Topic: Video Games, Ethics
Choice: noun the right, power, or opportunity to choose; option: The child had no choice about going to school.
Hello everyone, today I'd like to talk about the treatment of women in video games. No, I'm not talking about what they're wearing, I have nothing against that (or rather, I don't want to get into that subject). No, I'd like to talk specifically about relationships in video games.
For some time now, it has been possible to have a romantic sub-plot, or to develop a relationship in a game which has nothing to do about relationships. Most of these games are role-playing games (RPGs), but certain other games allow this also. Usually, these romances are pretty bland, almost going to the point of romancing a plaster wall. The medium of video games has a long way to go before being able to mimic an actual human relationship.
However, the complexity and depth of video game romance is not what irks me; adding a meaningful second storyline can really enhance gameplay experience. No, what I would like to address is the question of choice. To illustrate this, let me take the example of a character which has recently become one of my favorites: Skyrim's Serana.
When Dawnguard came out, the fanboy in me was quick to jump on an opportunity to play the expansion, and almost immediately I was charmed by Serana's wit and her wistful personality. The daughter of a powerful vampire lord, and a powerful vampire herself, Serana shares ideas and opinions with the Dragonborn. She is strong and independent, and yet also displays a lonely interior. It is clear that her designers intended her to be a deep character the players can interact with. I myself enjoy very much having her tag along, suck the lifeforce out of enemies and share aloud her displeasure with the weather.
Like many other characters in the game, she can be asked to marry the player, which she politely declines, mentioning a complicated family history and a dislike for religious temples. I thought this was amazing. Not only was she a unique character, she also wasn't a slave to the player's every whim. This element of "free will" alone raised my respect for this character.
The community did not share my opinion.
After this *ahem* revelation was made to the public, several players complained about not being able to marry the vampiress. In fact, a petition was released to make Serana a marriageable character. At the time of writing this, 4595 people had signed.
Why do I find this disturbing and disgusting? Let us rephrase, shall we? Man falls in love with Woman. Woman states that she is not interested. Man prays to God to change her mind. God destroys Woman's personality and will. Man marries Woman.
See? It's creepy, unhealthy and downright immoral.
One person can argue that the person affected is a video game character, and thus is not eligible for this kind of moral analysis. However, just what values would we be promoting if we allowed this kind of behavior? Gamers like to be in control of their environment, true, but at what point should we shatter the barrier between control and morality? If we allow this, then we are saying that it is okay to force unwilling persons into activities they would normally refuse to partake in.
The designers clearly thought of marriage when creating Serana, and they clearly chose not to allow it. Was it to preserve her personality? To make her unique? To give her a semblance of free will? Whatever their reasons, we should respect them. After all, they provided us with a character people clearly love dearly; why should we change her?
Stay frosty, readers,
Snowman
Ah. A good point, and one I can connect with. I've also played a game in which all characters are eligible for approaching a relationship, but some can refuse. It also produced that sense of astonishment and great respect.
ReplyDeleteThe I discovered the same kind of complaining you did (although what I saw didn't involve a petition, at least).
What I wondered about, after that, was the nature of video games. Seems to me, the appeal to multi-path stories comes from many roots, but all games have two main attractions:
1) You can drop them if you don't like them, and find another (unlike life, to our knowledge).
2) You can undo mistakes, at least by restarting from scratch.
No entrapment, no regrets.
From how I understand these complaints, the issue is not entirely (italics on that would be nice) about control...more about entrapment and regret. Maybe that's what all need to control is about, when you get down to it.
Anyway, what I'm saying is that a short-term character would seem unreachable, but one more long-term would generally have some ways you could go about changing the decisions in a decision tree to get the desired result. Players first feel the regret of not being suited to her and go look up their options. Turns out they didn't mess up...they simply have no option to be "a charmer tailored to her needs". They can't use the "groundhog day effect" of gaming to get their way. Now, as a game, this shouldn't echo the entrapment of life...but maybe that's what "games as an artform" does sometimes. The player is invested in the story; it becomes another life...but then they find that alternative life has limits too. So you take the "God power" away from the player.
Alternatively, you could give the player that power, but make the player feel like shit for being so fake in their manipulations. The game I played involved the programmers leaving the message "You're a monster. I hope you like the results. Game Over." for anyone curious enough to try to court the underaged girl (I found out by being exceedingly curious about whether that was truly an option). This could be done in many more creative ways and produces that jarring feeling anyone should get for even thinking about those things in real life. I will always have immense respect for anyone who can recreate life's emotions in a simple game, so I see people's complaining about the lack of options as missing the reality in it. Such people need to encounter the alternative approach and be directly confronted with reproach for choosing the path of manipulation.