Alan Wake: la puissance du mot

L'acte de création, comme quiconque s'est prêté au jeu le sait, vient avec son lot d'angoisses, de doutes et de craintes. Plusieurs questions assaillent le créateur; mon œuvre réussira-t-elle à témoigner de ma vision, de mon intention? Serai-je à la hauteur de cette vision? Et les mots, ces petites choses couchées sur le papier, peuvent se révéler de puissantes armes, certaines à double tranchant. Il y a le rythme, la sonorité, le sens parfois kaléidoscopique de certains mots. Tout ceci dessine un terrain drôlement fertile pour le créateur de jeu vidéo, et Alan Wake (Xbox 360, Remedy, 2010) apparaît alors comme une opportunité exceptionnelle d’aborder ces peurs.

Incorporating a theme into a game

Since videogame narrative is still (mainly) taking its cues from its bigger brother, cinema, a lot of stories are built around the same techniques as a movie scenario. Thus, it is common to hear game directors or creators using the lexicon of the seventh art. I observed a trend over the last few months of game directors discussing the elements of their works and justifying them through the concept of theme.

A theme, much like in cinema, is the idea, or message, underlying the work, presented through motifs such as characters and their actions, sets, color schemes, dialogues, etc. Even the smallest detail can draw from (and to) the theme. Some of the grandest works of art had a theme and incorporated it cleverly, creating some sort of interaction, whereas symbols and references create a network of signification that adds to the effect the work has on the viewing public.
Now, games can, and do, have themes. For example, Bioshock is a game about power and manipulation, and the many enemies citing the Bible seconds before attacking the player is a reference to religion, one of many references to a form of power and manipulation the game contains. Games being an interactive medium, they can incorporate themes in their mechanics in ways cinema cannot. A game mechanic can be modified to add an echo to what the game is about, and this can be done seamlessly, or it can be forced upon the player.

Red Dead Redemption and the masculine identity

Might as well start with a very clear warning on that one, Zach.

*** SEVERE SPOILER ALERT***

I just finished playing through the single player campaign of Red Dead Revolver (Xbox 360), and I'm man enough to say I wept.

Which is admittedly a strange thing to do in a game that is all about being a man. I held my mouth with one hand, battling with a weird shame inside of my mind, as John Marston fell on his knees, riddled with bullets from federal agents and army men, a dead man looking at his executioners.

Fact is, real men don't cry, or so it is believed. The whole game is indeed about masculine identity and men struggling to find their own, so I guess I'm in the crux of it. During his lengthy travels, Marston meets a few men lost in their own struggle for masculinity. Abraham Reyes hides his manly desires behind his role as a rebel-leader doubled as an artist. Bill Williamson finally found a band of thieves stupider than he is so they can be scared of him, which was not the case in his old days with the gang, where he was the omega male, as recalled by Abigail Marston.

The father figure, Dutch, (note the character model which sports a fatherly mustache, and the fact that the protagonist cannot, in the end, commit patricide), lost his way, leaving little for John to become when his time comes to play father. And that's when the game becomes really fascinating.