Richard Rouse III – Narrative Director, Ubisoft Montreal
rr@paranoidproductions.com
rr@paranoidproductions.com
- There are a lot of great examples of narratives that have morality
o Spiderman
§ Series is all about morality: with great power comes great responsibility
§ The film adaptations use this idea, but none of the games have anything to do with that.
§ It’s the reason that he’s an icon to begin with (morality)
- 1) Clarity of Intention
o Romeo & Juliet
§ In the beginning of the play, you are explicitly told the moral
· Also included in the modern film retelling
§ Changes how you experience it
o Star Wars video games
§ Moral intention is announced on the box “choose your path”
o KOTOR uses a morality meter
o Red Dead Redemption uses an “Honor meter”
o Twilight Zone (not sure why this example is in this section – maybe showing the opposite of that?)
§ Rod Serling had censorship issues on his earlier works because they were usually commentary
§ He created the Twilight Zone and told people that it was a work of fiction only and should not be taken as anything else – but obviously it is a show about morality (lots of social commentary)
o Bade Runner game (also not sure why this example is in this section)
§ Had very open ended choices about how to deal with replicants
§ This gave you 40 different endings
§ There was intentionally no morality meter because they didn’t want to guide players to one extreme or the other
· More natural, organic way
- 2) Multiple Points of View
o Having characters disagree so that you can hear them argue both of their points
o Star Trek
§ Lots of episodes with disagreements between McCoy and Spock
§ It’s also a really great way to show characters
§ Star Trek the Next Generation: there are more people, more points of view and there is even more talking J
§ New Star Trek film didn’t really include morality in the same way
o Battlestar Galactica – recent reboot
§ Example of characters discussing conflicting points of view about a suicide bombing mission
§ In this show, they don’t usually resolve morality neatly in the end (like in Star Trek)
o Alpha Centauri
§ You build a society based on an idea
§ Other factions of would confront you about your decision – they argued their points against yours
§ The game emphasized moral choices – competing ideologies (environment v. business, faith v. science, security v. freedom)
§ There wasn’t a ‘correct’ answer, which made it more fun for the player
- 3) Redemption
o Twilight Zone
§ Common theme in many episodes is redemption
o Mass Effect 2
§ Choices fell into paragon or renegade (not “good” and “bad” but how you go about things)
§ Every small decision you make fills up the meter
§ You can’t really switch how you want to do things halfway through the game
o As opposed to Mass Effect 2: Fallout 3
§ Bigger point values for moral decisions
§ Because of this, you can change your karma radically
§ They wanted the player to be have the ability to change their mind and ‘come around’
§ Flexible morality system, you can change your path
- 4) Complexity
o Shades of gray
o The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance
§ All of the best Westerns had moral texture
§ Plot: Law-loving man kills a criminal and is haunted by it. In the end, it turns out that the sheriff actually did it. Neither guy is a “bad” guy, they just have different methodologies. Idea that ‘it takes both kinds’
o Bioshock
§ Andrew Ryan. As a ‘villain’ he really hasn’t actually done anything wrong
§ Tannenbaum. Did horrible things (pioneered harvesting Adam from little sisters), but she’s portrayed as an ally
§ Overall moral choice of whether or not to harvest little sisters is pretty shallow (not real consequences)
o Bioshock 2
§ There are 3 characters where you have to decide whether or not to let them live or die
· Example: mutated scientist. An old recording (by him) tells you to kill him, but the current, mutated him begs you not to
§ This adds an extra moral layer to game
§ Unfortunately, the ‘Savior Achievement’ completely undermines this choice
· You get an achievement for not killing any of them: it instantly makes the decision for you, when without it, it’s a hard choice
· Creative Director publicly regretted it
o Red Dead Redemption
§ Game has really good sense of morality
§ There’s an achievement for tying a woman to the train tracks – it completely undermines the morality of the rest of the game!
- 5) The Quandary
o Creating a situation where there isn’t a clear answer
o The Shield
§ Episode where cops made deals with drug dealers to move the drug trade off of corners and into designated areas
§ Basically, elects to ignore drugs
§ Really, what else can you do in this situation?
o Gone Baby Gone
§ Story of figuring out a kidnapping
§ The mother is a bad, scary drug mule
§ It turns out that the police chief had kidnapped the daughter to raise her correctly. Wanted to save her
§ You want to get the audience to talk about it – and disagree!
o Modern Warfare 2
§ Situation where to maintain your cover, you have to go along on an airport massacre
§ Not actually forced to shoot anybody, but you can’t fight back (or you’ll die)
§ Doesn’t give you meaningful choices, but makes you think. There really isn’t a “right” thing to do
o Train (by Brenda Brathwaite)
§ The goal is to put as many people on a train as possible
§ Then you find out you’re sending people to a concentration camp
§ It puts you in that situation, and makes you wonder about what you would do
- 6) Thoughtfulness and Respect
o Never Let Me Go by Kizuo Ishiguro
§ As part of the plot, the main characters grow up to have their organs harvested (essentially, oppressed class story)
§ The book really isn’t a societal commentary, it’s a human drama about the human condition. The bigger commentary is completely secondary
o The Sims
§ Not really intended moral statement, but the items in the game are basically time bombs. You need to maintain them, or you have to take care of larger messes later
- 7) Medium, Genre & Message
o Think about how the medium can change the message
o Grapes of Wrath (the book)
§ Tom’s parting speech to his mother. In the context of the novel it’s really sad and pessimistic. This guy’s going to die
o Grapes of Wrath (the movie version)
§ The tone is optimistic, even heroic (nature of Hollywood at time)
o Bruce Springstein song – same speech
§ Different tone: Closer to meaning in book. Bleak, but some hopefulness
o Rage Against the Machine song: same speech
§ COMPLETELY different, tough
§ “Wow, this Tom Joad guy is going to go kick some ass”
- Parting words
o Fahrenheit 451
§ There’s a part where a woman participates in “Interactive TV” but it’s totally ridiculous. There’s nothing ‘interactive about it’ because the show goes on the same no matter what you say
§ Was intended as commentary that television is vacuous
o Basically, offering choices that aren’t really choices is lame
o Bradbury put morals into pulpy science fiction novels – we can do this in games too!
o The hard part is really committing to it. To pull it off, you have to make a decision about telling a moral story and stick to it
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