for that coincidence we wouldn't be together i know i'm sorry jack i'm taking up your time again what take care just the experience of taking control of him is felt to be laborious we undergo the same tutorial we had just been through relearning things that were already taught to us as players the pace of the game is immediately halted as we're suddenly catapulted into a state of confusion to encapsulate the experience of the remainder of sons of liberty is that it essentially retreads all the same steps as the first metal gear solid dead cell replaces fox hound the character of grey fox re-emerges and even the opening of ryden's adventure is almost a beat for beat retrace of how the original game began for people that enjoyed the original metal gear solid they're likely to enjoy this maybe even more the gameplay is a good evolution it features the remarkable attention to detail unseen in the medium and the narrative though again convoluted is thought-provoking and allows you to question the canon of this world the patriots even i don't know who the actual members are are they financial political or military leaders no one knows who the patriots really are even my instructions come from a cut out all i've been told is that every key decision is made by a group of 12 men known as the wise men's committee but even with these successful points something is missing why is ryden so clearly inferior to snake why is the game structured essentially as a retread of the first this could be chalked up to some questionable design decisions that is until the final act of the game when the facade that it's upheld shatters in one of the most disruptive moments in the history of the medium over the past 200 years a kind of consciousness formed layer by layer in the crucible of the white house it's not unlike the way life started in the oceans four billion years ago the white house was our primordial soup a base of evolution we are formless we are the very discipline and morality that americans invoke so often how can anyone hope to eliminate us as long as this nation exists so will we so what is sons of liberty sons of liberty came with the arduous task of fulfilling all of the baggage it brought along just by being what it was his aim was to fulfill the tasks of honouring continuing and evolving what made the original metal gear the success it was by acknowledging all of these things while sidestepping them all at the same time metal gear solid 2 is a game that's built from a paradox the story of the battle for freedom and equality against the powers of totalitarianism can never be fully realized in a medium wearing the objective path to glory is already mapped out by its invisible master we're already being controlled just as much as ryden is shown to be a puppet at the whim of his masters that his mission is to infiltrate the structure and disarm the terrorists my role why do you keep saying that why not this is a type of role-playing game the point is that you play out your part and i expect you to turn in a perfect performance colonel i just remembered something what that i've never met you in person not once complete your mission according to the simulation and when it comes to the perception of what mgs2 was supposed to be here in lies kojima's philosophical arguments the digital world is one built from the ground up on misinformation the idea of truth is stewed together from the accumulation of half-truths and untruths eventually there is so much data to siphon through that objective truth no longer exists as it's not being preserved and this new world that we find ourselves in is one wherein truth is created via the mass information who else could wade through the sea of garbage you people produce retrieve valuable truths and even interpret their meaning for later generations that's what it means to create context just as the masses anticipated that mgs2 was to be a continuation of solid snake our sensorial experience dictated that this was not the case even though for so long this was the truth all of the previous trailers and the mass consumer knowledge told us that it was so until eventually the culmination of these half-truths made that original truth no longer necessary as though it never existed i'm not sure sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between reality and a game diminished sense of reality huh vr training will do that just as the truth presented for the majority of the game was shown as a fallacy only an illuminated and accepted truth is the only one that matters to the point that it can almost negate every experience up to that point reshaping it through a new found lens given the right situation the right story anyone can be shaped into snake even rookies can fight like men of experience [Music] the most fascinating thing about sons of liberty is how it simultaneously morphs the world of the game and our world without dissecting the two rather they operate one in the same one can't function without the other and from the perspective of kojima as a creator it seems that in many ways it's a desperate cry from the utter fallacy that is gaming itself there's a need to gain player satisfaction but is it possible to reframe people's perception to divert it away from what they believe they wanted into something that they didn't want but was it for that precise reason that it became an even more significant piece ryden is shown to be a lesser version of snake he even always shows up to places slightly after him how can we take seriously from the objective lens that we're supposed to be in the shoes of an espionage expert when ultimately we're engaging from the comfort of our own homes in a digital realm the most trivial landscape of information that exists it's a necessity that at the end of the game the very fabric of the world breaks down to address us directly we can leave behind much more than just dna through speech music literature and movies what we've seen heard felt