henke on 1/12/2010 at 09:54
No Eva, Suspension-of-disbelief applies to narratives as well and I have (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief) the Wikipedia page to prove it.
I'm not saying I figured out Allen's motivations as I was playing the game. I just had the feeling that "this is what my character would do in this situation" and I went with it. His deeper feelings and reasonings is something I started wondering about when Koki and T-Smith started questioning why Allen would do that.
Briareos H on 1/12/2010 at 09:59
Yeah it's pretty obvious since the start that you're "role-playing" through it all. You gotta ask yourself what the developers had in mind when they created that mission. I'm sorry, but they're not clever enough to have hinted at a subtle slipping of the character into insanity or being terrorized by the horror of what is happening. Not with how he is portrayed before, not in this context.
Keep role-playing all you want, this is how that kind of game should be played anyway - and the only way to enjoy it imo - , but Koki's still right.
EvaUnit02 on 4/12/2010 at 17:25
Christ, no shit it applies to narratives as well. Like in an episode of 24, Jack Bauer never seems to go to the toilet. You suspend your disbelief by shrugging it off and focusing what's happens on the screen and in the narrative.
Trying to rationalise an emotionless, completely thoughtless mute protagonist's motivation/frame of mind/etc is not the same thing. You're more or less making your own internal fanfic. As I said before, it's HL2 Syndrome.
Jack of Bioshock does some really fucking stupid shit in certain scripted sequences (that are out of the player's control) very early in the game. We will never know what was going on in his head at the time or if he in fact a complete moron because guess what, he was never given any dialogue or a voice outside of a couple lines in the opening FMV (I'm pretty sure that Atlas never "ordered" him to inject himself with that first Plasmid hypo. Even if Atlas had that still wouldn't even begin to explain why Jack does a running leap off of the balcony.)
We actually know why the PC is forced to stab himself in the heart with a huge syringe and inject himself with some strange foreign substance - Irrational needed to establish the plasmid game mechanic and show the player how and where to acquire them (I.e. you can purchase new Plasmids from Gatherers' Garden vending machines). We would suspend our disbelief to gloss over this fact and get on with playing the game, not to rationalise the character's mindset.
henke on 5/12/2010 at 09:33
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
Trying to rationalise an emotionless, completely thoughtless mute protagonist's motivation/frame of mind/etc is not the same thing. You're more or less making your own internal fanfic.
Err, like I said in my last post
Quote Posted by henke
His deeper feelings and reasonings is something I started wondering about when Koki and T-Smith started questioning why Allen would do that.
At the time of playing I wasn't writing any fanfics, I just had a feeling that this is probably what my character would do in this situation. If you don't think that's suspension-of-disbelief then I don't think this conversation is going to go anywhere.
june gloom on 5/12/2010 at 10:23
Evabot clearly can't fathom the concept of faceless and/or voiceless characters being standins for the audience. This practice dates back at least as far as Citizen Kane with Thompson the reporter whose face is never seen clearly yet whose investigation drives the plot.
Jason Moyer on 5/12/2010 at 15:11
Yeah, but who the fuck projects motivations and emotions onto that faceless reporter that aren't even remotely implied by the narrative?
