The REVERSE Person Shooter

[Soviet Heavy]

Remember how THQ wanted to convince us that Homefront would make killing carry an emotional impact? And how it failed utterly the moment your character's rescuer slammed a truck into your bus killing other prisoners?

I had a funny thought about how to give an FPS that impact. Play as the faceless mook.

Now hear me out: the enemies in most FPS games these days wear uniforms, and more often than not they obscure the facial features. Other shooters eschew this approach and go the alien enemy route. What this does is lessen the psychological impact that firing the weapon at the enemy causes. It's much easier to fire a gun at a Stormtrooper or an alien than at a person with a face. The face obscuring masks and helmets allow the player to distance themselves from the enemy, making it feel morally appropriate to kill them, since they don't look like 'real' people.

But what if you were the faceless mass? Here's what I had in mind. The cutscenes of the game would focus on a group of characters, and follow their story as they travel through the world. Through the cutscenes, the player gets to know and come to like these characters enough to connect with them. And then during gameplay, the player takes control of the opposing side, with their goal to attack and kill the people they've come to know and like. It would make killing them harder, and also provide an interesting flip of perspective in modern shooters.

What do you think of this idea?

 

[PunkyMcGee]

be the faceless masses? does this count as a 2nd person shooter?

 

[keyLIMEpiez]

not bad, not bad so fine tuning and the idea could work rather well

 

[Flutterguy]

I like the idea of a bunch of stormtroopers/taliban/whatever sitting around getting into deep personal chats and show a good side of themselves as a game, then whenever one the NPC's kill you they teabag your corpse or fire at it until they are out of ammo. Also the game will need prerecorded clips like "lol these guys suck" to be put into the ingame voice chat.

 

[Landrius]

I think it's an interesting idea. I'd play an FPS like that, just to see how I'd feel about it. I like the idea of giving the faceless targets faces before being pitted against them. Another idea that occurs to me after reading this is that if you were given a goal that does not strictly require the deaths of the no-longer-faceless mooks, but that would be easier to accomplish with their deaths, it might make things more challenging by encouraging the player to complete the mission with the least amount of enemy deaths as possible.

And if the campaign could continue on as it began with each death of the no-longer-faceless mooks being mourned by their remaining comrades, the reality of the metaphorical blood on your hands being drilled further into your head as you continue on the campaign might make for a more seamless moral choice thing than the typical "Save the kitten or deep fry it" moral choice systems games tend toward these days.

Of course, all this would hinge on actually being able to make the player care about the enemy characters in question--which would require some skilled work--but if it could be done it'd be something I'd play.

 

[Dragonheart57]

Seems interesting, but the problem in trying to give an impact to killing things in video games is that they're games, and thus the people aren't real and have no moral impact, no matter how much you learn about them and their family that didn't even get rendered into the game.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

It is dependent on how well the game makes players care about the characters. Killing someone with an identity is much harder than killing a blank slate.

 

[BanicRhys]

But what if you were the faceless mass? Here's what I had in mind. The cutscenes of the game would focus on a group of characters, and follow their story as they travel through the world. Through the cutscenes, the player gets to know and come to like these characters enough to connect with them. And then during gameplay, the player takes control of the opposing side, with their goal to attack and kill the people they've come to know and like. It would make killing them harder, and also provide an interesting flip of perspective in modern shooters.

What do you think of this idea?

Spoiler: inFamous 2 spoilers

Sounds kind of like the Infamous 2 evil ending, throughout the game you get to care for Zeke, Nix and the whole city to an extent and then you, Cole (who is pretty much a faceless mass as far as his character is concerned), are forced to kill them all.

 

[Speakercone]

I would buy that game.

 

[FalloutJack]

Hmmm...could be fun. I'd buy.

 

[Lightning Delight]

That actually sounds like a pretty interesting idea. I would play that. It would take a bit of refining, but it could work.

 

[Landrius]

Seems interesting, but the problem in trying to give an impact to killing things in video games is that they're games, and thus the people aren't real and have no moral impact, no matter how much you learn about them and their family that didn't even get rendered into the game.

Good point. Perhaps if such a game could have you play from multiple perspectives. First, the no-longer-faceless mooks in question could have a sizable chunk of the game before things take a turn where one of them or a different character is placed in a position where they have to fight the others. Or something to that effect.

 

[7777777777444]

Sounds nice, personally. While I can't say the masses of Black Ops Players would enjoy it,it would be a great game regardless...

 

[Thaius]

be the faceless masses? does this count as a 2nd person shooter?

To be a second-person shooter, it would have to be controlled from the perspective of someone else; you'd have to control a character from the perspective of another. So not quite, though the idea is similar in terms of what it's meant to communicate.

OT: It'd be very interesting. The main thing is it'd be difficult to pull it off since the ending would be extremely unfulfilling. That may be the point of it, but it's tough to pull off well; the player would likely feel cheated in this scenario. I think it's a great idea, but it would be difficult.

 

[Thaius]

Seems interesting, but the problem in trying to give an impact to killing things in video games is that they're games, and thus the people aren't real and have no moral impact, no matter how much you learn about them and their family that didn't even get rendered into the game.

It is dependent on how well the game makes players care about the characters. Killing someone with an identity is much harder than killing a blank slate.

Not really. In the end, it just pixels on a screen

Disagreement. Literature and film have spent centuries (well, almost a century for film) connecting people to characters that don't actually exist. Any narrative art is highly capable of it; storytelling is one of the most important and affecting cultural and emotional forces in existence. If the game is well-written enough, it would be very effective, because these are not just toys: they're art.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

OK, but...What happens after you kill them?

It is dependent on how well the game makes players care about the characters. Killing someone with an identity is much harder than killing a blank slate.

Not really. In the end, it just pixels on a screen

So you're saying that films can't have an emotional impact because it's just actors reciting lines, or that books can't have an emotional impact because it's just words on a page? You're saying that NO WORK OF FICTION has EVER had any kind of impact on you?

 

[PunkyMcGee]

be the faceless masses? does this count as a 2nd person shooter?

To be a second-person shooter, it would have to be controlled from the perspective of someone else; you'd have to control a character from the perspective of another. So not quite, though the idea is similar in terms of what it's meant to communicate.

That's what I thought he meant. That game play would be though the eyes of the "hero". But, I was just reading wrong. I haven't been sleeping well.

 

[Matthew Kjonaas]

Along with give the good guys a reason to fight such as evil dictator how mistreats his people.