anger joy and sorrow these are the things i will pass on that's what i live for the profundity of its message gains clarity with the more time that passes is fearful proposals of a world wherein the abundance of misinformation spilling into the real landscape is a picture one no longer has to paint to understand for perhaps it was this very mindset the very idea that we wanted to live in this virtual reality to play pretend so often and demand that we become the characters we so desperately want to replicate in our own lives our avatars became our jungian self for it's in the finale that again much like spec ops metal gear exposes that we are the player and the character all in one and that the true lens of sons of liberty was that of a voyeur watching us in every step engaging in its disguise leaving us with the knowledge to take with us and maybe change the impending and foreboding digital landscape we need to pass the torch and let our children read our messy and sad history by its light we have all the magic of the digital age to do that with the human race will probably come to an end sometime and new species may rule over this planet earth may not be forever but we still have the responsibility to leave what traces of life we can [Music] building the future and keeping the past alive are one in the same thing [Music] it's an interesting thing to examine the very structure of narrative in video games much of what dictates art's methodology is the sense of time trapped within borders a painting tells its story within one frame utilizing the illusion of movement that signifies an impression of a story in its totality or in triptychs the passage of time and various perspectives are demonstrated by the multiple panels cinema flows along a linear passage of time each film takes a specific duration in which it delineates its specific beginning and ending point however games utilize time differently and thus their structures alter accordingly the time in which a game is to end is different from person to person therefore pacing of a narrative is dependent on a player's ability to complete the set tasks and it's only the designer behind these games that can judge the anticipated time between each of these set pieces but that's not all video games are typically more of a piecemeal structure than other narrative mediums in order to stimulate the player and offer them as many variances as possible on the main gameplay mechanics game creators typically move the player through various worlds or stages now if we examine this in more traditional narrative forms the jumps from one location to another the often large tonal shifts would be perceived to be too excessive or jarring because from a storytelling perspective it's much more difficult to craft a story within a single universe and have it move at a constant pace from one place to the other as we see in games they're far more episodic however this can be attributed to the storytelling methods that games have to offer majora's mask for instance benefits from its denoted areas for developing the themes within its narrative utilizing the five separate areas of termina allows the story to develop telling the five stages of grief through each area almost completely dedicated to a singular theme the genius i have no mouth and i must scream also houses a similar structure taking five protagonists and taking their role in a simulated world created individually for them by a sadistic ai who's prolonged their lifespans in order to torture them by structuring the game as such we're allowed to see the individuation of each character their flaws their perceptions but most importantly what torments them the most benny you know you've always been my favorite torture well i'm giving you now a chance to stoop to new lows to give in to your best your desires i'm going to let you find some food to eat i'll even repair your brain so that you can think normally again and savor the horror of your repast i have no mouth enamel scream is about the psychological torment of its characters being able to take control of each of them within their personal journeys allows greater exploration of the game's themes and its ability to transmit those emotions to the player these examples are so much more successful due to the level structure that's become synonymous with games very rarely can a medium deliver itself in such a segmented narrative but to transgress this even further let's look at killer seven the key players behind the scenes of the four powers utilized their connections and called upon the group known as killer seven in killer seven a game whose story is described by its creator in such a simplistic manner that even that in itself is an act of misdirection utilizes its episodic structure to defamiliarize players with said structure killer seven tells a story from beginning to end regarding a terrorist organization and an elite task force of killers headed by a man with multiple personality disorder however interwoven into this story our themes that include oriental and occidental relations religious dogma organ harvesting violence in media biopolitics and many other taboos that were almost unheard of in video games prior to killer seven why do they treat elders like we are such nuisance the initial story introduced to us we have a protagonist and an antagonist and are given the relevant establishing information to set the groundwork for a story that we will work our way through [Music] however each level in the game is a new chapter and that foundation that was set in the prologue essentially dissipates what remains is a compilation style of narration in which we're introduced to new settings new characters and are even treated to brand new art styles with each passing chapter we are the punishing rangers the handsome men sorry but your stupid series ends today and if we're to hone in on the narrative at a deeper level each chapter is a self-contained story within