Hero Worship Part 2: At The Altar of Self

Gamespot's All-Time Greatest Video Game Hero as voted by the Gamespot readership last year Gordon Freeman never quite sat right with me. Personally, I have an inability to see Freeman as anything more than a camera and mechanic. Valve does a great job creating a world around him and giving creating a pretty rich backstory through the interactions of others with him but he's still in essence a soulless puppet. Giving biography doesn't necessarily give character or personality. Like many characters in first person games, he's as much a camera with weapons as a character with any real life for all the things Valve does great in that game.

Those are not exactly the most popular things to say about Gordon Freeman. Or Master Chief for that matter whom I view in the same vein. Heck, I love the Modern Warfare games but I'm not sure I got the characterization of Soap we see in Modern Warfare 2 from Call of Duty 4. Or any for that matter. An amusing accusation considering COD4 and Half-Life have been my gateways into FPS's after really not caring much the genre most of my life. I'm particularly fond of those games. I couldn't care any less for the Halo series but I at least respect what it accomplished.

But there is something from my observation and discussions with others that does seem to make sense. It's often said what makes many of the games with these avatars the means of interaction with their world work so well is they immerse the player in a world in such a way a clearly defined character can't. There's is much to be said of creating an experience that allows the player to feel they have more agency over the character they are controlling than just someone already completely scripted. It can be more personal when the character's in the world seem to be addressing you as opposed just any character on screen.

What these above games do well isn't so much create a particularly well-crafted character. Especially not in any traditional sense. What do they exceptionally well instead is create amazing worlds, mechanics and focus by which they allow you the gamer to feel like you're the hero yourself. As such, the second type hero I'll celebrate in this series is…well you! 

Back in 2006, Time Magazine named "You" the Person of the Year. The cover reads "Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world." Did any one individual on the internet really do much of anything that groundbreaking? Aside from the people that created many of the social networking outlets such as Myspace and Youtube; heavens no. In that vein, the honor is almost misleadingly misplaced. What these portals did very well was give each individual person that used them the feeling they could reach the world. That their thoughts or their works could reach could be seen by and impact people otherwise unreachable. That anyone could become an overnight internet sensation. No matter how unrealistic that might have actually been for most, giving that feeling of agency within the world is part of what makes a great social networking platform.

This idea remains true in the virtual world of games. While solid design and controls have been and always will be the backbone of creating enjoyable agency in games, the past decade has truly push into the next level of that sort of agency through customization as well as innovative first-person storytelling. The aforementioned Freeman stands at the center of the series that pushed the quality in the latter.  

As stated before, I find Gordon Freeman as a character very lacking. He's essentially a blank avatar with enough proper biography to explain why he of all people is allowed the ability to do much of what he's allowed the in Half-Life games. Yes, Valve does an excellent job of giving the player a sense of how those in the world see Freeman from the reverence given by members of the resistance, to Alyx Vance falling in love, to even the respect given Freeman from his enemies like Wallace Breen. We're very much given a sense of where those in his world place him. The characterization is that of what he's been in the eyes of other people is creative. The characterization of the person you are controlling is almost doesn't exist at all. He's one of the least interesting things in a world that revolves around and reveres him.

It works. To have a stronger character in place robs the ability to step into the character and be that person. Much like the criticism Western role-playing game fans toss at JRPGs, the style of not really defining the character you control makes it's easier to feel like the character is your own and the story being told is your own — as superficial as that control can often be in practice — as opposed to just playing out a predetermined story and path of a character. Giving a detailed personality to the hero opens up the possibility of that hero being unlikable which can pull someone out of the game experience if not turn them off to the game completely. When giving Leviathan the business in God of War III, Kratos looks like a badass. When mowing down the invading Russian in the Mall fresh off an airlift from the roof of the White House, you look más macho. And there is something to the sight as Freeman of walking into a room and having the relief, joy, admiration or just group of character waiting for your next move or order direct through the screen rather than to an avatar on the screen.   

But you aren't just given the heroic touch by experiencing the world through "your own eyes." Sometimes you're given the narcissistic gift no one else on this planet may actually want; to gaze upon your own face.  

