The Presence of Love in VideogamesBy Locke on February 24th, 2010
This should have been a Valentine’s Day post. I’m starting to realize that the plot in most games today spend a lot of time focusing on impending doom, or an antagonist of incredible power that must be stopped. This is why games like Bioshock 2 are a breath of fresh air. The first thing that struck me in my first trip to Rapture was the Father-Daughter relationship shared by the Big Daddies and Little Sisters. It wasn’t a creepy relationship at all. The doting father would protect this little one as it set about its morbid mission; collecting Adam. It would allow you close to the sister, but as soon as you got to a range where you could harm her, he steps in and gives you a warning. He is even lovingly pulled by the hand by the little sister. Hearing her cries whenever I defeated a Big Daddy often made me kind of guilty, despite her being brainwashed into being this monster. Bioshock 2 places you into the shoes of the first Big Daddy searching for his Little Sister. The kind of fatherly devotion that was a curiosity in the first game is now placed center stage in the sequel. Its an interesting take. The last time I saw a game that had that kind of love portrayed was in Silent Hill. What a father would go through to reunite with his child is endearing, something that many older gamers can associate and appreciate. There are many times when this theme of love in the center appeared in games like Ico. Final Fantasy 8 sets this theme in very high regard. Not only does love transcend death, it transcends the borders of reality itself. The game in itself begins with a promise of love that you don’t recognize as a relevant until the fourth disk of the game. The love in friendship appears in Kingdom Hearts and other games of the sort, mostly JRPGs. What do you guys think? Do you think that we should have more of these themes in games? Or should we try to focus on different unexplored topics? -Locke |