zoltdav on 10/10/2016 at 09:36

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Fellow Taffers,

After years of lurking, I finally quit taffing around and wrote about how Looking Glass' masterpieces situate humanity within the all-consuming forces of nature and technology. Thought you might be interested.

(https://medium.com/@zoltdav/the-struggle-against-nature-and-technology-in-looking-glass-thief-games-99b7d855b590#.q8as7bfxp)

Sanctus Germanus on 10/10/2016 at 17:16

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Man, I love to read serious stuff about a so nonserious game like Thief (no, I'm not being sarcastic).

Sanctus Germanus on 11/10/2016 at 18:43

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Of course it does, but those themes remain in the shadows, behind a lovable but overall ludicrous frontispiece. They are Keepers and articles like zoltdav's are kids with no parents and no home.

Tannar on 13/10/2016 at 18:06

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Interesting article. I mostly agree with your assessment of the nature/technology aspects, though I think you left out some important points, but I almost completely disagree with your interpretation of Garrett. Garrett is not selfish, emotionally detached, nor indifferent. He doesn't hold others in contempt, though I agree with you that he sees himself as outside society, and in many respects better than some others.

But the games are full of moments in which Garrett shows how unselfish and emotionally attached he is. In fact, it is the conflict within himself between his desires/need to remain detached, to put his own needs and desires before those of others, and his willingness to put himself in harm's way to help others (or save the world), which is at the heart of Garrett's character. Is he flawed? Yes. Does he continually rise above those flaws in service to his fellow humans and society at large? Absolutely. He complains about it, tries to resist it, but in the end it is he, himself, that makes the choice to put the needs of others first, to shoulder the responsibility and take on such foes as the Trickster and Karras.

It is this constant battle between the darker aspects of his personality and the lighter ones which makes him such an interesting character and which draws us to him, and it his essential, innate goodness which endears him to us so strongly. He consistently overcomes his own demons (not to mention real ones) to do the right thing. And we love him for it.

I also disagree about his proficiency with weapons, but that's another story. Anyway, thanks for sharing the article. I did enjoy reading it.

Sanctus Germanus on 13/10/2016 at 19:00

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Oh, I brought Thief fans' anger upon myself! I love Thief, it is my favorite game of all time, and as a fervent Taffer I can say that TMA and especially TG have nonserious, even ludicrous features (I mean farting dinosaurs, flying hammers, twisted architecture, logic problems, to name a few), which in no way means they, the games, aren't engaging, inspired, original, unforgettable and ultimately thought-provoking. And there lies the beauty of it: despite the fact that after playing you can realize that the whole thing was nonsensical, it is so well done and with such passion that it just doesn't matter; it works so fastened, so organically it scares (seriously, these games have given me real frights) and, of course, that solid structure allows further analysis, like the struggle linked above. So we can say Thief games have three layers: first they are dark and serious, they turn out nonserious when thinking about them and finally they reveal deep topics after breakdown.