Wednesday, 20 May 2009

  • Dante Goes Digital...

    ...but not in the way you might think.  Apparently there's a new video game on the horizon by the name of Dante's Inferno.  Judging from this article, it sounds hilarious/fun:

    Anyone expecting a faithful interactive representation of the Commedia’s sorrow and pity will be somewhat taken aback. Made by the developers of last year’s outer-space zombie shooter Dead Space, the game recasts Dante as a muscle-bound anti-hero, carving his way through the Nine Circles with a scythe and a cross to liberate his girlfriend from Lucifer.

    On a somewhat more serious note, the article goes on to discuss the literary... er, merits... of video games.  Personally, I do enjoy games with a narrative to them, like certain 'RPGs' -- but I much prefer games that have a free, open-ended universe, something fictional but malleable, like the article says:

    Our experience of stories is, by and large, a lateral one, in which the writer commands every aspect of the world the reader inhabits as well as the process by which it reveals itself. Fine; it’s worked for centuries. But it’s hard to shake the feeling that gaming – which increasingly promises a narrative space for the player to make his own way, never having the same experience twice – is where at least some of the great writers of tomorrow will make their names.

    It's a fascinating idea, barely more than hinted at in the article (RTWT* it's only a few paragraphs!).  Something I've wondered about, but never explored deeply.

    I don't really have the money to purchase playing time in MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games), but my sense of the available games is that they are all quite aimless -- sure, they have quests for you to perform, monsters to kill, etc.  But I've not seen any evidence that there are thought-provoking plots or (truly) coherent storylines.  What need for coherent storylines?  I suppose it depends on your definition of great literature, but in a coherent storyline, there are consequences for the characters' actions, a sort of progression from action to consequence (and on to another action, another consequence, perhaps ad infinitum).

    "Coherent" doesn't mean "perfect," in my vocabulary here -- Moby Dick has a barely coherent storyline (or maybe a very coherent storyline frequently interrupted with asides, or soliloquies), and I still consider it to be fine literature -- but there are excellent reasons to prefer a discernible story to the alternative, which I guess is a kind of random boring chaos (as opposed to, say, the random exciting chaos of Gulliver's Travels or Candide -- not to mention, Candide and GT actually have endgames, if not plots).  One reason is aesthetic:  I get really bored with The Sims, because, despite its open universe, it never rises above the level of quotidian challenges, like working, paying the bills, keeping the kids fed -- and it has no endgame.  Sim City was a bit different, because there you levied taxes, and even repaired the damages after an alien attack (*shrug*); but if your day-job was being city manager or governor, I'm guessing Sim City would hold little appeal.

    I can offer a positive example of 'literature' in gaming:  Deus Ex.  This was not really an open-ended game, but it did allow you to choose one of four paths (IIRC†) to the end, and the path you chose determined the manner of the game's ending.  What made it a kind of literature was the (almost) high seriousness of its theme, and the game's relative complexity, compared to other such games.  It actually provoked thought, though most of the 'action' was shooter-like.  Yet, that was part of the game's complexity, too:  you need not shoot every one of your 'enemies,' rather, you could choose to sneak past them, or you could knock them unconscious.  The manner in which you played the game was your choice (unfortunately, the manner of your playing didn't have any effect on the outcome of the game).  As for the theme:  the theme of Deus Ex was an age-old one, but one which every generation confronts in some way, either really or intellectually:  the literary and philosophical theme of totalitarian rule.  You could choose to be a maverick, and work to destroy the totalitarian forces at work, or you could choose to become the totalitarian ruler (you would, no doubt, be a benevolent dictator), or you could choose to support one of the factions vying to replace the current totalitarian ruler/regime.

    You were faced with a world-altering choice, in Deus Ex, and, hypothetically, your philosophy in the game could correspond in some way to your philosophy 'in real life' -- i.e., if faced with similar choices in real life, you might make similar decisions.  It's a bit like voting in an election, or maybe running for office.  Would you choose the democratic candidate?  The socialist?  Or would you run for office, and choose to be democratic -- or an all-controlling dictator?  If someone you know, and normally trust, decided it was necessary to overthrow the government, would you support him or try to stop him?

    It sounds silly because it is a kind of visionary extreme, but isn't that true of much literature?  How realistic is The Lord of the Rings?  And yet, it has its applications, by which I mean, it has its implications for your 'real life,' if only in terms of your (abstract) thinking, such as your conception of good and evil.

    I'm not sure that a game has to have a conclusion or endgame, in order to be 'literary' in scope.  Yet it is not enough simply to create a world, then set a bunch of users amok in it.  Literature, and the literary video game, doesn't have to have a practical application, but it should provoke abstract thought (ethical, philosophical, etc.), not just present little challenges or puzzles of logic.

    At least, that's how I see it.

    ---------------
    *RTWT=Read The Whole Thing (the whole article)
    (Note:  if you do bother to read the whole article - I once owned a copy of the game Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as well as owning the trilogy - I found the game 'unplayable' - just kept getting stuck - but it was fun).
    †IIRC=If I Recall Correctly - I seem to remember you could choose among four factions, and the end of the game would change somewhat, depending upon which faction you chose to give your allegiance to.

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