My Top 3 Ludicious Talks
This January, I attended the Ludicious Game Conference 2019 in Zurich and would like to share my top 3 favorite talks with you.
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#1 Mechanical Motifs: Press «F» to Pay Respects to Better Video Game Storytelling
In his talk, Ben Myres (https://twitter.com/nyamakop) described the interaction between story and game mechanics. Video games tell their stories like other media, e.g. comics or movies. Each medium has its unique storytelling tools. For example, a paragraph in a book with a short, choppy writing style without any adjectives can express emotions of baldness and lifelessness.
According to Ben, a good story must be credible and characters and actions must be coherent, which video games and their game mechanics sometimes fail to attempt. As an example, he mentioned Nathan Drake, who is a funny, friendly Indiana Jones. The game’s shooter mechanics technically imply, though, that he is a mass murderer and psychopath since he has to shoot several hundred people in the course the game.
Ben mentioned further good and bad examples of motives (recurring symbolism) in video games. Some of them I would like to list below:
Don’t Look Back — The game is a modern interpretation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. The protagonist saves his wife halfway through the game but is not allowed to look at her, otherwise she would fall to dust. The platformer game mechanics become more difficult at this point by not allowing the player to run back and facing his wife who is following him.
Last Of Us — In one of the game’s mechanics, main character Joel gives a leg-up to a girl named Ellie to overcome obstacles. A small cutscene fades in every time. At one point, Joel gets ready again and waits but Ellie doesn’t show up. This is because a tragic event has happened before and she doesn’t want to go on.
Call Of Duty — During a soldier’s funeral, the player must press the «F» key to salute. Since the game is a first-person shooter, it would have been narratively so much better if the player had to make a salute shot.
Florence — The mechanics of this game is to solve puzzles while telling the story of a couple. At a key point in the story, the puzzle can no longer be solved because the protagonists have lived apart.
My thoughts on the matter: Mechanics and story are two separate areas in most games. Also in my opinion, they don’t need to be connected for a good game. However, the right connection can take a game to the next level. As for my part, I will look for occasions to apply what I have learned in Ben’s talk.
#2 Space Invaders: The Fight for a More Inclusive Gaming Industry
In her presentation, Anita Sarkeesian (https://twitter.com/anitasarkeesian) analyzed gender roles in mainstream video games. She started with the gender neutral Space Invaders from 1978, then moved on to Lara Croft and finished with Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain with its mute protagonist Quiet who faces gun battles half-naked.
The «white man» normally plays the leading role in games, while people with darker skin tones take on supporting roles and women are symbolized as trophies. Princess Peach is kidnapped more than 10 times by Bowser during the Super Mario series and has to be rescued by Mario.
«The damsel in distress» is a classic theme in world literature, art, film and video games, especially in those with a lot of action. As a prime example, Anita mentioned the heroic story of Perseus who must save his lover before she is sacrificed to the Kraken.
Anita also told of her YouTube series Tropes vs. Women, where she had harvested hate comments and had been threatened for her view of the role of women in games.
My thoughts on the matter: I personally liked Anita’s talk because it evoked emotions and made the audience think. The fact that the analyses were partly superficial contributed to this experience. I think speaking about more positive women’s roles, negative men’s roles and other examples of discriminated minorities would have given a broader view of the problem.
Any kind of discrimination is condemnable, but in my opinion, stereotypical thinking remains anchored in the mainstream. It’s important to learn to differentiate because I like watching a Hollywood movie from time to time where I can switch off my brain without feeling bad.
#3 Games as a Force in Politics — Propaganda 2.0?
Israel-based Tsahi Liberman (https://twitter.com/tsahi_liberman) has moved from the IT security business to the gaming industry. In his talk, he explained how games may have an influence on politics.
Tsahi first showed simulations such as Democracy 3, Real Politics and Hearts Of Iron where the needs of the people and the needs of the economy have to be weighed against each other.
In 1985, Sega developed I’m Sorry, one of the first video games with a political claim. The player has to engage in corrupt business practices. The main character is an allusion to then Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
In 1989, the game Spitting Image made the player choose between then-current world rulers Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paul II, P.W. Botha and Ayatollah Khomeini.
During the US elections 2016, won by Donald Trump, Hilltendo made its round on the web. In this game, the player controls a Hillary Clinton-like character who sits on a missile.
In Corbyn Run (2017), a caricature of UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is running through the streets of London trying to bring all the money back.
My thoughts on the matter: I missed some scientific aspects in the examples, e.g. how propaganda works in other media and how effective games are in comparison to it. Personally, I would like to see more games that educate players and explain political issues to them. For example, a war game about Syria in which you take on different roles as people from the camps, a Western journalist, an advisor to the political leaders, an oil magnate on Wall Street, etc.
Thanks for reading and happy gaming.
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