Balancing Real with Fun
Playing through Dragon Age II, reflecting on Origins and both Mass Effects brings up an interesting conundrum in my mind; the balance of reality versus wish-fulfillment in game storytelling.
One of Dragon Age's major marketing points has always been darkness. It sells itself as the grim and gritty version of high fantasy, where humanity's less than noble traits are on full display. The monsters in the dark are both truly monstrous and fundamentally unbeatable. I found an interesting thing happened to me as I played through Origins- something of an internal balance point in my tolerance for misery got tipped, and I pulled back emotionally from the game. That's not to say I completely disengaged, I still enjoyed many things about it. But by the time I ran into the Broodmother, something in me just disconnected, I believe as a protective reflex. Thereafter, that part of me played and enjoyed the system, to see the story to the end, but the emotions weren't the same.
Mass Effect 2 pushed me close to the same thing, but part of that was personal frustration at how little recognition the game gives to the depth of the Devil's Bargain Shepard has made with Cerberus (I realize this depends on the Shepard- some Sheps will be fine with Cerberus, others not so much).
I think there's a limit to how much misery, how many lesser-of-all-evils decisions I have to make in a game before I find myself pulling back, protecting my emotional involvement. When there's so little actual good to be had, why am I bothering to get invested in the first place? Awakenings was bad for this- no matter what the Warden did, the end was misery for a hell of a lot of people, and the choice of what to do with the Big Bad (was it/he even bad?) fundamentally unresolved, unsatisfying.
One could argue that it's more realistic that way. I don't disagree.
But I've found myself making this point to the guy who runs the DnD game among my friends- he *loves* airtight, gritty realism. But here's the thing- I live in the real world every day, I deal with all the problems and unresolved gray places. Very little is heroic or exciting, it's about getting through each day and trying to make the right moves to keep things together. And it could all fly apart at a moment's notice... I happen to be overly aware of that thanks to a medical issue. Real life is chock full of uncertainty and slippery slopes.
But I play games and write stories for enjoyment.
Just how much of that realism do I want in my escapist entertainment? That question must sound funny coming from the author of fanfic that spends a lot of time fussing over how believable her world feels, but I think it's worth asking. Because I do want realism, but I know that my ideal story consists of a careful alchemy of drama, pathos, failure, success, humor and heroism, where nothing is easy but if you dig down far enough, everything is built on a fundamental foundation of optimism. My escapism is believing that there's light in the darkness if you work hard enough.
So I find the games I enjoy the most are the ones that reflect that, and that's where Origins failed me. Emotionally, it became hard work to wade through the horror and human terribleness. Mass Effect stands out as my favorite because the genuinely hard decisions like Virmire were balanced against enough chance to do good that I still felt heroic. I would argue that the Virmire choice stands out because it isn't lost in a sea of similar evil/evil choices. I would argue that there's such a thing as too much reality in a game story, and it seems like the Dragon Ages tend to tread (and cross) that line for me.
I recognize this is very much a personal reaction, and I don't believe there's such thing as a perfect game or story. I've been trading ideas with you guys long enough to see there are wildly varied reactions among us. For instance, I don't really like tragic stories, others adore them. The gradations between are infinite.
How does this balance work for you? Do you find yourself tweaking it in fanfic to get closer to your ideal alchemy? How does the overall tone of the two franchises affect your investment in each universe?
Since this discussion might prompt spoilers for DA2, so please mark any spoilers or white them out with color tags in comments.
One of Dragon Age's major marketing points has always been darkness. It sells itself as the grim and gritty version of high fantasy, where humanity's less than noble traits are on full display. The monsters in the dark are both truly monstrous and fundamentally unbeatable. I found an interesting thing happened to me as I played through Origins- something of an internal balance point in my tolerance for misery got tipped, and I pulled back emotionally from the game. That's not to say I completely disengaged, I still enjoyed many things about it. But by the time I ran into the Broodmother, something in me just disconnected, I believe as a protective reflex. Thereafter, that part of me played and enjoyed the system, to see the story to the end, but the emotions weren't the same.
Mass Effect 2 pushed me close to the same thing, but part of that was personal frustration at how little recognition the game gives to the depth of the Devil's Bargain Shepard has made with Cerberus (I realize this depends on the Shepard- some Sheps will be fine with Cerberus, others not so much).
I think there's a limit to how much misery, how many lesser-of-all-evils decisions I have to make in a game before I find myself pulling back, protecting my emotional involvement. When there's so little actual good to be had, why am I bothering to get invested in the first place? Awakenings was bad for this- no matter what the Warden did, the end was misery for a hell of a lot of people, and the choice of what to do with the Big Bad (was it/he even bad?) fundamentally unresolved, unsatisfying.
One could argue that it's more realistic that way. I don't disagree.
But I've found myself making this point to the guy who runs the DnD game among my friends- he *loves* airtight, gritty realism. But here's the thing- I live in the real world every day, I deal with all the problems and unresolved gray places. Very little is heroic or exciting, it's about getting through each day and trying to make the right moves to keep things together. And it could all fly apart at a moment's notice... I happen to be overly aware of that thanks to a medical issue. Real life is chock full of uncertainty and slippery slopes.
But I play games and write stories for enjoyment.
Just how much of that realism do I want in my escapist entertainment? That question must sound funny coming from the author of fanfic that spends a lot of time fussing over how believable her world feels, but I think it's worth asking. Because I do want realism, but I know that my ideal story consists of a careful alchemy of drama, pathos, failure, success, humor and heroism, where nothing is easy but if you dig down far enough, everything is built on a fundamental foundation of optimism. My escapism is believing that there's light in the darkness if you work hard enough.
So I find the games I enjoy the most are the ones that reflect that, and that's where Origins failed me. Emotionally, it became hard work to wade through the horror and human terribleness. Mass Effect stands out as my favorite because the genuinely hard decisions like Virmire were balanced against enough chance to do good that I still felt heroic. I would argue that the Virmire choice stands out because it isn't lost in a sea of similar evil/evil choices. I would argue that there's such a thing as too much reality in a game story, and it seems like the Dragon Ages tend to tread (and cross) that line for me.
I recognize this is very much a personal reaction, and I don't believe there's such thing as a perfect game or story. I've been trading ideas with you guys long enough to see there are wildly varied reactions among us. For instance, I don't really like tragic stories, others adore them. The gradations between are infinite.
How does this balance work for you? Do you find yourself tweaking it in fanfic to get closer to your ideal alchemy? How does the overall tone of the two franchises affect your investment in each universe?
Since this discussion might prompt spoilers for DA2, so please mark any spoilers or white them out with color tags in comments.