Counterpoint: Grey Morality in Video Games is Good
Polygon released an article today arguing a return to black and white morality in video games. I can’t say I’m wild about the idea on face value, but usually when someone has an idea like this it’s worth hearing out. Even if you disagree with the point, you can usually find a couple more that you can largely agree with. This article was no exception.
Agreed, binary coding of issues is good
The final point in the article is the one I most agree with, as the last few graphs are dedicated to explaining how the equation of two opposing sides is a tool of political inertia.
What feels infuriating about this perspective is this: If you don’t fight for your rights in the correct way — the polite, civil way that fits snugly within the frameworks of society — you will be tarred with the same brush as those who are actively bolstering the forces behind inequality.
We see this in modern politics all the time. Politicians who take away healthcare are just doing their jobs, while those protesting against them for making medication unaffordable are framed as uncivil and dangerous. It’s disingenuous to claim that both sides are equally at fault; one group is championing civil rights or access to healthcare while the other is looking out for their own interests.
Absolutely correct, in spite of the words “access to healthcare” appearing. It’s a pretty typical tactic. Anyone who has has been adjacent to ‘Issues’ has seen this deployed time and time again. You are asked to sympathize with the “frightened officer” who feared for his life, while objectively weighing what a scared teenager should or shouldn’t have done. A political article might ask for sympathy for Democratic lawmakers, who are gutted they can’t find a way to politely tax billionaires while unemployment benefits expire for millions. A hooting chud who wants to eat without a mask at Applebee’s is not the same as a father of six who has to go to work to put food on the table.
Although the example the article gives about Daisy Fitzroy is literally the opposite of what happens, the idea is present in enough other games to get the point. Any narrative regarding “the powerful have feelings too” or “heavy is the head that wears the crown” is quite tiresome at this point. All of history has been written by the victors demanding their failures be seen as a burdens they deserve sympathy for. Drawing equivalence between two animating political ideas and reducing them to “cosmetic sensibilities” or “consumer choice” is paralyzing and inherently sides with the reactionary forces. Now, all of this said…
I believe a story is a tool to help you find your own moral clarity.
There’s a big difference between design and art. The former, when done well, tells everyone the same thing. The latter, meanwhile, speaks to something different within each person. It’s fun house mirror that shows you something similar but different depending on who’s taking a look at it.
There is an appetite in American culture for better or worse, for well designed stories. There is good and evil, a protagonist we all identify with in some way, and some bad guys. Campbellian story-telling takes the reigns from there, weaving a path through evil and obstacles while the hero triumphs. All the while they are polishing their virtues and exiting the other side a better, stronger person. These stories have their merits, and the simplicity of only thinking about self and action is something that’s compatible with most times and places in history.
The strength of telling stories like this is a retreat and meditation into how you can best turn yourself into this ubermensch. Self improvement is a worthwhile endeavor, and he traditional black and white story telling is a handy, encouraging vehicle for thinking about yourself, what the “right” thing is to do, and finding the resolve strength and resources to make that happen.
However, “morally grey” is still the more advanced form of story-telling and something that when done correctly, will lead you to more truths than traditional story telling.
Demanding a game only depict the villains as evil and the heroes as just is creating a fantasy. It’s not how the world works and it’s akin to asking for binder labels to place on each type of person you encounter so you can tell who’s ‘good and bad’. The point of morally grey story telling is deciding for yourself where someone fits in your own view of the world. What is redeemable and forgivable and what is not?
In the real world, your convictions are something you have to adhere to for them to be convictions. You have to believe in something to actually, you know, believe in it. With a proper idea of your own ideal, morally grey story telling becomes a social thought exercise for how you think about where you place the other people in society.
What actions are virtuous and which are unforgivable? Can ends justify means? What does ‘justice’ mean to you?
These are hard questions and the answers are ones that everyone has to come up with on their own. Because we all have unique experiences, all of those are going to be different. Where the lines get drawn in society ends up being a matter of power, and video games almost always give us the power to make a change, if only in our own fantasy. The morally grey video game is asking you to think about what you would do for and to other people, should you suddenly have the power for it.
The question is not “Are Booker Dewitt or Arthur Morgan heroes” but rather “would you consider these men good or bad?” The answer is not the same for everyone, which is why there’s things like wars, but that spectrum is not meant to coerce you to the middle. Rather, it is to calcify that resolve within yourself and draw firm lines on who is good and who is bad.
You’ve got to pick a side.
The responsibility is on the audience to make that decision. That’s not relaxing for a lot of people. Sometimes you get uncomfortable answers staring back at you. It’s all well and good in black and white story telling where the isolated question is “what should the hero do?”. Morally grey story telling however, makes you look at a vast swath of other people’s ideas. Deciding which are just and which are repugnant is your job, all the story can do is present them.
Morally grey story telling… It’s actually good folks.