itself however even during these chapters we're disrupted at every turn offered allegorical and symbolic moments that are so jarring they completely shift where our focus previously lay enough for the caveling this is pathetic yo cheater that's a 4010 you got no hand what it's all over [Music] our context of the story is constantly altering due to the fact that the already complex story adds layers of further convolution and we attempt to find a binding thread to tie it all together one moment we're finding thematic connections until we're blindsided by a cutscene or an interaction so disconnected how we interact with everything that follows is through a new lens [Applause] [Music] with each new disruption our perception of the piece changes once more yet it's not only the chronology that serves to ostracize the players of killer seven it's a piece that when examining its relation to other gaming conventions you may be inclined to believe that it's a game that holds contempt for its audience first of all the game is aggressively linear going as far as to have movement not utilized by the control stick but by the press of a single button you're literally running on rails and merely choosing which corridors to go down you find yourself in minimalist and oppressively cell shaded worlds where all the details have been wiped out solving puzzles that seem so obstruct that sometimes the only way to solve them is to speak to the strange apparitions that appear before you is a game that to every chance it gets it transgresses what's expected of a game why because the story is telling requires exactly that there is a core story at the heart of killer seven and although it seems as though it's buried beneath waves of nonsense we must look at it with a more clinical eye so this is dirty politics the presidential election is in the hands of the education ministry they manipulate the votes and bring forth political leaders who's he greg nightmare he was the chairman of education ministry killer 7 more than anything highlights the artifice of what a video game is it feels awkward to play and thus we subconsciously question the very form of what it is that we're playing this degree of breaking the immersion puts the form under a spotlight forcing us to question the purpose of this object which is what it inevitably becomes it's a piece that has so failed in every facet of what we deem to be successful that by many standards it could not be called a video game and is thus reduced in status to an unattributable object and it's achieved this through pure aesthetic means the visual style and game theory that killer seven chooses to employ forces us to completely alter our perspective when examining its truths this is a game about a war between two people and if all knowledge were offered to us we would be able to see the truth for what it really is the world as we know it is made up of anime religion video games crime and everything in between and in the new interconnected world who's to say that all of these elements are exclusive to the segments of society in which they reside pseudo51 suggests that this is a failure in the art of aesthetic presentation a more truthful expression would be to remove that which doesn't matter the details we must become defamiliarized with the notions of how we currently perceive the world the meta game moments within killer seven highlight even further the unreality of the medium to the point where in a battle sequence no matter what you do it's already predetermined as to what the outcome will be this is because reliance on a medium to give answers when it's so intrinsically restrictive is a lost cause every moment in killer seven forces us to reframe our own perspectives reminding us that at these moments when we feel as though we understand what this world is made of it presents us with a hidden appendage of something we couldn't possibly have envisioned such is life all life flows into one another as distant as certain factions may seem we can't bypass the influence that one subject has on another they in essence exist within one another the girl is an avid gamer her world of games and the real world coexist as one all the multiple stories of killer seven exist in this ethereal omni narrative just as all the personalities exist within one vessel and at the end we're in the future experiencing the exact same thing over and over again all these things are cyclical and we will never recognize them fully unless our lens shifts completely [Music] alongside the nature of a story being told in sequences what can be done about the arrangement of those sequences in order to display a thematic progression a large portion of what people would say is the joy of video games is the sense of discovery they're able to instill you are the one who is skillful enough or fortunate enough to find those areas and details that reveal something much deeper that the world has to offer metroid prime offered a truly unique manner in which game narrative was to be experienced by the player the narrative was almost completely subdued allowing the world to unfold through the pages of law ready to be discovered at the player's discretion and an atmospheric infused world insinuating through the isolation of a world that once was this can be seen as a question of storytelling through design which was the case for the masterpiece silent hill 2 offering a world built from the psychological trauma of the protagonist a town which manifests itself as a person's greatest fear is also a masterclass in transmitting the jungian affairs of sexuality abandonment and suffering throughout every facet of the world it's hot as hell in here [Music] you see it too for me it's always like this [Music] but what if upon discovering a world a logic was formed that led to an even deeper ambiguity that the more you discovered the more questions were posed such is the case for miyazaki's dark souls series to leave the undead asylum