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Themes of Isolation
By Corvus | April 16, 2008
Something struck me about the vast majority of the movies I’ve been watching lately–aside from the fact that they are critically acclaimed and award winning films from 2007 that is–there’s an over-arching theme of isolation running throughout them all. There Will Be Blood, Juno, Lars & The Real Girl, all of Wes Anderson’s work of course including Darjeeling Limited, Broken English, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Into the Wild, No Country for Old Men, Margot at the Wedding and Southland Tales all deal with isolation in one form or another–social isolation, emotional isolation, physical isolation. Some, like Juno, mask it in layers of charm and humor and, like Lars & The Real Girl, show their protagonists overcome it to make some real connections with people. But others, like Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood revel in the isolation, using it to drive their characters further and further down a road of absolute self-destruction. Looking back over some of the standout films I’ve enjoyed over the last few years, I find even more films fall into this category. Isolation, it seems, is the prevalent theme of cinema in the early twenty first century.
The video game industry, by and large, doesn’t seem to be interested in that level of storytelling at this point and it’s really a shame. When I think about a medium and a target audience that would be perfect for such an expression, I think of video games. Is this ironic? After all, video games are representative of the new media that is supposedly causing much of the feelings of social isolation in the world today. It is the generation raised on the Gameboy advance and first person shooter that are allegedly cut off, disconnected, incapable of meaningful interactions with society at large.
It’s all hooey, of course. If you pay attention, you see plenty of community and community far vaster than the loose network of neighborhood kids who may or may not share the same interests as you. Usenet, mailing lists, forums, IM, blogs, MySpace, Facebook and SMS form invisible connections, tying us into a much larger community than previous generations could have imagined at speeds far greater than they could have conceived. The belief among older generations is that it’s not as good, not real and ultimately, that it’s isolating. But they don’t get it. To a lot of people it is real. More real than the world around them in some cases. I know my feeling of connection to people I’ve spoken with length via digital means has increased dramatically over the years. The more I’ve relied on email and this blog as my primary means of communicating with the world, the more I’m able to feel connected to the people I meet here. And I’m old. Too old to have been born into this technological wonderland, anyway. It’s only my stubborn insistence that being a “grown up” means “stopping growth” that allows me to question the reality of my generation’s insistence that this technology is isolating.
But… looking at the way many people interact via these mediums, their seeming inability to communicate with the person standing next to them… Well, I too still have my doubts at times.
There’s one thing I’d like to see happen that would convince me, once and for all, that we’re on the right track. I’d love to see video games, as a major, compelling and highly visible component of this new isolating technology, really take on some important topics and incorporate some social themes into their storytelling–the same way literature, movies and graphic novels do. A lot of the community is ready for it, as is evidenced by the very existence of the recent debate over the RE5 trailer. Once you start intentionally dealing with themes, you start providing your audience with something to talk about besides graphics. That, of course, ultimately leads to a stronger sense of community. And where better to start than to explore the theme often associated with the very medium itself–isolation?
Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of games include the plot element of isolation. What were Doom and Quake if not a story about the last bad-ass on a planet/in a castle/science lab who decided to kick demon ass to relieve his feelings of isolation? Half Life tries to cover up the sense of isolation by having people react to the expressionless deaf-mute Gordon Freeman as if he weren’t hiding within the isolation of his HEV suit. Ultimately, I feel, they succeed in doing exactly the opposite and causing the player further feelings of isolation, but that’s rather secondary to the “let’s go kick some alien zombie ass with a saw blade” theme they’d really rather you be focusing on anyway.
But imagine a game where every decision you make effects how the story world presents itself to you. Characters join and leave you based upon your actions, or information and tips are transmitted to you based upon how often you upload your experiences to some in-world network. A virtual community is chatty and helpful based upon your treatment of the area. Destroy enough property and you walk into town only to see shutters closed tight and the door to the local pub barred fast.
Or build a virtual world that changed depending on the proximity of another avatar. Stay far enough away from everyone and the world settles into a mediocre, and ultimately dull, version of reality. Find another player to travel with and the colors become accentuated, small games suggest themselves within the environment, and things unexpectedly change based upon your interactions with each other. The more people you add to a region, the more volatile the environment would become until navigation became near impossible due to the very shifting landscape and you wanted nothing more than to seek respite in isolation… for a time.
Regardless of the exact approach, I say it’s about time more video games started intentionally exploring themes with their design. It’s theme that will truly elevate the medium of video games to the status of an art form and help them contribute meaningfully to the culture which supports them. And when they do, I think we’ll find they’re excellent at helping as reduce any feelings of isolation we might feel in the face of the 21st century.
Tagged:isolation, Round Table, theme. |
April 16th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I’m very glad to see someone else promoting this opinion as well. I haven’t put any thought in particular into the theme of isolation, but I’ve long been of the opinion that we need games that have something meaningful to say about the human condition.
Likewise, I’m really intrigued by the direction you’re going in with a dreamlike state where how dynamic the environment is determined by your proximity to another person. Though an actual system making use of this would be intriguing, even just a linear, single player storyline making use of a premise like that could be fascinating.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Considering I referenced you a few times, I figured I would point out that I discussed something very similar to this on my blog just the other day (You Want Art With Those Games - Part 2). I don’t know how much of it you’ll agree with (particularly the part about storytelling components), but I do think the overall idea is in the same ballpark.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Yes, I’ve been reading those Rubes. I shared Part 2 in my Google Readers feeds, even. Very well done posts and I look forward to the rest in the series.
It’s interesting to see other people using the term fabula as well, although they are using it slightly differently than I do.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:45 am
This reminds me that no matter how many times I played passage, and no matter what my intent when I started, I couldn’t avoid bumping into the girl and having the wife with me for the rest of the trip.
I asked my girlfriend about it, and she related the same tale. We don’t want to be isolated, and while the internet doesn’t allow us to physically touch each other, it has allowed myself, and most of our friends to find others who think like us (and ultimately I met everyone in my circle of friends who *are* physically present via the Internet.)
I kind of hope that Spore will allow me to connect with other people in a positive way, and play with them (and their creations). I doubt it will be a heavily thematic game, but I agree with you that it’s time we started to see more of that.
How long it will take to get into a big-budget, AAA title, I don’t know. Probably once some indie who does it makes a ton of cash. Stupid hit-driven business.
April 17th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
[...] read a post over at Man Bytes Blog today about themes of isolation, how they’re so popular in movies and such these days, and [...]
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:16 am
Just as another thought, there are a number of interactive fiction games that deal with the theme of isolation in different ways. Vespers would certainly be one; Galatea, in many respects, is another. Understandably, though, IF doesn’t get a lot of attention.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Bestill my heart!
I’ve begun work on an IF game (incidentally my first haphazard exploration into that medium) that deals primarily with social and emotional isolation through the physical body of the protagonist. The story elements of the first chapter are all written, and I’m familiarizing myself with Inform 7 and TADS 3 at the moment.
I suppose I shouldn’t make any hasty promises since I don’t even have a working prototype yet, but so far the story I’ve crafted is an attempt at working thematically. I’m sure that my final product will be nothing compared to games like Vespers, but this is my first attempt at integrating my writing-about-games with writing-for-games.
Cheers!
April 24th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
just saw Lars and the Real Girl, pretty good flick, Gosling did a great job playing out his character’s psychological transition from totally dysfunctional to somewhat functional