Archetype in Video Game

Same as the other medias, such as movie and novel,  archetype usually used in video  game as a guide to create an interesting character. However, just like what I wrote in my recent post (http://questandquestion.blogspot.com/2014/06/only-story-really.html ),  archetype does not only show a different function of character in the story, but also a part of the audience  mind. So, the question is, how we create a game that emphasize on these different part of our mind, the archetype? Is by creating a character with a certain archetype as his/her personality enough?

I’m really enthusiastic about the advance of video game in the recent years. Starting from Journey by ThatGameCompany, there is an increasing number of game developers who tried to produce a variety of complex emotions in their game, different than in the past which game usually only focus on the basic emotion. However, we need to be careful, so that rather than create an emotional moving game we fall into creating a game that only produces a “meh” moment. The problem is, emotion isn’t the same as science, there is no theory gives a complete description about it (well, there are some, but until now we still aren’t sure whether these theories are right or not). One of the reason of this is emotion varies among one person and the others. The same emotion could come from a different trigger for a different people, and worse, some cultures have a different kind of emotion that not found on the other cultures.  Which in turn, leave us to 2 options, spend much more of resource ranging from research to production just for produce a certain emotion or we take another different perspective of seeing emotion in video game.

Ah, talking about emotion always fun (and sometimes stressful, yet it still interesting), but for now let’s back to the archetype. So, we see, most of the games use archetypes only in their story (by represent them with characters).  For example, in Final Fantasy X, Tidus plays as the hero, Yuna as the herald, Auron as the mentor, Sin as the shadow, all monsters and mini bosses player found along the way as the threshold guardian, Seymour as the shapeshifter, Wakka, Lulu, Rikku, and the rest party members as allies, and Jecht as the trickster. However, could we take the archetype to a higher degree of game, not only inside the game as narrative fuel, but also outside the game, say player’s mind maybe? 

Okay then, first, let’s assume that the game as the journey which player will go through. This make the player, yes you, as the hero. Then the herald who calls you to do the journey, to play the game can be in the shape of that game advertisement which entices you to buy the game. Mentor and shadow appear as the source that drive you to keep playing the game. It could be the value that you found interesting in game (which usually the opposite condition of your daily life) and the darkness that the hero in game tries to banish (which usually you see as bad thing, or it could be just as simple as boredom in your daily life).

Continue on, the threshold guardian could be your parent, the shapeshifter could be the leaderboard, the ally could be your friend who also plays the same game, and the trickster could be your homework. well, that is one way to think of them, but I don’t think it’s quite right. I always have a belief that video game is not only as an entertainment, but it could be a medium for us to change, just as the threshold guardian, the shapeshifter, the ally, and the trickster change the hero. So I believe the function of these four archetypes is bigger than I mentioned before.

In my view, the threshold guardian, the shapeshifter, the ally, and the trickster surround one of the feature in video game that identified the video game itself. Related to this feature, the threshold guardian and the shapeshifter create expectation and doubt toward the feature respectively. Meanwhile, the ally and the trickster together they represent the other value that player got from other person and reality (outside the video game) about the feature. The feature is known as decision making. Every video game always requires us to make a decision. Sometimes the feedback about the decision that we made doesn’t come directly, which creates expectation (the shapeshifter) and also doubt (the threshold guardian). When we trying to choose the right decision, often we use the other value outside the video game, maybe from our friend’s perspective (the ally) or what we will choose in real life (the trickster).

The decision making doesn’t need to come in a sophisticated system such as moral system that we can found in fable or other high budget video games. It can also come as simple as choose the best strategy to win a game. Take for example, the decision which pawn we will move in chess. Every chess player must have known about the feeling of expectation and doubt of every move that they made. Also, even though the different space a type of pawn can move create a grade among the pawn (with usually the highest is queen and the lowest is rook), but sometimes we use another value from our reality, for example the equality of every person, which then make us sacrifice the queen instead the rook in order to create an opening. Through doubt, expectation, and the other value in chess, it is not strange that they do not only change the strategy of the player, but also change how the player treats the other people in life.

So if you want to create a game that able to change the player, one of the real challenges is to incorporate a meaningful decision making into the game. A decision making which creates expectation and doubt into every option that player made, and also requires the player to use the value not only from inside the game, but also outside the game to make a better decision.

Sound simple eh?