Hey, someone has to do it.

With the improvement of various facial scanning technology in the past decade, the process of putting the mugs of popular athletes' or actors' heads into a game in the past decade has allowed gamers to see themselves in the action. It can look a little awkward, if not out and out creepy, but it has allowed to further that experience of a character really truly reflect the person and represent the person in a game. An idea EA Sports is banking on with their EA Sports' MMA's 'live broadcast' feature. This pits players -picked from uploaded videos of potential competitor hyping why they should be picked – online in competition against each other, with live announcers to be viewed by spectators via EA Sports website or via the game itself.

But the pleasing of the gamer insatiable love-of-self doesn't end with just the character. Speaking of EA Sports MMA live broadcasts, competitions have further pushed the celebration of gamer. Obviously one can point pro-gaming leagues like MLG and the Korean Starcraft league that have made TV stars out of gamers, but I'm not interested in talking pro gamer. As the average person will probably never enter a professional sports contest at any point and has some degree of disconnect to a professional athlete, such is likely the case with most gamers.        

But with Guitar Hero and Rock Band came respective the spotlight on the person holding the controller rather than images on the screen. As such, while there is much to appreciate for the skillful person that doesn't completely blow a song, this is still a music game after all, the physical actions and living room "stage presence" of the person holding a plastic instrument or microphone is often as important part of entertaining the party. In the countless GH/RB competitions held in communities across the country, if not world, it is not uncommon to have showmanship as a factor taken into account if not given it's own separate award a la air guitar contests. And while it may only be the most hardcore that may win, I've personally witnessed much more enthusiasm for the casual music rhythm game fan to jump into the fray than maybe the causal Madden player. I'd suspect that because there's a still a lot more room to perform and entertain, therefore have fun, even in failing at Rock Band for many rather than what may only be embarrassment and ego-brusing in being blown out in a sports game.  

You, not a character nor some avatar of a character or anything else on the screen, are the focal point of the spectator's attention and admiration/ridicule. You indeed are rock stars.  

You've also as gamers always taken up attitudes as if you can design a game better than the actually designer. From professional critic to 13-yr-old kid, so many seem to think they they can do it better. Developers have presented you the tools to put their money where your mouths are. You've gleefully accepted those toys of creation to prove just that.   

This actually is nothing new. Games as old as Excitebike have given gamers level/track editors for the person that wanted to create something better, if not insanely unforgiving. PC gamers have long been enjoying the fruits of modders who have taken game engines and done thing from reskins to adding aid for the visually impaired to reconfiguring rules to add twist twists on a game or engine. But the PC market general has a higher barrier of entry and therefore isn't as accessibly for many a gamer and older generations of console haven't had the current generation's ease of of online sharing.

The recent release of games such as Joe Danger and ModNation Racers only marks the latest in this console generation's create and share focused games. LittleBigPlanet carried a lot of that torch in the mainstream eye for giving the easy-to-use tools for people to put together their own platformers and share with the world. LBP2 promises to allow creation of game of other genres. Halo 3's Forge mode gave shooter fans a dream sandbox that resulted that found creative ways to bring other genres into the game by creating racetracks and it's variation of rugby in griftball. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 gave fans of grappling game to outdo the WWE writers by creating and sharing their own storylines that can last up to two years. And that's only scratching the surface.

You've been giving the tools to try and make someone else's games more fun and in the occasional miracle the Benjamins have actually been resting in your mouths. Just don't get too much an ego about it. Your LBP level isn't necessarily going to get you an job a Media Molecule anymore than this story is going to get me the cover of EGM.

But do pat yourselves on the back. You've been groomed to feel like virtual hero even if you're actually too scared to climb a tree to save a cat in real life. And if anyone ever tells you you've never accomplished anything playing games, show them your achievements and your trophies. Because even the greatest skeptics of your heroism and your contribution to the world can't take that away from you.

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Gerren LaQuint Fisher is currently 1/3 of the finshed in building a shrine to himself. In his spare time away from that he contributes to The Game Reviews, tweets @gerrenlaquint, and runs a blog called The Underscore,