In theatrical art and cinema there is the concept of "character grain". This is a dry squeeze, the image and at the same time the essence of the protagonist, described by a short phrase, and sometimes in general in one word. Scrough MacDak – Scrog, Sherlock Holmes – brilliant musical drug addict, Jim Digris – intellectual daredevil, Kolobok – adventurer with a tragic note, iodine – pocket spiritual shepherd, chicken ryuba – village messiah, mouse – tagged catastrophe of a local.
So that the viewer would be interested to observe the character, his image, his grain should change over time. The character may either be revealed, and then during the narrative we learn about the hero something new that he had before, but did not advertise. Either develop – in this case we can talk about the evolution of the personality.
Dramatic heroine
Metamorphoses of characters – the basis of drama. It is uninteresting to observe a static, in no way changing hero, even if he performs some unusual actions and actions.
The monstrous paradox is that the developers of the games devote to this most important element of the narrative (and it does not matter what it is about cinema, theatrical production, literary work or game) catastrophically little attention. The emphasis is almost always shifted towards gameplay, and the spiritual qualities of the heroes remain somewhere in the background. It seems that there is a personality development, but some inconspicuous, buried under a heap of secondary, less significant things.
And when the games suddenly come out technically imperfect, but at the same time telling an interesting story, the characters of which evolve, then such projects are remembered for a long time. One of the brightest examples – The Walking Dead from Telltale Games. Against the background of angular graphics and very simple game mechanics, a deep human tragedy is played out, all attention is focused on the feelings and experiences of the heroes, and not on the gameplay.
If we say about Bioshock Infinite as a dramatic work, the game does not make any global discoveries. It’s just very competently, a beautifully played script where the focus of attention is shifted from gameplay on the personalities of the characters – primarily for Elizabeth.
Such a living, sensual and emotional partner in games until this moment, one might say, did not exist. In fact, Irrational Games They turned a very simple, but effective focus – they made the main character of the main. The booker acts only in the role of a witness of metamorphoses that occur with Elizabeth. And since all the attention is directed at the girl, and Devitt's feelings are slightly muffled, it becomes even easier for the player to associate himself with the booker. For the sake of the same purpose, the authors went to another unprecedented step – they deliberately simplified the combat system debugged at the two previous games of the series.
Fleeting glances
But on this Levin does not stop. He does not just allow us to observe Elizabeth’s mental development, he plays between her and the main character (that is, in fact, a player, and not a buker), a true love intrigue. Gradually, implicitly, not calling a spade a spade, but it is the novel. We are in simple but very effective means to fall in love with Elizabeth a little, the true grain of which is not a poor girl with magical abilities, but a wonderful stranger.
At first, in the statue of the island of monuments, the real briefings are arranged for us, they allow us to evaluate the heroine from all angles. Then they let him feel like a hero – we save Elizabeth and from this we begin to experience the first affection for her. Eternal Law of Love: we value more not what someone does for us, but what we do for someone. If you want to fall in love with yourself, make you make an act for your sake, and the feeling will flare up.
Then, already disguised as a trip along Colombia, the game continues to demonstrate the best qualities of Elizabeth. She is modest, but smart, brave, but vulnerable. On the one hand, the authors try to evoke paternal feelings for it in us, but on the other, they immediately show that Elizabeth can stand up for Space Wins Casino themselves.
This thermonuclear cocktail defeated more than a million men in the real life of the heart: childishly vulnerable, ephemeral creature, which by all means wants to protect, but at the same time a completely independent person. That is, everything that you in the game will do for Elizabeth, as if optional. She herself, perhaps, would have coped with everything or just reconciled with the inevitable. And from this all your actions acquire an additional significance for you. You could not do anything, but did! This is a feat of a completely voluntary basis. It was not the situation forced you, but you yourself decided to do just that. This is the finest matter that Ken Levin feels, probably, like no other in the gaming industry.
