Mechanics Pondering and Character Attachment Examples

Mechanics Pondering and Character Attachment Examples

After speaking to Josh and James on Wednesday, it was decided that I must begin to focus on the reasons for character attachment, in order to begin thinking of ways to implement the theories and ideas into my title and make my game explore existing and new methods of character attachment. I have focused perhaps too much on making a shoot 'em up, without thinking about the character attachment factor. So, these last 2 days I have spoken to friends and family about character attachment they have experienced, as well as explore possible ways of perhaps beginning to implement those ideas and experiences into mechanics for my game.

On Wednesday Evening, I spoke to my older brother, the other creative in my family. He got through to me the need for my game to not only explore character attachment, but to do so in a refreshing and almost experimental way. To not focus on the unnecessary and instead make a game that is unique and personal enough to reach people in less obvious ways. 

An example he gave, which was not only original and brilliant, but also very trendy for the current world. His idea was to create a game based on bees and the development of the players hive and species. The player would slowly build their colony and hive and evolve their colonists into different roles, which can then be played individually. For example,the player would breed builder bees, in order to complete tasks on the hive. Additionally, soldier bees would defend the hive from other species and also hunt those that threaten the colony. External factors, such as the presence of alcohol, would inhibit the colonies performance. A little known fact about bees being that bees are also susceptible to alcoholism and will be punished with death by other worker bees should they be caught intoxicated near the hive. This idea is not only original, but also spreads awareness about the species and its unfathomable importance to our ecosystem. Although I will not be pursuing this idea, aspects of its mechanics have peaked my interest and offer some interesting ways of developing characters for the player to become attached to. 

In keeping with the Stranger Things metaphor I discussed with Josh and James on Wednesday, I thought of a new and unique way of developing character attachment. The player will essentially play the 'Papa' figure. Breeding super soldiers in an MK-Ultra-esque scheme of taking in volunteers to test on them and turn them into super soldiers. By building your facility, you are able to unlock traits and abilities to implement into your characters. Then, you send them out on missions, such as Covert Attacks, Scouting Missions and Supply Runs etc. It is during these missions that the player actually controls the characters, with their fates attached to the players actions. Should the character you are controlling be killed, then that member of your task force will be forever lost, along with their developments and equipment. This has the potential to mix many elements of Games Genre and Character Development, from Strategy games such as XCOM and Shooters such as Call of Duty.

I have also looked at what makes us become attached to a character and found these key points, which I have begun to see in practise:

- We identify with them: We always want a character that we believe resembles us to win. For example, Jon Snow in Game of Thrones.

- They have what we need: They possess traits we desire, such as Batman being rich, handsome, intelligent and more than capable of combatting foes which are realistically much more powerful than himself.

- We associate them with Positive feelings: This may take time to develop, but slowly we will become attached to characters we find give us postive emotions and experiences.

- They hekp us release our frustration: In most forms of media, we are exposed to frustration. The most common example being a villain. Over time, our frustration is released as our character defies this enemy.

- We get familiar with them: According to the 'Mere Exposure Effect', we grow fonder of the people we interact with most.

These are very useful factors to consider and after speaking to my friends about their experience with fictional character, I have begun to see these theories taking a hold in the real world. Here, I will list all the examples I have been given by friends, as well as their explanations of why they became attached to the characters (minus the emotive language):

Ezio Auditore from assassins creed: Watched him mature over 3 games from a young reckless lad, having to watch his whole family be framed and hung for treason you feel powerless that you can’t stop it, revenge motivates him to become a master assassin and bring those responsible to justice, getting to control him yourself while he does it makes you feel like you’ve accomplished it with him and got revenge on your behalf too. Arthur Morgan from RDR2: Probably the most realistic character ever in a video game, it was like he was a real person. All the small details, a very likeable character. It’s such a long game that you get to know the ins and outs of his life and past. When he got tuberculosis and you could see him getting sicker as the game progressed and you could literally feel he was dying as you controlled him. It was sad to see this unstoppable character that you’ve done so much badass shit with stagger round looking like a bag of s**t, and when he finally dies alone on top of the mountain I genuinely thought it was sadder than when my nan died, fact. Getting revenge for his death at the end feels f****n mint. John Marston RDR: The whole game you have one task, to save his family. Red deads are such long games and the more you play the more you want to save his family, and at the end when he gets betrayed and the law gun him down you also feel the betrayal, when you play as his son post game and get revenge you feel the justice. Vito Scaletta, similar to ezio. You get to see him grow as a character and feel the progression. A young lad returning from fighting in WW2 without a pot to p**s in, getting to see him start with petty crime to turning into a full on mob boss like something out of Goodfellas who controls the city. You see how sh***y his family life was as a kid and you feel good for him having made something of himself from nothing and how much wealth and power he has. Presumed dead at the end and then boom he shows up as an old man in the next game, feels nostalgic as hell. Sgt Reznov in World At War. One of the most memorable first appearances of any character, the sniper mission in Stalingrad. Remember sh*****g myself the whole opening scene thinking the nazis would catch and kill me and when we reveals he’s still alive you’re like yes I’ve got a mate with me. He’s right beside you on every single mission and saves your life multiple times. His speeches are motivational as fuck and makes you wanna go merk the nazis twice as hard. The ending as well, you’re staring death straight in the face and he saves your life once more. Letting you be the one to plant the Russian flag over Berlin and sharing the last moment of the war together. You feel the comradeship.

