I’ve been playing a lot of Borderlands and comparing the experiences of playing the different classes.* There are some nice touches that differentiate the aesthetics for each class. Brick, the hulking melee class, has a higher camera angle than the Siren but more amusingly, he wheezes asthmatically when running.
This got me to thinking about my RPG style and how I like to filter my Spinner’s impressions of the world based upon their characters’ perspectives. This can be subtle–such as providing slightly different physical descriptions of an NPC to each Spinner at the table–or obvious–such as refusing to use the word “tank” and relying on pure description when describing an armored military assault from the 20th century to a group of psychic blood-letting monks from the 13th. Spinners have often commented that this storytelling approach helps put them in the mindset of their characters and reinforces their relationship to the world.
So, as I was running around the skag-infested Borderlands, I found myself wishing more games altered the environment, models, and/or gameplay to match your character’s view on life. In Black & White, it’s made pretty clear that your treatment of the world actually alters the world, but how much more powerful would it be if it was framed more metaphorically. Dwell on the negative, you’ll see more of the negative, etc.
My Two Barneys
One game moment stands out to me in this regard. And, to be honest, I have no idea if this was < Valve/Gearbox’s intent or not.
Before Barney was an individual character, all the guards in Half Life were called ‘Barney.’ All the Barneys looked, of course, exactly alike–scrawny, haggard characters. In the expansion, Half Life: Opposing Force, you are cast as a solider, rather than a scientist and your impression of Barney is quite different–he’s out of shape and soft of expression. This shift, to me, did wonders to help me define the type of character I was playing in the expansion and I felt more attached to this nameless soldier than I did Gordan Freeman because of it.
Can you name any other games/game franchises that explore this concept?
* For what it’s worth– I tend to like the Siren, but play her more like a Hunter and relying heavily on the sniper rifle and perching in hard-to-reach areas.
I generally, or before my computer lost my save, played as Mordecai, he was my first character I tried, simply because when given the choice, I’ll play as a sniper, preferring the safety of long range. Once I lost him I swiftly went to Brick and Lilith and proceeded to trounce through the game knowing how it worked a bit.
Interesting– you realize that Opposing Force was Gearbox’s baby (not Valve, I don’t think Valve had much to do with Opposing Force/Blue Shift other than giving fledgling Gearbox the go ahead), and thus both of your examples in this post are from Gearbox?
Well, I wouldn’t Borderlands a particularly good example. I would prefer to see quite a bit of difference in the way the four classes perceive the world.
But good call on HL:OF being a Gearbox product.
Except that’s not actually Barney on the right. It’s Otis. And you do encounter Barney in Opposing Force, you’re just usually separated from him, or he’s killed – although you do meet one of him right before the final boss.
Sorry to ruin it for you.
Ah, well. the point still stands as the default guard model was out-of-shape and soft. And I didn’t remember that there were particular guards in OF. Maybe I’ll have to replay and refresh my memory, eh?
The only example I can recall is an old Infocom game called Suspended ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspended ). The protagonist had to interface with a number of different robots, each of which had its own specialty; Auda had sound/vibration sensors, Sensa could sense electromagnetic fields, Poet specialized in diagnostics of equipment, etc.. Thus, if you were controlling Sensa, all the objects in the room would be described in terms of those fields (or not described at all).
Ooo. Nice. I’ll have to see if that’s in my Infocom collection.
Near the end of Bioshock 2, there is a sequence involving Little Sisters that does exactly this brilliantly.
The Clairvoyance psi power in Psychonauts.
The evolution of Barney is interesting. I think it happened more as a side-effect of improving technology and time to flesh out details of the in-game lore, but it has an interesting narrative effect as well.
In Half-Life there were only generic guards, which were dubbed “Barneys” (likely as a reference to Barney Fife). In Opposing Force, players encountered the Otis guards. In Blue Shift, the guards were even more individualized, with multiple variants of the guard character. Then of course, in Half-Life 2 and its expansions, Barney is a unique individual.
This all makes sense if you consider the player’s point of view. It’s easy to imagine that HL1-era Gordon Freeman probably didn’t pay a lot of attention to individual guards in their security vests and helmets. Instead it was the scientists who were distinguishable. (Well, moreso than the guards.)
With Opposing Force, it also makes sense that the military protagonist would pay closer attention to fitness and body types. In Blue Shift, playing as Barney, the guards are even more individualized. Again, this is all probably a side-effect of the amount of time the developers spent working on the NPC models, but it fits with the idea that different characters perceive the guards differently.
Last but not least, the inclusion of Barney Calhoun as a main character in the HL2 series is undoubtedly due to his fan popularity, and as a way to canonize the Blue Shift retcon. However, it also works from an in-game perspective when you consider that Gordon has probably developed personal friendships with key individuals.
In the end, the grand technology-supported retcon turns out to mirror the way that different characters perceive the Black Mesa security staff, either as a generic class or as individuals.
While not a huge example, I remember in Sacrifice that your chosen god for the map would affect both your building architecture style and the color of your spell summoning effect.
I also have a love for games that the world changes based on your character or play style. I wish that more open world games that offer the whole good/evil mechanic would let the player’s actions affect the world more then just raising or lowering a slider.
I’m playing through Borderlands right now too, my main is mordecai right now but I just started playing as Brick. I love being able to take out guys from a distance but I also switch to a shotgun when it’s time to go close range. For Brick I’m developing him as a close range hulk using shotguns and combat rifles and his fist to bash everything.
Much of the subtler horror in the Silent Hill series (the sort that typically strikes on the second playthrough, or the third, or while reminiscing about the game years later…) comes from the fact that this *could* be in effect, and the alternate interpretations that the game ambiguously hints at. “They look like monsters to you?”
There’s also Hitman: Blood Money, as noted by Tom Francis in an excellent piece (http://www.pentadact.com/index.php/2006-09-23-blood-money-and-sex). “You’re made to feel something of the way this anti-hero feels, but what he does in response to it is still up to you. The genius of it is that they’re portraying a character by how they paint everything but the character, rather than dictating the character’s actions or story.”