in pilgrimage to the land of the ancient lords lordran dark souls begins with a cut scene vaguely transcribing the history of the world and the major players involved in it from there you're destined to work your way through the world without any guidance with multiple paths to follow choosing exactly how you want to tackle it however the thing is many people may play through dark souls and be completely alienated to its narrative they may have no idea exactly what they're doing they hear rumblings of a fire and some recurring character names yet the purpose as to what is happening remains a mystery chosen undead your fate is to succeed the great lord gwyn so that you may link the fire cast away the dark and undo the curse of the undead the dark souls narrative style hinges on the player integration to the world how deep is the player willing to travel and to what degree can ambiguity influence their decisions and opinions the narrative of dark souls revolves around a cyclical world a world that repeats its cycles over and over again avoiding its frighteningly slow decline to death and the darkness that is to follow but the events that initiated this have been and gone the great wars and legends that the world is built off has passed generations ago now all that remains are whispers remnants the age of fire was founded by the old gods sustained by the linking of the fire but the gods are no more and the all-powerful fire deserveth a new air we're not given the first-hand information of what occurred and even if it's claimed to be that the information we're given is often contradictory hints towards where items came from the sculptures and architecture that form the landscape the very design of the beings from all corners of this universe nudged the player in the correct direction of the truth lord gwyn trembled at the dark clinging to his age of fire and in dire fear of humans and the dark lord who would one day be born amongst them lord gwyn resisted the course of nature by sacrificing himself to link the fire and commanding his children to shepherd the humans gwyn has blurred your past to prevent the birth of the dark lord we must be proactive in figuring out said truth however so much ambiguity is present that we must also rely on instinct and assumption to fill out the logic of the world dark souls is a world fraught with death the world and all its inhabitants are decaying in one form or another trapped in an endless cycle of life and death the immense weight of the universe's temporality plagues us at every moment quite like my dear sister the eggs it hurts they've gone still the endless deaths we ourselves endure typify the same mentality that even after a completion of the game's main story we return back to the beginning and go through it all again and when we're victorious after the constant slogging attempts we achieve a strong overcoming of obstacles but triumph isn't necessarily the present emotion that's sustained we're not greeted with any victorious theme just silence brought immediately back into the world of hopelessness for dark souls amalgamates the entirety of its visions into a real world for the player to explore its incredible aesthetic may be what shines to those who gaze upon it yet it's its unique design in both gameplay and visuals that coincide with its storytelling the story of dark souls ends with the player defeating gwyn a distantly remembered king responsible for the impermanent states of the world defending the last flame the only remnants of the kingdom he built and subsequently destroyed and at the end of the final game in the trilogy we encountered the soul of cinder an amalgamation of all those that had linked the fire previously however after the hundreds of hours and deaths put into this trilogy what do we find that the final incarnation we must defeat once more is gwyn we find ourselves in our final moments right back at the beginning no matter what is to happen the world of dark souls is destined to be an inescapable realm of the morose the information we know about the world is scattered the memories fade in and out of view the knowledge passes through permeable truths the finale finds us wherein the entire world has coalesced past present and future and this is the crux of the philosophy behind dark souls as storytelling the storytelling has no linearity to it there's a fluidity of its knowledge where its principles of design are prioritized more than anything else there's a sensibility within its approach where emotion through insinuation is evoked thus began the age of fire but soon the flames will fade and only dark will remain miyazaki tells the entirety of the story of dark souls without actually telling the story it's like seeing segments of a painting through a keyhole you have only portions to play with so how can that emotion fully convey itself in dark souls is by offering anecdotes segments of myths and legends junctures of a character's story parts but never the whole and it's this system which is applied so that every facet of this dying world could be translated across to the player dark souls altered the landscape of game design in every conceivable way for it wasn't enough to create a new aesthetic for games it was crucial to convey every emotion of helplessness death and inevitability into every mechanic every artistic input to create a piece that would not only elevate itself but elevate the art form as a whole well what are you going to do i've already decided i don't really care i'm simply crest fallen most games intend to keep the players playing whether it's an online game that operates on the level of competition or on the basis of single player achievement that individuals can challenge themselves whether it be business or personal decisions most developers want players to get the best value for their purchase but this in itself sets up a very consumer supplier mentality not necessarily what should immediately be thought