I reckon from TV Tommy Shelby in peaky blinders, probably because again you see him progress and achieve so much, coming back from WW1, going from a small time local gang leader not really anyone big or powerful, and 5 seasons later he’s a big time crime boss/corrupt MP. It’s another one of them where you see how he grows. Also the amount of times he’s nearly died is unreal, proper edge of your seat stuff, you fear for his safety almost every episode. I dunno what you’d call that? Being scared/worried for them? You’ve seen him at his highest and you’ve seen him at his lowest, from losing his wife, losing his brother, his opium induced comas to help his PTSD. So again empathy and sadness for him, and also buzzing for him in his victories.

In a film probably Schofield in 1917 that’s just come out, the way it looks like it’s filmed all in one take, you’re literally with him the entire way, it’s like you’re following them and are with them the whole time. He’s just your average guy and you can relate to and identify with him, looks a similar age, he’ll be working class like us, imagine being in his shoes and having to go and fight in the trenches. It felt like you were right behind him, following him the whole film and you were on the mission as well. What he experienced you do as well. When he has to hold his best mate as he dies and realises he’s now all alone you feel sorry for him, and you want to encourage him as It’s a race against time and you’re constantly egging him on inside your head hoping he makes it. When it reveals at the end he has a wife and two kids back home it’s a feel good factor and you are happy for him. But then when it doesn’t disclose whether or not he survived the rest of war it plays on your mind and you feel worried for him and it’s like you need an answer.

Lady from 'Lady and the Tramp', as shes cute, Graceful and Delicate and that makes her relatable to me.

Tony Stark in Iron Man and the explosive way he uses the scraps he has in a cave in his most desperate of times to escape. It shows that you dont need to have everything to be successful. Hes just clever, likeable, human and has all the qualities you desire to have.

Bethany Platt from Coronation Street. Although shes so young, shes experienced so much difficulty in her life and yet shes still funny, family orientated and likeable. Shes so strong and doesnt let everything thats happened to her get the better of her. Shes a 'sometimes its okay to not be okay' character and that gives me hope.

Veronica Lodge from Riverdale. Shes a brilliant example of a Strong female, whos in control of situations and promotes leadership. She oozes strong feminimity and promotes womens rights. A role model.

Amy Santiago from Brooklyn Nine Nine. A great example of a female Police Officer in populare culture. So strong and amazing at what she does. Shes become a role model to me, and because of her recurring status, I have grown with her and watched her become so important to not only the series, but also the police in her world. She erases the stereotypes against female officers.

The Batman Villain is an amazing example of a villain I can get invested in, as hes funny, unique, draws your attention and even offers moments of humility, allowing you to emphasise with him.

The recurring themes of these examples are:

 Relatability,

 Character progression,

Spending a lot of time playing as them,

Sad storylines,

Betrayal,

Empathising with them,

Revenge/motivation,

Sense of accomplishment

and Nostalgia

I should look at implementing these themes into my game in some way, as they will allow me to coherse a sense of attachment to the characters in my title. Below I will note some ideas I have been thinking about and will hopefully discuss with Josh and James when I see them next:

- I think back stories play a huge part, the more you know about a characters life the more you care about them.

- I could even give the recruits randomly generated pasts and have them develop friendships, so that when a character does die your other characters are affected. Thinking about a body retrieval mission afterwards too. If the character has a friend, you can go out as them to retrieve their body.

- Or a surrender mechanic. When you get mortally wounded as a character you can give up and wait to be captured, then the player returns to base and has a time limit to rescue the character before he gets executed or something. Or you can pay a ransom for him.

- I want the player to choose the appearance (even though it will be very basic) and i definitely want to be able to choose their name... gonna have 3 characters to choose from. Thinking of offering different classes, like heavy, scout, engineer... can pick any variation of that and each mission youll choose the best man for the job.

- You’ve gotta tug on the players heartstrings, make the soldiers have conversations with each other, where they talk about their families. I dunno maybe one of the soldiers has an unborn baby on the way, maybe one of them is a single parent and their kid will be an orphan if they were KIA, maybe one is about to get married when they finish their deployment. One of their wives could have just been diagnosed with cancer. Gotta make the player want to keep that guy alive.

- Play the first mission in combat and get mortally wounded. (The type of mission your not designed to win)... it cuts to your son finding out your not coming back and why and then in the game you play as that son, building a military facility to enact his revenge on who killed his dad.

- Like the idea of having multiple characters though, see them interacting in the base and keep tabs on their development and relationships... might get a random event saying, "Character 3 has just heard his wife has given birth, he will be out of action for 5 days whilst he visits" and then after those 5 days he comes back with boosts to his stats and you then realise hes got something to fight for now.

- Or volunteers arrive in 3s, you get to view their current character traits and pick the character you want to have as your own, before giving them their new identity MI6 style. Those personality traits will remain though. Makes you think about the characters you want to be playing as. Have to pick between a guy whos strong but has negative traits, a guy whos intelligent and will make the best weapons but is weak in combat or a guy who is decent at both... just so your constantly considering your options. That mixed with giving them developing stories outside of your control will make you think about how you use them and what risks your willing to take.