Emotional Themes

Emotional Themes

Emotions are used a lot in characters in stories for games. They display how the character is feeling about certain parts in the game, it effects how the players feel based on what kind of emotion the character is showing, a game that is good should get a strong reaction out of its player the majority of the time, this is to engage the player within the storyline and its characters to keep them interested in the game. The emotions in the game can be portrayed in photo-realistic way, this works very well on players as they feel like they can understand what the character is feeling and can also be a very good way to influence the players decision in the game

Emotional themes can also be displayed in films, the story is then told to the viewer in a controlled way, this is where the story will be the same every time that you play through it, whereas in a game, the story is not as direct, the player’s action can almost certainly determine how the game’s story could plan out, you can encourage emotional investment by adding an element of human experience. This could be achieved in a game by using experimental storytelling, basically linking to a human experience. There are a few emotional themes that can affect a story which could make it portray different emotions within a player, some of these can be:

•          Comedy.
•          Charity.
•          Love.
•          Curiosity.
•          Revenge.
•          Hope.
•          Sorrow.
•          Jealousy.
•          Faith.
•          Fear.

This can then be expanded into three separate things, Wants, Needs and Desires. Wants can be things that your or any other person must have in order to survive, Needs are things that are created by your Wants. An example of this could be that you Want to survive, but you Need to eat and drink in order to survive, a Desire is something that you long for, this could be something that may not be achievable or could be self destructive. Stories must contain emotional themes in order to attract and engage their players, they also must make sure that they include the Wants, Needs and Desires and ways in which to suit those Wants, Needs and Desires.

Now I will be writing about a certain clip from the game The Last of Us which really captures emotional themes in great detail, the clip that I have chosen is the prologue during the opening 15 minutes or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76bkBcnbteQ - The Last of Us Prologue.  

From the beginning we can relate to the main character, Joel as he walks in on the phone to Tommy about his job and that he “Needs this job.” Most of the audience can relate to this because in one way or another we've all had the experience of possibly losing our jobs at one point.  Joel is then sitting down with his daughter, Sarah who doesn't forget that it’s Joel’s birthday and gives him a new watch as his is “broken”, and this shows that she has clearly thought about the gift for him.

Sarah then expresses some humor into the scene as she says she got the money from “selling hardcore drugs.” Joel reacts in a comical way by saying “well you can help out with the rent then.” This injects some humor into the situation, I’d say a few minutes later or so, Sarah falls asleep in the sofa, Joel has to carry her up to bed, and this shows his compassionate side as it’s seen as a excellent fatherly gesture carrying your child up to bed having fallen asleep downstairs. He kisses her goodnight and says “Goodnight, Babygirl.” This shows that Joel still sees his daughter, Sarah as a baby.

Now you’re actually playing through the game, you’re playing as Sarah to give the player her perspective of things, you were woken up by the phone, it’s Tommy asking for Sarah to get her dad then gets cut off midway through speaking. As playing as Sarah you now must find your dad, there is an element of fear because you do not know his whereabouts, so you must go looking through an empty feeling house calling “dad” or “daddy” a few times, you then walk into Joel’s room and find the television still on with the news playing, as you are looking round the room the broadcast gets worse and explosions are heard not too far away, this gives the player as sense of danger, Sarah is even more spooked and calls louder for her dad. You then make your way downstairs where you find Joel’s phone which has received 8 missed calls and 3 text messages from Tommy saying that he’s on his way.

Sarah then finds her dad frantically running inside from their neighbour who Joel describes as “not right” of course the neighbour has been infected, but Joel and Sarah don’t know this, all they seen is that he’s gone a little insane or crazy, this would give the player who’s playing a sense of fear as they don’t really know what’s going to happen next. Joel takes a gun from his desk draw and warns his neighbour to “stay back”. The neighbour smashes through then glass door and tries to attacks Joel, Joel then has no choice to protect his daughter and shoots the neighbour. Joel then says to Sarah that they “need to get out of here” and Tommy arrives to pick them up, they enter the car and Tommy asks Sarah if she’s okay, her response is but only 2 word which are “I’m fine” which we all know when someone says only 2 words when asked this clearly isn't, Sarah is obviously slightly traumatized by these current events.

Sarah asks if the radio can be turned on as this means she wants to block out what just happened by switching on the radio so she can get back to some form of normality. Tommy then persisted that he found a family that was “mangled” where Joel stops him midway through in order to protect his daughter from such events. They then drive past another neighbour’s house which is on fire, Joel and Tommy both show signs of concern by questioning if they “made it out alive” or survived. They pass a group similar to their own, 2 adults and a child, Tommy shows concern again and wants to stop and see if they’re okay, Joel reacts in the total opposite manner and tells him to keep driving, Tommy replies  by saying “they’ve got a kid, Joel” which Joel says “yeah? So do we”. Again the player is faced with fear as the traffic comes to a holt and one of the drivers gets out of his car only to be attacked by an infected which then tries to attack the car Joel and the other are in.

They drive down a different alternative road only to be crashed into buy another car, Joel and Sarah regain consciousness only to be trapped inside the car, this gives to player a perspective of the venerable situation,  Joel has no choice but to smash the front window by using his foot, they get out of the car where Joel is pinned against it by an infected, Tommy comes to the rescue and hit the infected with a brick to its head, this shows the love side as Tommy probably just saved Joel’s life. Sarah has been injured in the car crash; this again shows some signs of vulnerability as Joel now has to carry her. Joel then hands Tommy the revolver he got out his draw at their house and says to Tommy “keep us safe” this shows that Joel has put his life in Tommy’s hands. As they’re travelling down the road looking for an exit one of the infected pins a human down and kills them, Joel tells Sarah not to look as he wants to protect her from what’s happening. As you’re rushing through the town certain parts of the town are cornered off, this is to show you where you’re supposed to go in the mad rush of running through the town. As you get to a bar after being chased by the infected, Tommy hold them off at the door and tells Joel to carry on without him and that he’ll meet him at the highway.

Now that Joel and Sarah are on their own, they must now survive without the help of Tommy, they must find their way to the highway whilst being chased by some of the infected, once you reach a certain point running from the infected it goes to a cut scene where you are stopped by a guard, this would give the player a sense of safety as they might think the guard is there to help them or protect them, this however is not the case, the guard then radio’s his commanding officer to say there’s a man and a little girl there, he pleads that there is a “little girl” there, but is given the orders to execute them, the guard fires and Joel who then tries to dive out of the line of fire, the guard walks over to complete his orders only to be shot by Tommy, Joel remains unharmed, but Sarah isn't, she did in fact get hit with a bullet, these last few minutes are the most pivotal in emotional attachments with the player as it shows Joel desperately trying to save his daughters life, but without any kind of medical equipment he fails, Joel breaks down in tears as his daughter squeals in agony from the bullet wound and as he is comforting his daughter saying “it’s okay” and “stay with me, baby” yet in the back of his mind he must k now that Sarah will probably not survive. As the silence occurs, Sarah has passed away from the bullet wound, Joel cannot hold his emotions back floods into tears, this part really connects with the player emotionally as it pulls on the persons heart strings if I wanted to use a better term, this creates a sense of sadness or sorrow for the player because the main character, Joel has lost the most important thing in his life. This really shows quite effectively how he then reacts around Ellie, who is at a similar age, Joel tries not to get emotionally attached to Ellie, but towards the end he ends up saving her and becoming her father figure.