of when it comes to art an art piece has some sense of experience to it particularly a piece that revolves around the concept of narrative so if that's the case what's the totality of experience with a video game in essence when does the video game end it in turn seems appropriate to end this look at the video game medium with nier automata now to discuss the narrative and thematics of near automata alone is a mammoth task in itself near is a game following two androids attempting to rid the earth from machines that were sent here by aliens it incorporates the cliches of mecca anime gothic inspired fashion and many character action games however what immediately grabs you is the presentation of the game itself you're treated to inventive character design and perhaps the greatest soundtrack to ever feature in a video [Music] game [Music] and before you know it existential themes begin to fuel the narrative more than anything else of course many of these themes aren't groundbreakingly new themes of cybernetic sentience and consciousness have been deeply explored in the cyberpunk genre and the works of philip k dick however this exploration is by no means shallow we begin to encounter characters with rather familiar names but as opposed to simple name-dropping pre-established philosophy is what's used as a framework for near's narrative and all are placed with the same equivalence and pitted against one another [Applause] for in the world of near like all good science fiction it uses the world as to what it could be to discuss the world of now a world with no humans in it discusses perhaps better than any other game the story of humanity it would be a long and reductionist thing if i were to explain how the narrative of near plays out however i can summarize it and discuss the importance of its method near automata features machines whose existence was seemingly meaningless and thus in order to gain purpose they imitated the now extinct humans regardless of the functionality of what it is they do they manage to segment from one another and create monarchies religions democracies and so on they even managed to develop families without having the capabilities of procreation but the importance of each machine's purpose stems from a specific point the machines were programmed by aliens with one purpose to defeat the enemy however at the point in which the machines were close to their goal they managed to gain self-awareness how did this emerge that if the machines were to achieve their programmed purpose they would immediately become obsolete there would be no enemies for them to defeat thus they either had to create new enemies or not fulfill their task this inner conflict developed their self-awareness and ultimately disconnected the machines from their network that which established their hive mind programming they broke away into factions and developed their own purposes marks and engels are giant factory-like machines who create workers whose purpose is to work kierkegaard is a robot that establishes upon death the machines are to become as gods themselves the machines derived their purposes from humanity and each faction gave them a singular purpose that singular purpose is what their sole purpose would be and they would strive to diligently and single-mindedly pursue that goal by all means [Music] [Music] yet as this rich and diverse world of contradictions and uncertainty unfolds around us we play as the androids the androids that were knowingly based from humans who similarly saw purpose is to destroy the enemy and we as players are also given one object finish the game the major theme that i can derive from near is a sense of self-defined purpose the conflict within the game is all internal and it's that internal conflict which allows all of the characters to give themselves a goal which they can devote their life to achieving however much like the inciting incident that manifested this mindset what would happen if you the player ultimately achieved that goal is it likely that the goals in which the machines bestowed on themselves were ultimately unachievable thus never having to acknowledge the unavoidable conclusion which is that life is purposeless [Laughter] many of the machines which don't devote themselves to a greater ideal do end up achieving their much simpler goals and in complete self-recognition of themselves commit suicide the machines mutate and evolve through much more monstrous transformations in order to maintain some manner of purpose and although looking at its perspective we begin to feel a sense of on we near is anything but pessimistic shows us that although the search for truth is an inescapable facet of life it's often fueled through the immateriality of living trapping ourselves in logical loops the metaphysical conflicts of why we're here what our purpose is that have emerged throughout human history are all on display every perspective that exists is all around us purposed through beauty through art they're all hair and all equally inconsequential the experience of near is the totality of human existence we see things not only from the perspective of our main protagonist but from the perspective of the side characters a character that's not as physically powerful but much more grounded in his deep understanding of the machines and that very same immateriality which becomes more exposed to us we only see the internal after we see the external and our perspective on what we knew before changes our perception of the antagonists is altered once we witness [Music] this is a complex narrative its allegiance is ever-changing and your understanding of the world always feels more incomplete the more you delve into it because you're playing a game this isn't real life it's art and this piece of art is not only about to change your perspective on the art form itself but hopefully be something that you can take into the world with you foreign who are you and what are you