A good counterpoint to Grand Theft Auto is God of War. Here, the protagonist is a genocidal warmonger who has sold his soul to the devil; a great start for anyone looking to spill some blood and guts. And they wouldn't be displeased, since this is the basic engine for the ensuing hack 'n' slash gameplay. Yet Kratos, despite his intrinsic similarity of action to the characters of Grand Theft Auto, has been given an emotional standpoint that allows the player to understand the choice and purpose of his primarily sadistic nature.
Assailing a passing civilian with a flamethrower in GTA seems unjustified and ultimately harms the longevity of the game, while Kratos pushing a caged innocent into a furnace in order to save Athens is a dramatic, poignant, yet comprehensible decision that helps the player come to terms with the gravity of being a hero, further enhancing their enjoyment.
It's all very well saying how monumentally stacked the odds are against the struggling videogame script writer to create a believable, engaging cast while telling a story and providing an entertaining outlet, but the fact remains that ever since the first RPG was made, computer and videogames have been sorely lacking in well developed characters. In all other forms of modern media, audience identification is the single most important facet, be it a book, sitcom, comic, movie, play, radio drama or puppet show.
If the increasingly voracious videogame industry wants to draw people into the endless worlds that constitute even the most basic of modern games and accept the events that happen there, they will have to begin pouring the same effort into creating credible, sympathetic characters who their audience - since today's player is as much a viewer and a reader, as they are a gamer - can empathize with, and whose motives they can believe in; whether it's murdering the Gods, swinging through skyscrapers, pistol whipping drug addicts or rescuing kittens from trees.
Spanner has written articles for several publications, including Retro Gamer. He is a self-proclaimed horror junkie, with a deep appreciation for all things Romero.
