Undertale: A masterpiece in game design

Undertale is the best game I have ever played. While it may only be subjectively better than all the other games I’ve yet had the pleasure to play there is a particular reason that I think it’s the best game I’ve come across. People have cited the characters, the music, the writing and even sometimes the art style as the reason they fell in love with the game. All of those elements are fantastic but one of the least lauded aspects is the reason Undertale stands above the likes of Half-Life, Metal Gear Solid and Team Fortress 2 in my eyes, and that’s actually the gameplay.

In Praise Of: The Music Machine

If it weren’t for a late play through of the incredible Undertale David Szymanski’s The Music Machine would be my pick for game of the year for 2015 (admittedly I played very few new releases but beating out the likes of the excellent The Beginners Guide is no small feat). Clever writing, incredible aesthetic, horrifying environments and subtly intelligent game design all combine to make for a fantastic game that sadly hasn’t seen anywhere near as much praise as I believe it deserves. Why does it deserve so much praise? Read on to get my view on one of the more intelligent and unique takes on horror (in any form) I’ve ever experienced.

We've collectively missed the point: Representation and Videogames

If I may have the mic for a moment

Everywhere there are “controversial” “topical” and “important” discussions going on about a greater equality of representation of genders that aren’t male, sexualities that aren’t heterosexual, races that aren’t white and religions that aren’t atheist or Christian. That’s great! For too long games (but really mass-produced, highly profitable media in general, for the most part) have represented and reflected a heterocentric western male viewpoint, but, and this but is the reason for this post, not enough people are talking about the actual quality of representation, and from my perspective; unless a character is well portrayed their inclusion can only harm the cause of those who wish to be represented.

Now, I'm going to take an example from another medium (film) to most clearly explain my point, but it applies equally to videogames. In Big Hero 6, a recent animated film from the folks at Disney there are 3 side characters and much of the films humour comes from 2 of these characters. One is an effortlessly cool, slender (kind of important to the point I'm going to make, otherwise not particularly important), strong and rebellious white woman and the other is a barrel chested strong looking, slightly effeminate black man. Now, there is nothing wrong with either of these representations as they stand, however there is something very wrong with repeatedly creating humour out of taking the largest physical (human) character in the film and repeatedly having him act in the most effeminate or cowardly (the film also conflates these two traits; fairly problematic in it's own right, but not really my point) way in order to get a laugh (the implicit bias they play off of here is of course the stereotype that physically strong men are also masculine or brave).

This negative portrayal, though subverting a stereotype, actually reinforces the initial stereotype through this being the source of humour. By making it a joke that the strong black man is effeminate and scared is a terrible portrayal; especially given that kids are the primary audience. The white, cool, rebellious and slim girl however has the same trope spun on its head; it's supposed to be funny that she drives more aggressively than the safety focused buff black guy next to her. Thus, although her portrayal certainly isn't perfect, the humour from her scenes arises out of her strength and bravery (the implicit stereotype being that as a slender woman we would not expect said strength from her) her representation in the film is far more positive than that of her strong male counterpart. (Again, I would like to stress that her representation is far from perfect either).

Similarly in all other forms of media, naturally including games, the quality of representation is important; in a fighting game it's wildly inconvenient to be wearing skimpy outfits; so boasting scantily clad female fighters is rarely a step in the progressive direction that some claim it is; even if the other male characters might be overly muscled, their appearance is empowering, while nothing about low cut bikinis makes me for one feel powerful. In first person and third person shooters featuring attractive women desperate to throw themselves upon the typically straight male protagonist is not a positive portrayal. Furthermore companies who arguably feel obliged to put in non-hetero-white-male characters (for whatever reason, be it moral or monetary) often commit what I view as one of the most offensive sins against the parties in question; defining them by their sexuality/race/religion/gender etc. If you're going to put in a character who is for example Muslim; I think companies should first ensure that they do not define the character by their religion; (but also to maintain it as a part of their identity). Don't get me wrong, I know that is an incredibly difficult task; but with games that put such ridiculous amounts of money into their creation at least a little more should go towards a more capable writing department than most have. Bioware is an excellent example of a company that actually cares about their writing and even if they don't always hit the mark they are far more consistently good to excellent than most.

All of that goes without even talking about the issues of the protagonist's role in the lives of these NPCs, in Half-Life 2 (A game I absolutely love, so I don't bring it up lightly) Alyx Vance is a strong and capable companion but also equally strong and capable when alone for the most part. Occasionally, however, she is overpowered in situations where you aren't there to protect her (of course this is arguably a pretty minor fallacy as she rescues you in the beginning). This is partially to suit the story of course, and I tend to think that despite being a character deliberately made for the protagonist to like she's actually over all a pretty strong representation of and for women as well as people from mixed race backgrounds, she isn't exoticised as a curiosity to any perceptible extent and yet her cultural and familial heritage are still important to her identity. Regardless though, the framing of your (through the conduit of the silent protagonist; Gordon Freeman) power being indomitable, while hers isn't, is not an equal representation. Arguably other male companions in other games aren’t portrayed equally either; I’m not arguing that her representation is weaker for her gender; rather that the role of the playable character and the NPC is not equal  to that of the protagonist even when (again, in my eyes) the character is portrayed positively.