doing yes all the questions that near automata raises are intriguing and thought-provoking but so what is just a game nay even goes out of its way to show you just how much of a game it is you can level up your character you have your hacking mini game we even have moments where the presentation evokes old side scrollers and the classic arcade shooter mobs it's just a game you play it until it ends and then it's over the credits roll and you're done but you're not done in fact you've only just scratched the surface you can keep playing and you may run into more and more endings the game has ended it's ended numerous times if you would like that can be your ending you can choose to see that that was how the narrative ended and treat it like any other game but we're talking about how a game ends not in its narrative but in its relation to you the player the further you progress the more endings of near you bypass until you reach a moment in which you like the machines must acknowledge the awareness of yourself and your own purpose you must wish that things could be different even though you accept that they can't be both of these decisions are made and you then go through an unwinnable section in which you're able to salvage some of your data however the only way to reach the finale of near is to delete the entirety of your saved game but in doing so your data will be able to assist someone else going through near that reaches that same point of acceptance and your personal message to them will be displayed you'll be able to help someone that valued the narrative enough to see it through to the end just like you your data after that will be permanently wiped never to have existed all of the work all of your adventures in the game world are over and all that remains are your memories of it because that is the nature of art every time you engage with it it will be different but that initial experience that true experience will always remain and is unchangeable near for everyone that played it can never be that experience again you have the option to play it through again but the experience is already there and can't be renewed the knowledge that you have is your memory the machines perceived dying as to be a remnant of being human to die was to be more human to be more you to be god you were the god of this world and that prophecy has been fulfilled the god has been killed and no longer existed this is not an anti-theological message sent by the game more so one that emphasized the importance of your individual experience not only the knowledge that you gain from that but what you're going to do with it just as you were the architect of this world so are you the architect of your own video games are no longer meant to be modes of passive entertainment they're to be utilized to create something greater than ourselves near shows us that the human condition is messy and fraught with contradictions and our purpose is to be derived from our experiences near is but one of those experiences it gives us the vision of art as not something to be engaged with passively but something to take with us into the wider world near does not have to be played again by someone that's already played it all of what is there will still remain but no matter how much we ignore or respond to there's no answer for our purpose we must take our own experiences and create something valuable something meaningful the greatest art is not to divulge answers for us but to open up the realms for new lines of questions near acknowledges the philosophical devotion of many people one person that it doesn't mention is the great author leo tolstoy who i'd like to quote if i were told to write a novel in which i could establish the correct view of social questions i wouldn't bother spending two hours on something like that but if someone told me that what i write now will be read by today's children 20 years on and that they will laugh and cry over it and come to love life then i will devote my whole life and all my powers to it this is the purpose of art to evoke a love of life not to enlighten us to absolute meaning but to offer us potential to bring the immaterial into the material amongst the existential dread and fear in there we're left with one feeling [Music] [Music] we'd like to thank mubi for sponsoring this video mubi is a curated streaming service an ever-changing collection of handpicked films from new directors to award winners from everywhere on earth beautiful interesting incredible movies and always carefully chosen by movie curators you can stream or download all of mubi's movies anytime on any screen any device anywhere right now movie uk you can watch the pusher trilogy by nicholas winning reference the pusher trilogy is a double debut of both referen and mads mickelson it explores the violent criminal underworld of copenhagen with a crude tone to its storytelling shot handheld borderline cinema verite it's a good antidote to reference iconographic style of his more recent films go to mubi to also check a lot of films we recommend in our essays mubi is the perfect gateway to world cinema and the only streaming platform the cinema cartography fully recommends you can try mubi for free for 30 days at mubi.com cinema cartography for a whole month of great cinema for free you

Channel: The Cinema Cartography

Views: 301,524

Keywords: Bioshock, Video Games, Gaming, Story, Spec Ops, Metal Gear Solid, Sons of Liberty, MGS2, Killer 7, Dark Souls, Nier, Nier Automata, Replicant, Suda 51, The Walking Dead, Fourth Wall, Storytelling, Mass Effect, Majoras Mask, Zelda, I Have No Mouth and I must Scream, Silent Hill 2, Call of Duty, Shooters, Battlefield, Single Player, Nintendo, Best, Top, Explained, Writing, Metroid Prime, Eternal Darkness, GTA, Grand Theft Auto, Video Essay, Cinema, Cinematic, The Cinema Cartography, Aesthetic

Id: LGyx-G4HPnc

Length: 82min 48sec (4968 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 29 2021