What's better than to follow up a blog about weed with a blog about video games?
As implied by the title, today I'll cover implicit goals. What are implicit goals? Well, they're the reason you start a book or a video game. The implicit goal of a book is to read the book, and the implicit goal of a video game is to play the game. However, video games prove to be more complicated in their goals. Often times, when people pick up a controller, the first thing he/she asks is "what am I supposed to do?" This question is not asked when a book is picked up (though some may ask "how am I supposed to read this" or "what should I think of this").
Often times, the implicit goals of video games are not commented upon. People don't stop to ask "why am I shooting all of these people?" Like a literary narrative, the "reader" participates in order to advance in the story. The game Bioshock, however, plays with the concept of this unquestioning advancement though the story. A first person shooter, the game opens with the main character (you) standing in a broken down elevator with tons of demented mutated enemies outside. A voice comes on the intercom and asks "would you kindly step out of the elevator?" So you do, and start blasting baddies when you walk out because, well, that's the point of the game. Of course, in real life, I doubt anyone would step outside of the safety of that elevator. About midway through the game, it is revealed that the "you" have been hypnotized prior to the games beginning and the phrase "would you kindly" is the trigger to make "you" submit to orders.
This may come off as a bit heavy handed and a bit of a cheesy twist; however, I find it to be quite a subtle trick. It is very reader response like, insofar as it questions the interplay between reader and text (in particular, it asks "what assumptions did you bring to genre?"). The player is asked to fill that roll of being controlled without actually having control taken from them, just as the reader of a text fills in the gaps of a text when he/she reads it. Whether it be a video game or a text, the "reader" is always subject to the whim of the "writer." But, very good writers, through knowledge of genre and audience, can make their way into the readers' heads, and make them a part of the narrative without them ever knowing.
I'm interested to know if you've experienced any books that have played with your assumptions, and purposely misdirected you by making you a part of the experience. I'm sure there are many out there that I haven't read- Let me know.
'Till next time,
-Rainamoinen
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