Ultimately though it's not a large risk for companies to include NPCs that don't conform to the norms some people expect from the medium. It would, however, be a significantly larger risk to have the protagonist as, say, transgender. Big game companies might not be evil in the same way some people claim they are, but they none-the-less have to appeal to the largest possible audience. There's a pretty good reason (money) that almost every FPS/TPS videogame cover looks practically the same. So as much as the companies aren't necessarily putting in these characters purely for greed's sake; they certainly don't treat them the same way they treat their protagonists. Want an example of a great protagonist that arguably was something of a risk for the devs? Look no further than possibly my all time favourite character in a game; Clementine.

A very young black girl is pretty far from the white teenage male most games seem to target and yet season 2 of Telltale's The Walking Dead game was a resounding commercial success. With a character as well written as Clementine (not to mention acted; given the current discussion around voice actors in video games Melissa Hutchison deserves a great deal more praise than it seems she or her colleagues receive) it's not hard to see why. In creating a protagonist that is physically weak, small and holds a middling amount of social power in the group it would have been easy to define her character by her age or vulnerability; but instead she is defined by her incredible force of will and her maturity beyond her years (with a clever nod or two to your time as Lee in the first series and the lessons you taught her in this time). Since playing the second season when I hear the word "badass" it's not Rambo's face I think of, it's hers.

That's the way I want characters to be represented.  

That's the way it should be.

Let's just hope more devs think so as well.

Video Game Details: Gunpoint's brilliant animation

Oh boy, Gunpoint. I'll likely have an "In Praise Of:" post for this game at some point because it's utterly brilliant in it's entirety. Any individual detail merits a post, but I'm going to talk only about one. While the art style, music and writing are all reasons I bought the game, one of the biggest deciding factors was a really small detail, one that exemplifies in my view the style of humour Gunpoint has going for it: the falling animation.

In Gunpoint you jump by holding the mouse button and charge the strength of the jump (up to a point) for as long as you hold the M1 key down. When you release you jump, following the parabolic arc represented (in the above image) by the dots on screen.

Do you see the playable character (Richard Conway) there? He just flung himself from a building. Now, at the apex of his arc, he is in the superman pose. Brilliant. Are you in love yet? No? Take a gander down here then.

See the way that little trench coat is flapping upwards with the air resistance? Isn't that just beautiful. Still not convinced? Well, this isn't the punchline quite yet.

*plaf* That's about the best way I can describe the (wonderful) sound you make as you fall flat on your face. A core mechanic in the game (that is that you take no fall damage, as well as your ability to perform massive jumps) is explained away by Conway possessing a special pair of trousers that have some sort of springs in them. Then to test them he jumps out his apartment window and he is flat on his face, just like in the image above. The game wonderfully makes fun of it's silly explanation of core mechanics and creates a fantastic visual gag at the same time, and this tiny detail is just one of the reasons I think Gunpoint is as good, if not better than, some of the indie heavyweights (for example Super Meat Boy, Hotline Miami, FTL) and one of my all time favourite games in general.

Tremendously fun, it remains the only game I've ever wished I paid more for than I did (I bought it during a steam sale). And if I had to pick the one quality amongst so many brilliant individual elements that made me fall in love with the game; this tiny animation would be it.

Grinding My Gears: GoT has an issue with female characters

Daenerys. Brienne. Cersei. Three major characters with different backgrounds and different perspectives, but all defined by the same thing: they are women.

 To be clear; I like Game of Thrones, both the books and the TV show (although in the interest of the audience I will only be discussing the TV series, don't read anything if you're not completely up to date though, spoilers may be discussed) but both seem to have an issue writing for female characters, with the exception of only a few.

Take Daenerys as an example; she's undoubtedly strong, willful and capable, however despite being, or desiring to be, depending on the point in the narrative, queen she seems to spend the majority of her time in traditionally female roles; she is wife to Khal Drogo and a literal bargaining chip for her brother, when she achieves power she is naive and kind; a typical character trait for a young woman, while not such an issue by itself, when paired with the role she assumes as 'mysha' later in the plot this trend becomes a little more odious. Here she fills an even bigger stereotype; that of the mother; a role she is obsessed with, labeling herself mother of dragons and referring to those she presides over as her children. Although it is perhaps understandable, or perhaps natural, for her character arc after losing her child, it seems at the least clumsily done, and at worst a terrible amalgamation of cliched notions of femininity; notions that certainly crop up again in the character of Cersei.

