Clever game stories and real world analogies

SPOILER WARNING : Read it at your own risk. Eligible for those who finished Mass Effect II, Starcraft II, Assassin Creed series and God of War III

 

I was watching a feature video from the Escapist magazine website, which showed how video games help us to understand the morality of the human being and how our actions can affect as a whole. I was pretty fascinated by the video they made and thought why not I make my own version of it (not video though but audio). Video games nowadays are just like Hollywood industry (or bigger I think). As time goes, it seems the creativity behind making AAA games have been improved a lot. The industry getting bigger, more people are being hired starting from developers and designers, to artists, musicians and writers. In this blog I will talk about how much writers and designers are so clever to implement elements that allow players to make a choice and experience the choice and also how a story can indeed bring in stuff that is actually going on in real life and also in person’s mind.

 

Naturally some of us would definitely go for the bad option like kill someone for money or destroy everything. That’s fine and indeed its fun. I also mentioned in my earlier blogs that video game violence or bad stuffs helps people to relieve stress or even get aware of the fact that the action is really bad if it’s done in real life. I will talk about some of the moral choices in the game and I am also going to talk about some of the crucial part of the storyline of the game that gives a hell lot of meaning to all the gamers. First we come to (as usual in most of the time) Mass Effect II. In the Escapist video, they took an example of the Legion side quest where you have to kill everyone or you can brainwash them. Either actions are bad anyway cause you are indeed harming them anyway, but what about you brainwash them to serve for greater good. Maybe the action can help the whole universe society. In real world if you get a possession of a gun and somehow meet a terrorist, what you are going to do. If you kill the terrorist, you can be assured that he will not harm anyone anymore. You did a good job saving the society. Case closed. However this similar situation can happen again. How about you don’t kill him but instead you try to convince him and teach him that what he is doing is truly harming him and the society as a whole. Maybe he can become a good man in the future. Of course you haven’t killed him so there should be a side effect too. Maybe if the terrorist was from different race/religion there is a possibility that the hatred may diminish. Maybe the terrorist can also teach others too. Chain reaction is going on here. Your action may serve even greater good. If you played Mass Effect I and continued the same character in Mass Effect II and if you spared the Rachni, you will notice they come for a minor role in Mass Effect II to aid you. Yup, you can make new friends (err Rachnis are disgusting) in the process who can aid you in dire needs. It might be possible that the geths you brainwashed may even show up in Mass Effect III to help you. I just finished Starcraft II. The game is awesome. Even in this game there are scenarios where you have to take choices. A bad choice can make Jim Raynor lose a friend because of betrayel as shown during the Haven mission. Oh yes your friend could have gotten a chance to save instead of kill by getting ample time to research for the cure, which could even help anyone in the universe for greater good. How about the Tosh’s storyline? If you side with Tosh, you have to release the criminals who are really dreadful.

 

Let’s get out of the choice thing and focus more into storyline. Let’s come to Assassin Creed series. The story of the game is indeed very mature. In the ending of Assassins Creed II, Minerva says to Desmond that he the only hope to save the humankind to be free. In Assassins Creed I, there were several scriptures that pointed the term Dec 21st 2012, which is supposed to be the end of the Mayan calendar or considered the end of the world, which I hardly believe. Assassins Creed III (which is going to be the final trilogy of the series) is not scheduled to come out, so my wild guess (or should I say guaranteed guess) that the game should come out on 2012 (if possible December). Why? Think about this. Desmond is given a duty to save mankind from utter domination. If you check on Vidic’s email, it says that Abstergo will launch a satellite that will help Abstergo to control mankind and start a new era (Dark era). So if Desmond can overcome and defeat Abstergo on that very date, the world will witness a new era to start in the game. The world will be saved. Its Desmond’s choice on whether he will save the world or not. If we think in real world scenario, 2012 is just near and we are witnessing some critical scenes. If we consider bad news first there are wars going on, floods, fires, plane crashes and mudslides everywhere. Millions of lives are getting lost. However think about the other way on the good sides. I will just refer to the recent news that I came along. Here are some of them: President Obama announced removal of troops from Iraq, America is debating among people about the awareness of religious and race tolerance (showing signs of improvement in relations between people of different religions and races). Some countries are getting away from recession. I hope if the series of good stuffs keep on going until 2012, then the world may notice a birth of a good new era after December 21st 2012. We are still hopeful anyway. This is all upto people’s choice about how they are going to proceed and how they are going to make a difference.

 

What happens in God of War III? Kratos was infused with the power of hope. Instead of giving the power back away to Athena, Kratos stabs himself and says that the hope is for all the people in the mankind. If we consider the setting where Kratos lived in the war-torn Greece, Kratos hoped that the final sacrifice he made can bring further hope to all the people around him and thus end the crisis going on there. In real world, it is always wise for people to hope and be optimistic for the wellbeing of them and for others. Its all positive thinking and positive thinking definitely bring goodness to people’s life. People should learn to hope to make the world a healthy place to live in. If people give up hope, is there any way to bring the end of any existing crisis going on in this world or even the end of problems going on within people? I don’t think so and it’s a proven fact (I am an avid news reader and I can’t stay healthy if I can’t read news every single morning). Games are such intelligent media that can really tell people some important messages of life, provided if people can figure those out.