So I've been doing something weird recentally.

[buddee1]

I am a sophomore in high school and consider myself to be a very informed gamer and very intelligent for my age. I take psych and in the class we often have to write short papers or essays about the topic we learned that week. In the months of October through December I written every essay about video game characters, for psycho analysis I did a break down of team fortress 2 characters, for mental disorders I talked about Twisted Metal Black drivers, for an experiment on courage I wrote 3 pages front and back about Abe and Munch and their journey to save the Gabbits. Does anybody think this is strange? I can easily discuss the subtext in splatterhouse between man and mask for hours, but ask me to explain citizen cane and I couldn't do it.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Citizen Kane is pretty obvious, I think, but is a bit boring. Maybe you just couldn't care less about the movie. However, I'm not really sure that Twisted Metal is a serious portrayal of mental illness that deserves to be taken seriously.

 

[Rathcoole]

No nothing strange about it. It is just you being you. If you want to talk wierd everytime I am driving I add up the numbers in peoples licence plates to see what the total is. 20 is the most common if you care (you don't).

 

[shootthebandit]

No nothing strange about it. It is just you being you. If you want to talk wierd everytime I am driving I add up the numbers in peoples licence plates to see what the total is. 20 is the most common if you care (you don't).

thats not weird, thats just dangerous. trying to read an on coming licence plate and add the numbers at 30-70mph. i wouldnt tell your insurer about this habit

OT: video game characters are always fucked up,
i recon you take a look at MGS2, good psychology stuff. the villians, snake, raiden, the cyborg. or even the beasts in MGS4 or psycho mantis (possibly too obvious) infact any MGS character is a good example

 

[Rathcoole]

No nothing strange about it. It is just you being you. If you want to talk wierd everytime I am driving I add up the numbers in peoples licence plates to see what the total is. 20 is the most common if you care (you don't).

thats not weird, thats just dangerous. trying to read an on coming licence plate and add the numbers at 30-70mph. i wouldnt tell your insurer about this habit

Yeah I should probably not let myself get so distracted. No idea why I do it just force of habit I guess.

 

[Abseith]

its not weird because many games have very complex protagonists and highlighting these flaws or showing why they are this way can give a very good insight to people in general i belive

 

[MiracleOfSound]

No, it just means you're a little bit obsessed with videogames.

one of usss one of usss one of usss

 

[gothicboris]

Isnt a problem i did the same thing with Film Characters that it thought would be most interesting for the essays subject matter. When i wrote one about the Jigsaw Murderer i also used stuff from the games too.

 

[feeback06]

No it's not weird, however I'm curious as to what your teacher has to say about this.

 

[Drakmeire]

You're just writing what you know.
in fact Citizen Kane has one of the biggest plot-holes in movie history. The Mcguffin of the movie is the mysterious Last words "Rosebud" but no one is in the room when he says it, so how does everyone know?
I think i more people deconstructed games like you do it would be taken much more seriously as an artform.

 

[lemiel14n3]

This is the context to which you're exposed to a wider world. Is it strange, FUCK no. it's exactly as deserving as discussing the psychological complexes of film and literary characters.
is it weird, no
should you try branching out a bit, yeah probably (read a bit more, watch more movies).

 

[Sinspiration]

For psycho analysis I did a break down of team fortress 2 characters, for mental disorders I talked about Twisted Metal Black drivers, for an experiment on courage I wrote 3 pages front and back about Abe and Munch and their journey to save the Gabbits.

I can easily discuss the subtext in splatterhouse between man and mask for hours, but ask me to explain citizen cane and I couldn't do it.

.. Really..? You actually came up with psychological profiles for non-existent characters?
Are real people too difficult? Though frankly a part of me is glad you didn't test this kinda nonsense out on people.
I dealt with a guy who claimed to take psychology too. He pulled out the line "I take Psych!" during an argument and started to analyze me and my reactions. Arguing with some-one like that is a case of the "unstoppable force meeting the immovable object" but still..
Wouldn't it make more sense to try and analyse the creators of the characters?
Did any of your conclusions come to, at all, "these characters were just designed because What the hell, why not?" Because it could easily have been the more correct analysis.

Does anybody think this is strange?

Taking into account everything you've said and my own thoughts on it.. I really dont know.. I'm not a very intelligent guy, I cant claim to be, I'm not studying Psychology either so I couldn't give you an accurate analysis on that count either

It becomes a paradox, a man who analyses others questioning himself. You should be asking some-one more qualified, if not qualified, some-one more experienced, or wiser.

 

[Zhukov]

I. In the months of October through December I written every essay about video game characters, for psycho analysis I did a break down of team fortress 2 characters, for mental disorders I talked about Twisted Metal Black drivers, for an experiment on courage I wrote 3 pages front and back about Abe and Munch and their journey to save the Gabbits.

How did your teachers react to this?

 

[jowo96]

It seems a bit obsessive to just be analysing fictional characters from video games. Also I would have thought that game characters are often quite a poor example for psychological analysis, Team Fortress characters aren't exactly the deepest nor most realistic characters.

I guess it's not a problem if you are getting the grades for it but to me it sounds like you're taking media studies. I wouldn't think that fictional characters are any real substitute for real people.

 

[Kurai Angelo]

For psycho analysis I did a break down of team fortress 2 characters, for mental disorders I talked about Twisted Metal Black drivers, for an experiment on courage I wrote 3 pages front and back about Abe and Munch and their journey to save the Gabbits.

I can easily discuss the subtext in splatterhouse between man and mask for hours, but ask me to explain citizen cane and I couldn't do it.

.. Really..? You actually came up with psychological profiles for non-existent characters?
Are real people too difficult?

How exactly is a character in a film any more real than a character in a video game?

 

[JustJeff82]

This might be a bit weird, but if I could do it I would!

 

[tlozoot]

A psychoanalytical profile of characters from a multiplayer-only game with no narrative and only very incidental characterisation? There are characters from many other games worthy of such analysis, but TF2?

I wouldn't say it's weird. I wrote an A-Level coursework essay before going to uni on the narrative of Bioshock, but I'd recommend branching out. Videogame writing is only just starting to develop, and there's a lot of worthwhile stuff in the already more established forms of literature and film.