Cersei is about as black and white as it gets; all she cares about is her children, herself and her identity as a woman in a  man's world. Cersei, as the instigator of the plot on King Roberts life is framed from the beginning from Ned's eyes,and as such is portrayed in an extremely negative light. This is completely understandable, she did, after all, arrest the "main character" (as many saw him) at the time; Ned Stark after he, out of compassion or a sense of honour, warned her that she and her children would likely be killed once it became known they were fathered by Jaime. So if it is expected that that she is to be hated, why do I have such an issue with the way she is portrayed? Well, to illustrate my point look at Jaime; he pushed a kid out of a window to ensure the continued secrecy of his relations with Cersei and for a time I despised him; the golden child who has everything that everyone is either annoyed by or jealous of. Yet when the plot spends more time with him (it is worth noting in the books these chapters are from his point of view) one begins to understand and sympathise to an extent with his motivations. He goes from one of the most morally reprehensible characters to one that has made some major moral decisions and suffered for doing so. I personally even went some way towards forgiving his crime for his motivation; one stranger's life against the lives of his own three children; a choice that is far easier to understand and accept than it first appears. Cersei on the other hand, while having the same motivations is still reviled and despised even after more of her history and back story is revealed; a fault that, in my view, does not lie in the eyes of the audience, but in the hands of the show's (and book's) creators as she is consistently framed as the jealous step-mother, the queen who wants only to be the most beautiful; a woman who loves herself so much that when her twin brother isn't around she wants to sleep with her cousin in stead. Where Jaime's character branches out from the way in which we first view him, Cersei's character only becomes more entrenched in the negative light she is initially portrayed in. This shallowness is an affliction that impacts almost every female character in my eyes and Brienne, the conceited effort to subvert the expected roles of a woman tragically conforms to them more than any other character.

Brienne is defined by her appearence; she is tall, ugly, freakish before she is described as strong; she wanted to be pretty, wanted to be loved and married before she came to practice swordsmanship and is as obsessed with sex as the majority of her fellow female characters, albeit in another way to most others. Once again, all of these traits are not causative of a bad character, but they succumb to the traditionally female roles that Brienne is seemingly meant to subvert. As a strong, capable woman it seems an awful shame to me that she is portrayed as equally naive as Daenerys or Cersei are, and totally submissive to every other strong character she comes across. She loves Renly, admires Catelyn, seemingly loves and admires Jaime after a time but she never seems to follow her own goals; she doesn't have any other ambition but to keep promises she makes, with little other pretext for making these promises beyond her respect for these characters.

 This leads in to one of the female characters that I think is a strong and well fleshed out character; Catelyn. As a character who not only cares for her Children and for people in general, who has a deep seated resentment for Jon Snow as the product of Ned's infidelity (I am well aware of the theories regarding this subject, but being from Catelyn's perspective this is fact in her eyes). Catelyn Loves Ned Stark, but not only him, her children, but not only them, her siblings and family as well, but she's not merely a compassionate or kind person to everyone; she mistrusts and dislikes as many people as she likes and she loves people in more than the binary ways of these are my children or this is my partner, she has complex relations with everyone of her family members and she is weak in some areas and strong in others. At the core of it; she's human, and feels like it. Unfortunately Catelyn, as well as Arya, Olena Tyrell, and (to a lesser extent) Sansa are the exceptions to what largely feels to be the rule. Almost every other female character spends large amounts of time talking about, engaging in or fearing sexual activity in a way that only Tyrion seems to be able to match; yet what is the purpose for all the time he spent with Shae? To shed light on his previous relationship with Tysha and his hatred for his father. Seeing Shae in this light is perhaps a little unfair; she wasn't a main character, and the importance she seemed to have stemmed from Tyrion's feelings toward her, and despite being fairly unimportant to the plot I actually thought she was one of the better female characters.

The time spent with female characters (from their perspective) and their partners however feels much emptier; Cersei has sex with Jaime, and while he's away, her cousin which only seems to tell us that she is narcissistic in the extreme, Dany is on top of Drogo; all this seems to tell us is that she is more comfortable taking agency and control in what previously seemed an opressive relationship (admittedly this has larger implications for her character arc, but a lot of time was spent leading up to this scene that could have been spent in many other ways and in my opinion more effectively), Brienne nearly gets raped, proving through her frightened reaction that she is completely normal, reacting the way anyone would in such an abhorrent circumstance. Sex seems to be a cheap way to make us care for, fear for or loath a character and for whatever reason GoT can't seem to go for more than an episode without using an innocent woman to prove that a man is evil; one of their favourite short-hand techniques to manipulate us to hate a character (see most recently Meryn Trant who we are reminded is a bad guy by his insistence on an underage, seemingly unwilling prostitute while in Braavos, or the wildling mother in Hardhome who exists only to orphan her children and give a face to the victims of the others). The rest of what seems to constitute a female character's motivations tends to boil down to on/off switches of [feelings for children or subjects (y/n)] [feelings for partner (y/n)] [desire for sex (y/n)] with the exceptions I mentioned earlier. Of course the motivations for the male characters could be boiled down to a similar set of criteria, but the male characters are never defined by their gender or the cliched notions associated with it; while the women frequently are; I don't even want to mention the sand snakes as represented by the TV series.

To re-iterate; I think GoT is an incredible TV (and book) series, but the way the female characters are dealt with often doesn't do the rest of the narrative (in both the books and TV series) justice. I certainly hope I'm wrong, and what I'm seeing is only a temporary glut in the character development of most of GoT's leading ladies, but I worry that might not be the case. This post also is obviously not an attempt to cash in on the internet traffic in the lead up to the finale. Obviously.