What We Could Do
Make games that aren't juvenile pap.
Ha ha, but seriously. I don't want to leave anyone with
the impression that Oedipal dilemmas are the only option for mature, morally
thoughtful games. What we need to do is explore our options - Oedipal dilemmas
being one of the mostly overlooked options.
The goal of all this was hopefully to broaden
vocabularies and ideas. As spell-check is all too eager to remind me,
"Edenian" and "Pandoran" are not real words. By providing
some tentative labels, I hope to open up how we think about morality in
games.
There is no reason why morality systems in games have
to be terrible, even games with binary moral systems. The answer is not that
games should never talk about morality or even that it should be confined to
the narrative level.
Morality, and formal morality in particular, is nothing
if not a mutually-agreed upon system. Games, as systems, are perhaps the
perfect medium for representing and recreating moral systems for criticism and
contemplation. Traditionally narrative mediums such as books or movies can
generally only present one sequence of events (the most post-modern examples
notwithstanding). By gamifying moral systems, we can examine them from multiple
angles.
Oedipus Rex the
play can only recount the events of Oedipus' life from one perspective with one
series of events. We weep for Oedipus, but his choices are scripted by the
playwright as much as by the gods. Oedipus DX: Jocsta's Revenge the
video game might also have scripted dialogue, but it can also have a scripted
(that is to say, coded) moral system that allows Oedipus to make alternate
decisions within the same moral framework.
It is this subtle difference between scripting the words
of a play and scripting the rules of a game that should excite us. Eve,
Pandora, and Oedipus can teach us a lot as stories, but they could have even
more potential as games.
Get well soon!
ReplyDeleteThanks Anon!
DeleteIt occurs to me that one sees Oedipus-style moral problems in Call of Cthulhu, especially in the modern-day Delta Green setting. Kenneth Hite has said that Call of Cthulhu is the only morally adult roleplaying game.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip - I'll look into Delta Green for ideas.
ReplyDelete