(This article's from the site I work for: Gameaxis.com. This is my essay for the 1up.com special that happened a while ago)



A while ago in the midst of churning out articles and posts, I came across two rather stimulating articles online, one from MTV Multiplayer's Stephen DiTillo concerning context in videogames and the characters we play, and a recent 1up.com feature Are We What We Play? Both bring up one big question that probably has been discussed idly (or not) among cliques of people and gamers; what roles do we, as individuals, want to take when playing a videogame? And what do we want to avoid?

We here at GameAxis ponder at these set of questions, and we would like to share our experiences with you, dear readers. I’ll start with my short essay.


A Game Of Yourself



If my videogaming background serves me well, I could either be a white-clad ninja running atop subway trains fighting Godzilla or Spiderman, or I could be a blue hedgehog speeding through impossibly-constructed loops, or I could be …….well, you get the picture. Concerning the characters I masquerade as, my digital lifestyle has been a little schizophrenic, to put it mildly.

However, the one iconic person that I care about is, above all else, myself. If that statement seems a little too metaphysical to digest, take a look at the Ultima series. When you load up that floppy disk for the first time, a gypsy will start asking you questions based on the eight virtues you have to adopt throughout the game. There is no penalty to giving amoral answers; your answers will only result in a varying stats change. It took me about half an hour to go through each and every one of those questions, searching through the core of what defines me as, well, me. Rather than using a sliding bar and plus/minus signs to adjust your increments, this was an effective way of starting the game off; defining who you are first before entering the realm of Britannia, Faerun, or any plane of your choosing.

Have you ever thought about the ramifications of your actions when you have your newly-created alter ego in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, or even Baldur’s Gate? I felt a slight tinge of guilt whenever I sucker punch a peasant or just rob his house at night; sure, the rewards are there (new loot!) and any chance at relieving stress after failing a quest is always welcome, but it makes it a little hard to sleep at night. Killing off mushrooms and turtles with the power of your weight or blowing up buildings in Liberty City? Not a problem, since I’m controlling a totally different avatar. But once you have yourself trapped into the Mushroom Kingdom, you start contemplating on genocide. The situation itself seems more profound when it’s you.

Then again, it’s probably just me.