If anyone doesn’t know, BAFTA is the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and some time ago it began to award awards not only to films, but also to video games.
BAFTA recently expanded its gaming nominations by one position. The new category is called Game Beyond Entertainment. This award will be given to those video games that not only entertain, but raise serious world issues through empathy and emotional impact, putting content above entertainment. Academy representatives noted that all applicants will be assessed solely on content, that is, emotional mood, theme and innovative use of the gaming environment. It's hard to say what exactly BAFTA academics mean by real world issues and emotional engagement. However, all the gamers in our editorial office immediately remembered several games that, perhaps, could at one time qualify for this award. In them one can find philosophical overtones, as well as quite deeply illuminated problems of the surrounding world. We present this list to your attention.
What games have influenced your worldview?
We invite you to expand our list in the comments, indicating:
Games that taught you something and influenced your worldview
Games that hooked you on an emotional level and thereby influenced you
Games that you think have influenced the world around you in one way or another
Undertale
Year of release and platforms: 2015 (Windows, MacOS), 2016 (Linux), 2017 (PS4, PS Vita). Metacritic score: 92. Issues raised by the game: willingness to do bad things for short-term personal gain, labeling.
If you are not put off by the less than presentable, overly “old-school” appearance of this indie game, you will most likely be able to appreciate its wondrous story. A story about a child who finds himself in an incomprehensible dungeon full of creatures called monsters. In fact, if you look closely, it turns out that “monsters” are not such monsters after all.
There are several endings in this game, and you can go through it the second time without killing a single living creature. And if you do kill someone... we promise, at the end of the game you will feel bad about this action. This game makes you think about the decisions we make based on labels, without thinking about the consequences.
This idea of "if someone seems like a monster, they're not necessarily a monster" isn't new to gaming. For example, in 1994, the RPG Crusader of Centy was released on the Sega Genesis console (Mega Drive) with the same idea. True, it was a much more traditional toy for its time than Undertale was for its time.
The Path
Year of release and platform: 2009 (Windows, MacOS). Metacritic score: 79 Issues raised by the game: violence against girls.
A conceptual indie game that tells the story of the fate of several “little red riding hoods” of different ages. It is dedicated to the problem of violence against girls: each of the heroines dies at the hands of her personal “gray wolf.” Interesting sound and video sequences draw you into the game. You are trying to find a way out to avoid a sad ending, but there is really only one option - not to let the “wolves” take you deep into the forest (and this is unattainable in the game).
Spec Ops: The Line
Year of release and platforms: 2012 (Windows, MacOS, Linux, PS3, Xbox 360). Metacritic score: 76 (PC, Xbox), 77 (PS3). Issues raised by the game: betrayal.
At first glance, this is an ordinary “war game”, a typical third-person shooter. The game takes place in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which turned into a disaster zone after a series of large-scale sandstorms. The main characters, soldiers of the Delta special forces, find themselves at the forefront of a conflict involving a rebel infantry battalion of the US Army.
As the game progresses, you will have to make very difficult moral decisions, and in the end you begin to fight against your own people, since it turns out that all the horrors that happen in the game are the work of your employers and allies.
That Dragon, Cancer
Year of release and platforms: 2016 (iOS, Windows, OUYA, Mac OS, Android). Metacritic score: 78. Issues raised by the game: the life of a person with a fatal disease, the suffering of his family.
This game is very difficult to describe, much less play. Here is a small personal hospice for the developers, the story of the family of Ryan and Amy Green, whose one-year-old son fell ill with cancer. I don’t even want to imagine what this development cost them, but they probably needed it to show the value of life and to honor the memory of five-year-old Joel, who was finally taken by “that dragon, cancer” after four years of fighting for life. Sometimes dragons can be defeated, but alas, not always. Probably the scariest game in the history of the industry.
Persona series
Year of release and platforms: Persona 4: 2008 (PlayStation 2), 2012 (PlayStation Vita). Persona 5: 2017 (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4) Metacritic scores: Persona 4 Golden (PS Vita): 93. Persona 4 (PS2): 90. Persona 5: 93. Issues raised in the game: coming to terms with oneself, the dark side personality, social pressure on a person.
First of all, let's mention the game Persona 4, since this is the game with which the author of these lines is most familiar. At first glance, this is a mystical detective story about schoolchildren and for schoolchildren. But in fact, if you ignore the age and usual surroundings of the main characters, you can feel how deep the authors of the series dug. The philosophy of the game is literally woven into the gameplay. In fact, the very name “Persona” is taken from Jung’s books; it means a compromise between the individual and sociality.
In the game, your Alter ego and his friends investigate a murder case and fight not just monsters, but Ghosts. This concept also comes from philosophy: according to Jung, the “Ghost” is that part of your “I” that you do not accept in yourself. And these toy schoolchildren in “Persona” must realize themselves, recognize their ghost - this is the only way they can defeat it and get their persona.
The newest game in the series to date, Persona 5, focuses on the challenges of living in a society that literally shackles you and aggressively tells you who you are without regard for your opinion of yourself.
The main characters, all the same high school students, are trying to break out of these “shackles.” Each of the heroes is, to some extent, an outcast, but turns out to be capable of exploring “Fortresses” invisible to most, woven from the thoughts and desires of people. They strive to eradicate evil by stealing the hearts of unkind people, thereby destroying fortresses.
