The Mystic Knights were the serial heroes of my childhood : four knights and knights, who compete in the fantasy world of Tir Na Nog against a evil general and his henchmen. Power Rangers for medieval fans, staged with little budget, broadcast in the afternoon program of Super RTL. There were no large twists, surprising death or moral twink mills, the world was in good and evil divided: the good protect your friends and are there for each other, the evil wearing armor with nasty spikes and screaming a lot around. Clearly it is not possible.
The heroes of my favorite games of this time had a lot with the Mystic Knights mean: Kirby, the Prince of Prince of Persia, Guybrush Threepwood and the Doom Slayer were always "the good", which had to exist against "the evil". Classic hero stories including selfless victims, hopeful gestures and unwavering belief in a happy end.
Today these stories of the Mystic Knights act, but also the Kirby and Guybrush almost cheesy: they are predictable, do not surprise, do not provoke anyone. Somehow old-fashioned. The stories we tell ourselves today, usually work differently: they settle in the moral grid area, make it difficult to distinguish "good" of "evil". Fans of dramatic twists and opponents of the Happy End clapping excited about the hands - but what the stories of this antiheld * inside is missing: optimism that everything will be fine again. And: the mighty effective force of the uncompromising good-being.
Everything is allowed, nothing is right
The first touch with the gray zone: The trend towards antihelden, which only acts according to his own code, sometimes ruthlessly and but somehow only the best for all wants, began a long time ago. But with papers, but he also reached my healing world at the beginning of the 2010-he years.
As a border control, I had to control the papers of immigrants here: Anyone who has everything together may be deported by who documents fakes. There is no pleading and lamentation, neither mine nor that of people at my counter. And at home, the hungry family waits for my salary, which fails higher, the more people I pass to the counter. The perfect recipe for an oppressive zwickmühle: I help many people, I risk my job and my life, I do my work properly, my family is hungry.
This story knows no heroes and forces me as a player who actually wants to do the right thing to follow the constant weighing, questioning compromises.
Current gray zones : The game world of the present is full of these stories that mix "good" and "evil" to a gray mass: weeks after the credits of the Last of us I still ask myself if Joel now Actually a cool guy or is detrimental, in Ghost of Tsushima, I accompanied the oriented protagonist Jin Sakai in his dramatic wire rope between unconditional charity and cold opportunism.
In God of was, I supported Kratos in his desperate fight against his deeds of the past and his own temperament, while in the Posta Pokalypse of Wasteland 3, some of the worst criminals convinces of being "good".
All these worlds and their stories went to my heart, worked me for a long time after the credits. They are exciting and tearing, because until last is not clear whether our hero is triumphed or will be left somewhere on the way through the moral gray zone. But they lack a great quality that led me the game home in my childhood and last again Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn in mind.
When heroines become a model
The world of Horizon Zero Dawn bursts like any postapocalyptic world from conflicts, problems and threats. Huge robot dinos stripes through the land and attack people who have come together after a mysterious disaster in the ruins of the Old World to new, rival nations. A world who wants to act "real" despite their drawing venues, so much not revealed, who is really "good" and "evil" - but there is a room for a real heroine.
Aloy is a figure, as it rarely gives you today: Through and by kind-hearted, inspired by an almost childlike curiosity, even driven by inner conflicts, but never in doubt about what's right. It really makes you a special experience for me Horizon Zero Dawn. Against the background of renowned moral gray zones, she seemed to me all the more fascinating.
Aloy lives in a world full of rules: Your village community is strictly adhering to old traditions, the leaders ray authority and demand obedient. Our heroine grows as a violated on the edge of this society, she has to foster her place and recognition. At the same time, she feels alien in this new world and urges more to learn more about the past of her culture and its homeland.
Aloy is curious and inquisitive, she puts rules and traditions in question, which will decide her narrow-minded and pursue iron your goals. She's never embarrassed by a sight wink-bite comment, but at the same time turns to people too. In other words, Aloy is friendly, empathic, occurs for himself and others. She has a highly pronounced inner compass, which clearly shows in the direction of "good".
After the many, many antiheldes of recent years, I enjoyed finally completely on the "right side", without constantly thinking about making the motives of my heroine, whether they are not exactly on the way to credits just loses that moral compass. And that fun with clear rolls, well against evil, I wish so much more frequently from the playing of the future.
More courage to be good!
The view of upcoming AAA games that put their history in the foreground, but gives me little hope that this wish is fulfilled: in the Zombie Apocalypse of Dying Light 2: Stay Human Buhlen equals several groups survivors around my loyalty, Some I will can help, others do not.
A "good" or "bad" plays in this world in which all perpetrators and victims are equally, no role. And God of War 2: Ragnarok? Here, the father-son conflict between Kratos and Atreus will continue, which probably can not be room for my wish heroes.
My only hope : The role-playing games must once again focus on either Baldur's Gate 3 or the Indie Insider Tip Death Trash, which both promise me a lot of freedom of choice - and therefore should have space for the through and through good heroes. But a role-playing game from the bird's eye view plays for me personally dramaturgish then just in another league as a through-choreographed story game with staged camera rides and film tires between sequences and here it looks like hero-technology first time Mau.
I understand the yes : Antihelden and antiheld women who still need to find their own moral compass are spreading a certain fascination by their complexity.
And yet the value of the classic hero figure in my eyes is overlooked much too often: classical heroes and heroines can be wonderful role models and a constant with their unwavering, which I look forward to a world that is becoming more and more threatening and confusing .
Fits the countermunning \ - Colleague Max says: I want to play more assholes like Abby again!
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