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Empathy in real life
True empathy, when studied in the absence of video games, has little to do with green men falling to their death and everything to do with mirror neurons in the human brain. At least that’s the closest thing to an explanation that the scientific community can come up with in regard to empathy’s neurological roots. So I can’t stress enough that much of the following is theoretical; though, I’d hope the concept of empathy would at least be relatable.
Mirror neurons begin doing their job at a very young age and are the impetus for self-awareness and empathy. Two things that go hand-in-hand. They are indirectly responsible for the phenomenon of the infectious mood. You know that guy at your local watering hole that you avoid like the plague because he’s fucking depressing? You felt great until he started rattling on about his shitty job, and now you feel so depressed that you’re going to spend an extra 20 dollars on whiskey to compensate. Thanks mirror neurons — now I’m an alcoholic.
Mirror neurons are also the reason that seeing someone puke makes you want to puke or seeing a skateboarder being hit in the nuts makes you wince. They also catalyze the psychological development that lets you truly understand the suffering of a friend in need. This unavoidable aspect of the human condition will play heavily into the way we feel about game characters — provided that they look and act like we do. The more human they appear, the more human our response will become.
(For more on this topic, check out this sweet video from RSAnimate.)
Implications for game development
The more realistic game characters become, the more empathetic we’ll feel toward the victims of our superpowers/chainsaw bayonets/shotguns. While killing a person with a poorly textured, two-polygon face was easy, killing a man who begs for his life with tears in his eyes is far more difficult thing to do even if he’s digital. The closer we get to total realism in graphics, the more difficult the task of unceremonious murder will become.
Above: This is two years old.
The idea that strictly prosocial gaming experiences incite empathy in the player will be put to the test against the psychological weight of our decision to be violent when given the opportunity. Empathetic reactions from an “antisocial” gaming environment.
If the person on the screen looks as real as the person next to us on the couch, could we still kill him? If we could see in the subtlety of his expression that he was a person with hopes and dreams and aspirations and a life, would we giggle after shooting him in the balls? If killing him was the purpose of the game, and we were forced to do it in spite of our reservations, how would we feel afterward? Human empathy says we’d feel horrible. Personally, I’d have a fucking existential crisis. I nearly had one after playing Spec-Ops: The Line, a game that’s far from being as photorealistic as those of the future.
Graphical improvements will create an environment in which empathy will not only be a part of the prosocial gaming experience but the antisocial experiences as well. Game creators will have to work very hard to modulate the empathy felt toward each character in the game they’re creating, as has been the case with film for years. The technology that has been driving gameplay forward will now drive storytelling forward. Creating relatable characters who feel and act real won’t just be an exercise in technological showboating but a storytelling necessity based on the ever-increasing empathetic reactions of the player.
You want me to murder that enemy? The one with the cold who keeps mumbling about how much he hates his job? You want me to slip a hunting knife through his ribcage and watch the life escape his eyes while he wimpers up at me? You better give me a damn good reason.
That got heavy again … and now, the most adorable kitten in human history!