Role games
Intimate leitmotif does not end there. At some point, Elizabeth is already beginning to take care. And then, according to the canons of a love novel, a quarrel occurs between the hero and the girl, which, of course, is to blame for Devitt. Subsequent reconciliation finally, forgive me for a rude word, plants a player on Elizabeth. In the second half of the game, the erotic motive almost completely disappears, but the gamma of emotions from the first two hours is enough so that the intensity of feelings does not weaken to the very credits.
All this is a slightly popular, but unusually cute, ambitious hopping, it would not be possible without a detailed study of purely technical things – the model and animation of Elizabeth. We are unlikely to be mistaken if we say that the Boker's partner is the most emotional character in the history of computer games. We take into account, of course, only realistic and conditionally realistic settings (among game comedies, amazing front animation is not uncommon).
Everything that Elizabeth feels immediately reflects on her face. The girl rejoices, angry, is upset, indignant, does not forget to build her eyes along the way, at the right moments, she erotically touches her hair and neck, turns into the most profitable angles. It seems to be no crime, but the invisible network of eroticism envelops almost the entire animation of Elizabeth, even those moments when she pulls Devitt from the other world, reviving him in battle. All this is done consciously and pursues a very definite goal – to tie the player as much as possible.
We conducted our own small investigation and found out how players, depending on sexual, relate to Elizabeth. It turned out that more than 75% of the men surveyed experience quite deep intimate feelings, even if the appearance of Elizabeth “Not their Type” itself. A similar survey among female players showed that Elizabeth is more unpleasant for them. After a more dative discussion, most girls admitted, more precisely, discovered for themselves in the process of conversation that negative emotions are caused by what they see and feel the rival in Elizabeth.
Sveta Pomerantsev, for example, spoke out quite clearly on this subject: “Her behavior and appearance are innocent and sexy at the same time. Such a combination is much worse than just boobs and priests in the frame. This is an image that falls in love with men and causes jealousy in women ".
On the verge of taboos
When closer to the final all the roles of the heroes are finally placed in their places, the initial intimate line appears in a completely different light (if the game has not yet passed, just miss this and the next two paragraphs, because they contain a key spoiler). Back in January, on one of the last predatory shows of the game, we talked a lot with Ken Levin about topics that developers are trying to avoid in games. We discussed religion, detonation … and then Ken very clearly outlined his position. He said that, for example, sex is almost always banned at all because the audience is not ready for this, but because the developers are very afraid that someone will come and take them the opportunity to make games if the authors are too open refer to forbidden topics.
I must admit that we couldn’t even think that Ken’s courage would be enough to draw a scenario line through the game, in which there is a lightest sexual motive between his father and daughter. Spiritual incest. But this is the case. Yes, neither Devitt nor Elizabeth at the beginning of the narrative know about their family ties, but the more crushing awareness of their kinship in the finale.
Levin, never crossing the forbidden line, only hints play with topics that no one else dares to speak in the gaming industry. At the same time, everything was filed so subtle that this layer of narration is realized only by those who have grown spiritually and morally before perception. The rest only note for themselves that they were too attached to Elizabeth at the very beginning of the game.
Bioshock Infinite, like no other game, revealed the serious problem of modern games. Over the three decades of their development, developers learned to do high-tech projects, polished the gameplay of different genres to brilliance, but there are still extremely few people who know how to think in the laws of drama in the industry. What has long been an integral part of cinema, theater and literature, in games is available only to units.
The situation is offensive to the pain and, unfortunately, in the near future almost hopeless. The game industry opens too many light ways, on each of which a thick pack of money awaits. And the elaboration of the plot and characters of heroes is one of the most difficult roads, on which it is also too easy to stumble. That is why the majority for a long time will choose the already beaten direct highways, on which everything has long been known, verified, drunk and fixed by the rules, but where there is no hint of serious directing and working with heroes.
Of course, in the cinema and the literature of serious drama in percentage terms, there are also few-just when games such as Bioshock Infinite come out, I really want studios like Irrational Games, it becomes a little more.