Character Studies: World Character

The world of a videogame can be a character unto itself. Play characters are the portal through which the player engages with the world and non-player characters are the ludic or narrative elements with which they engage. Yet, the world that surrounds everything within the game is itself a character with as much depth and importance to the entire experience as either of the other elements of a game. Beyond a simple setting, the world of a videogame is a livable place inhabited simultaneously by every person, character and idea related to the game. It is also a framing device used to establish the core elements of the game. The world character of a game ultimately defines not only what the game is, but what it will become.

In the most basic terms the world of a videogame serves all the same narrative elements that the setting of a novel does. It establishes a place of action and a feeling of place. Interestingly enough, place of action and the feeling of place are not always the same. In fact sometimes they are purposely conflicting. The place of action is the simplest role that a videogame world plays within the narrative. It is the literal ‘Where is this happening?’ ‘When is this happening?’ A feeling of place is a more complex concept. Adding a level beyond the concrete physicalities established by the place of action, a feeling of place is the emotion or sensation the world wishes to impart. When as a person in real life or a character in a game, you – the player, enters a new area what is it that you think? Do you look around and think ‘This room is approximately 40 sq. ft. with low ceilings, dirty possibly blood splattered floors and several dark menacing shadows?’ Or do you think ‘This place is creepy. I’m getting out of here.’ That feeling of fear, sense of slight disturbance that is a feeling of place. What you think as you enter a new area for the first time, the sensations imparted on you is the feeling of place a videogame world provides. Occasionally for added effect the place of action and feeling of place with conflict with each other to impart greater meaning to the player. Would the sunken city of Rapture from the original Bioshock be so memorable if it wasn’t for the juxtaposition of the broken and ruined physicalities of the place of action in relation to the grandeur imparted by the feeling of place? A videogame world is a character that provides the game with a place of action as well as a feeling of place.

The place of action and feeling of place are both concepts that videogame world character shares with other forms of media; books, plays, movies, ext. Together they form an establishment of setting necessary for all narratives. However, even in setting the interactive elements of videogames establish themselves forcing a change in the way world character is established. The world character does not only reflect and influence the narrative of the game, but so too does it affect the gameplay. As a ludic experience the game and therefore the world character must be dominated by the interaction and engagement that the player, the audience, you, gets to have with it. The place of action and feeling of place have immense ramifications on the gameplay of a game. When all the elements work in tandem; world character, narrative and ludic elements, the total experience is cohesive and all the more enjoyable. The best way to avoid ludonarrative dissonance is through the use of a properly aligned and strongly developed world character. Because ultimately it is the world inhabited by the game; its developer, its characters and you, the player, which create the tone of the game. That tone can range from playful, to sincere, to energetic, to somber depending on the game being played. And it is that tone which gives focus to gameplay. It would not make sense for Mario to stop on a Koopa and there be blood spilling out. It goes against the tone established in world character. Likewise it would be disruptive to have mushroom power-ups in Call of Duty. The place of action and feeling of place work in with narrative to develop a tone pervasive throughout the world character and it is that tone which focuses gameplay. 

Videogames have one last unique characteristic in relation to their world character; the world character of a videogame is transcendent.  Books and films have previously reached levels or transcendence become iconic in their own. But there is degree to their transcendence that is somehow lacking. Less about what the literature, film or even play meant to audience, but what is has meant over the course of time. Although that is a perfectly suitable definition, it is inapplicable to videogames. An unfortunate side effect of the medium being so young. Transcendence in videogames is achieved in another manner. It is directly related to the world character of a videogame that it becomes transcendent. The audience is always the final collaborator; they will bring to the game something unique that will change and differentiate the experience for them. And the world character of a videogame allows for that. Narratives, even in the most open and free form of videogames, are already set by the time a player engages with them. However the world is not. World character is a living conceptual place inhabited by all the collaborators of the game. The developer’s concepts are most strongly felt throughout this world; their characters inhabit the play space after all, but the world character of a videogame adapts and changes as the player engages with it. What you, the player, choice to take, interpret and make your own from the game becomes part of the world character. It is part of you and you are part of the game. In that manner, Fallout became a deeply personal self examination for myself. I choose to believe in something the developers had created therefore making it partly may own. It is for you, the player, to decide in the end how the game will play out and that makes you just as strong a force within the game as the developers who created it. World character for videogames is transcendent. It is a living place that evolves and changes holding on to the ideas and experiences of every person who contacts it. Just take a small dive into any of the massive fandoms surrounding videogames and franchises. All these people believing and committed to the world character of the game, constantly adding to it, expanding it, making it live. That is transcendence.

World character defines a videogame while at the same time elevating it. The establishment of place of action and feeling of place is also the establishment of tone and gameplay. World character feeds the other elements of the game ultimately creating a living fiction. A transcendent experience shared by millions, but utterly unique to each one. World character in videogames defines what the game is and what it will become.