Mass Effect trilogy
Year of release and platforms: Mass Effect 2007 (PC), 2008 (Xbox 360), 2012 (PlayStation 3), Mass Effect 2 Metacritic ratings: Mass Effect: 89 (PC), 91 (Xbox), 85 (PS3) Mass Effect 2: 94 (PC), 96 (Xbox), 94 (PS3) Mass Effect 3: 89 (PC), 93 (Xbox), 93 (PS3) Issues raised in the game: racism.
A very brief plot without spoilers: 2183, Commander Shepard, head of the spaceship Normandy, begins his odyssey dedicated to saving the world from some kind of universal evil that can destroy any organic life. What does the famous space Action/RPG series do on this list? The moral choices you make in the game are very conditional. Even if you choose “red” lines and behave like the last uh... misbehave, you remain the main hero of the galaxy, who will save it from certain death. Yes, some of your actions affect the consequences, but a lot of good games have this approach.
However, the game raises a rather deep topic that cannot be avoided in the modern world. It's about racism. In the world of Mass Effect, there is an organization called Cerberus, which puts the interests of the human race so high that it neglects the interests of the galaxy. There is a Council here, which not all races can join. There is navigator Pressley, a hereditary military man, who has an extremely negative attitude towards Shepard’s decision to replenish the ship’s crew with aliens. There are even “gypsies” here - the turian nomadic fleet, which no one wants to host, and representatives of this race are avoided and treated with extreme prejudice.
And despite the decisions the player makes, the game tries to show that humanity alone cannot save the galaxy. Just like any other race. Only by joining forces can you defeat a powerful enemy. Trite? Of course, it's banal. But for some reason this banal truth does not reach everyone in the real world.
Firewatch
Year of release and platform: 2016. Metacritic ratings: 81 (PC), 85 (Xbox One), 76 (PS4). Issues raised in the game: escapism, real and mystical fears, responsibility for inaction.
Some will call Firewatch a "walking simulator" and say that it's not a game at all. Well, someone will see that this small visual work very well describes the problem of running away from problems and oneself, relationships with others, the problem of inaction and its consequences.
The game uses an interesting technique: from some point on, it will seem to you that in the forests of Wyoming, where your protagonist finds himself, something terrible, mystical... or organized criminal, in extreme cases, is lurking. Or both. But a sudden turn - and... the outcome at first is banal and simple. However, if you think about it, the tragedy that unfolded is in no way inferior to mystical horrors in content.
True, to understand this you need to either read a lot or have some kind of life experience. Firewatch will most likely not be suitable for very young people.
This war of mine
Year of release and platforms: 2014 (Windows), 2015 (Android/iOS), 2016 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One) Metacritic score: 83. Issues raised in the game: civilian survival during armed conflicts.
Survival during modern armed conflict is the main theme of This War of Mine. You do not control a soldier, but a group of civilians who are trying to survive day and night. Search for provisions and medicine, looters, cold, difficult decisions. Well, in the expanded version of This war of mine: the Little Ones, children were added to this formula, who, even in the hell of war, remain children. They are of very little use in your shelter, they constantly endanger themselves and others... but don’t leave them to their fate?..
Catherine
Year of release and platforms: 2011 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) Metacritic score: 83 (Xbox), 80 (PS3). Problems raised in the game: betrayal, avoidance of responsibility, infantilism.
Another little-known game from the creators of Persona, Atlus. This time it’s more than adult, because it touches on 18+ topics, namely relationships, betrayal, responsibility, and so on. For this game, Atlus even took the trouble to conduct an anonymous survey, which showed that 75% of men and women from 20 to 40 years old have cheated on their significant other at least once.
In the game, we are given the reins of Vincent, a thirty-something clerk who lives his life as he pleases and is petrified by the thought of marrying his girlfriend. Why? He doesn’t really know himself, most likely he’s afraid of responsibility. One day he meets a mysterious stranger, with whom he wakes up in the same bed in the morning, and... and soon a real nightmare begins.
During the day, Vincent deals with the “official” and “unofficial” halves, in the evening he relaxes with friends in a bar, and at night, in the form of a horned guy in family shorts, he tries to save his life and climb an incomprehensible tower of cubes, where all the inhabitants are anthropomorphic sheep, which in fact they turn out to be brothers in misfortune. And these are not just dreams: rumors spread throughout the city that in the morning many young men were found dead in bed. And yes, the ending of the game depends on your choices and answers to questions.
Pac Man
Year of release and platform: 1980 (since re-released many times on all platforms) Issues raised in the game: a society based on power.
“Well, well,” you say. “What does a game about a kolobok who is imprisoned in a labyrinth with monsters and pills do in this more or less serious list?” But it's not so simple with Pac Man! Remember the rules of the game. While you are weak, ghosts eat you. As soon as you get a magic pill and become strong, you not only mind your own business and solve your problems, but you yourself become the very ghost that eats everyone...
A very sad picture emerges! No, for our hero to change the rules of the game, to pacify his enemies in the end, to try to solve the problem peacefully while he has the power. Nothing like this. It's either you or them. If you look at the history of our species, it seems that this is exactly how everything works, if simplified to the limit. So, perhaps, before us is one of the most truthful diagrams of society. Which, alas, is extremely sad.
Afterword and announcement
Of course, everyone has their own list of games that influenced them personally. Once again, we invite you to write about them in the comments! Well, in Friday we will approach the issue of games that change the world in a more down-to-earth way, and we will talk about those creations of developers who influenced the gaming industry.
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