In Part 4 of the Creating Emotion in Games retrospective, we had a bit of a double feature, covering the core concepts of Groups and the fundamental ideas behind NPC dynamics. This time around, we're going full-on into the meat of NPC techniques, exploring plot arcs, chemistry with the player character, and more!
Building an NPC Arc
Something I've come to understand about stories is that everyone has their own preferred template for how to put together a character and their arc. There's useful things in all of these templates, but at the end of the day, you're picking what makes the most sense in your mind. The thing I like about this chapter is that the model character arc is simple, functional, and not needlessly formulaic (I've had my fill of monomyth-inspired takes on character arcs, thanks): your character has a fear, limitation, block, or wound ("FLBW", in the book's parlance), and over the course of the movie/book/game, they grow through this. It's a staple of TV storytelling in particular (I'm reminded of the tabletop RPG Primetime Adventures, which puts a character's "Issue" front and center for their character arc), but it also works great for any character. The book goes on to note that not every character will actually grow through their FLBW, and there's a lot of variations you can play with here.
However, there is one factor that leaves me a bit confused--nothing here seems to talk about why this kind of arc is uniquely suited to non-player characters. My suspicion, based on scraps of things that have been mentioned (and me peeking ahead a tad) is that Freeman is skeptical of the ability of a game to deliver a traditional character arc for the player character (and maybe rightly so!). Thus, NPCs get traditional character arcs. I do feel like the chapter should acknowledge that in a game, NPCs also have limitations in terms of the ways that you can showcase their character development...but I think the fact that this chapter revolves around such a simple core goes a long way in helping it.
I've been playing Dragon Age: Origins recently, and noticed this technique in full force when it comes to the companion characters who accompany you on your quest. Not only do they have romance arcs that involve confronting an FLBW (self-doubt or a secret birthright, for example), but they also have unique quests which you can pursue, if you engage with them enough--these quests give insight into their pasts, and help them move beyond something that was holding them up.
Root, Root, Root for the NPC
The chapter about developing a "rooting interest" in an NPC stands out to me, because it's the first time I feel like we've gotten a chapter that's directly about building an emotional bond. There's been plenty of content that's about presenting characters and situations that are both interesting and deep, but there's something more intentional about getting the player to root for a character in a game. It's no longer showing them something that should interest and engage them--it's about evoking a reaction from them, towards something in the game! As the book points out, this is about creating empathy with a character, and the difference between a storyline where you have empathy for a character and one you don't is massive.
The actual techniques start with some pretty straightforward ideas: having characters show bravery, self-sacrifice, misfortune that they don't deserve, simple things like that. Where I think it gets really interesting is the final two techniques:
- Investing characters with life, like the characters in The Sims. This one comes in a great many forms, and it's also the technique that's least applicable to traditional cinematic video games. You can see this in games like Dwarf Fortress, in any tabletop roleplaying game, and even games where you have less direct involvement--this perfectly summarizes the way that fans became attached to the online game/event Blaseball, which was almost entirely a spectator sport, but commanded immense levels of affection for (and investment in) the virtual players of the game, who were identified merely by autogenerated names!
- Characters you have responsibility for. While the sample given here is an adventure scenario (you rescue a woman from a thousand years of torment within an ancient artifact), I find this to ring even truer with games where you manage characters as part of a larger whole. My responsibility to bring back X-COM soldiers alive makes it all the more devastating when I lose one in a mission, and I've felt moments of dread during a game of Stellaris, watching an alien swarm slowly eradicate the inhabitants of my homeworld, who I should have been able to protect. (The latter case also made it all the more cathartic when I mounted a comeback and crushed the swarm, building a new homeworld on the ruins of the old!)
Building Chemistry from Players to NPCs
Chapter 2.11 is about establishing chemistry from players to NPCs--judging by the next chapter, this looks like it's an equivalent to "Player-NPC Relationship Interesting Techniques", but there's a bit more impetus here. Contrasting with the previous chapter, the book explains that while giving a character rooting interest helps you identify with them, you need other techniques to make players feel chemistry with them--techniques to make players like them, and enjoy them. Looking around at the vast number of "smooch your companions" RPGs, this feels like a topic that's even more important in the modern age of game design.
There's some pretty straightforward techniques here: an NPC admires you, "reads your mind", has things in common with you, anticipates your needs. They're all things that people do to be likeable. I can imagine plenty more along those lines as well: be a good listener, say nice things, express trust in the player, tease the player once there's some rapport. Wrapping the chapter up, though, is something more interesting, because of how aspirational it is: "make the player grow to be a better person". It's more of a big payoff thing, where an NPC gives you opportunities to do the right thing, with or without negative consequences, but if played right, it can definitely generate a huge amount of chemistry with the character.
I'm reminded of when I first played Dragon Age 2 (spoilers for a companion sidequest follow), and started following what I thought was Aveline's romance questline. Well, it was--but over time, it slowly became obvious that it wasn't a romance with the player character. After feeling a little bit like the game had bamboozled me, I actually stopped, thought about the situation, and realized that I'd been putting expectations on this character that didn't match her own desires. That reflection made me a better person, and that connection made me care more about Aveline as a companion in the game.
Deepening Player-NPC Relationships
For this last section, I'll actually be mashing together thoughts on Chapters 2.12 and 2.13, because they cover two sides of the same dynamic...and 2.12 is like, two pages long in terms of the actual ideas it presents (which are largely redundant with earlier material). From the NPC side, it's layer cakes, like in the last section of part 4: multiple layers to the way an NPC feels about you. The book uses the Han Solo/Princess Leia dynamic as an example, building out several hypothetical scenarios with a cocky, rough man as a main character, with a woman who's harsh towards him but secretly harbors affection for him. There's some fleshing-out, but the important part is: layers, and I can honestly think of a lot more ways to do it that are more compelling than copying that specific dynamic wholesale.
2.13 is similarly brief, now that I get down to it, and it covers the idea that you can deepen the relationship between the player and an NPC by using mixed emotions, which is kind of another way of saying layer cakes. I'm not sure why both of the examples have "goes after the woman you're interested in" as an aspect of mixed emotions, but I'm certainly adding data to my file. Again, could have many more interesting examples here. At any rate, the overall idea is solid: mixed emotions, layers of reaction, things that build on one another. There's not a lot here that hasn't already been implied by some of the earlier chapters (they bring to mind, among other things, the idea that emotional ambivalence is a good way to deepen an NPC), so I don't have a lot more to say here.
Next Time...
Like earlier, we're going to be able to hit some more interesting and even game-specific content again, going back to groups and also starting to dig into Plot--a strange but important aspect in game narratives. Come back next time to see!
- How to build bonds with groups
- How to build emotionally-complex situations (this is a MONSTER of a chapter, but hopefully I can boil it down)
- Making plots interesting
- Making plots deep
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