Video games are generally percieved as violent eyecandy bent on taking your child's brain and spoon- feed it crack. But what many people don't know is that they can serve as a medium to translate philosophical thinking and enlighten those who are a little less tuned in on events in history.
An easy game to refer to would be the Bioshock series. The story tells of one radical man, Andrew Ryan, who believed the man was not the cubicle's servant, and that humans should be given access to the utmost definiton of freedom. This back-story already draws inspiration from Ayn Rand, philosophical novelist, who believed in her self pronounced philosophy of objectivism. As
Andrew Ryan is boiling with radical expression and outrage, he builds a city where no man is turned down from expressing, science, math, or literature. "It was not impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the sea, it was impossible to build it anywhere else." - Andrew Ryan.
Ayn Rand
But, to no avail, the city collapses under violent turmoil, and as you wander through the haunted walls, you pick up on the history as it happened, explained through even simple texture's on a wall. My interest stems from this feature in Bioshock. The art of story-telling is seem-lessly entwined with the engaging game-play and other physical elements.
Another title I find supreme in the art of physical story telling is Half Life 2. The opening stands out to me in a way that no other game has ever succeeded to do. You emerge from the train station picking up on the emotions of passing souls who are overrun with paranoia. You instantly have a feeling that something is gut-wrenchingly wrong, things have changed and you've never been around to see what it was like before these ruling police figures planted themselves in the city.
Old brick housings tightly placed together seem to suggest a theme taken from Victorian London; horrible, cramped, living conditions, house those in deep despair and difficult lives. This setting strikes as the perfect setting for a modern day holocaust. Police do as they please, rounding up civillians to be taken for "conspiring" against the government, robbed of their possesions and ultimately dumped in jail, or transformed to live a life as a Stalker, the game's only story signifacant NPC, or a slave.
The story is instantly set to depict a triumph over the harshest dictatorship. And the most striking aspect is that you experience it through the eyes of the hero, putting you in positions to accomplish tasks against the darkest of evils.
And yet, the most moving incident happened. "You have destroyed so much. Tell me, what is it that you have created." Dr. Breen (the dictator) stared at me across the monitor and I had to stop to think a second and consider my actions.
This is a prime of example of pure story-telling at its highest bar. What makes this so special, is that you feel emotions through textures, expressions, lighting, and events right before your eyes.
While you may have to look for it, the true video game art shines at its best through philosophical story-telling.
