Throughout most of my experience with games, the majority of the time I have found myself to be experiencing a Zero sum game, which is a game with a definitive winner and a definite loser. In what we consider to be games, very few games that we play either alone or one on one are non zero sum games, as most people find it enjoyable when they can tell who is the winner and vice versa. However, in a sense, this non zero sum mentality is one that we experience for the majority of our lives where we are faced with decisions that involve choosing the lesser of two evils, falling into Social Traps, or maybe we see it in an add against drug use in which it asks the viewer "Who's more dead?" Simply put despite what we're constantly exposed to, most skill based games that place either a human against a computer or two people against each other don't tend to have ambiguous endings. However, this all changes when you start to get teams involved. Teamwork in some games is essential, and the saying "The chain is as strong as the weakest link." has never held to be more true in some scenarios. In this situation, you and your team functions not as an individual, but a collective where everyone must be at their best performance or risk dragging down the rest of the team with them. With this in mind, you'll be hard pressed to find a team based game which isn't a non zero sum. After all, never have I played a single player game, witnessed defeat and was still left to wonder, "Surely this wasn't all on me?"
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Ever since the time of ancient Greek plays, antiheroes have been used in stories, songs and folklore alike, however, our current definition of an antihero did not take it's true form until around the early 1900s. In video games however, anti heroes didn't really appear on scene until the late 1990s. Before that, the games' plots were usually simple, and didn't stray too far from the general narrative of "Shoot the Bad Guy!", "Don't get Caught!", "Explore the World!", or "Save the Princess!" Some say that Doomguy from the "Doom" series was the first true antihero, but for the most part, the general consensus is that he is just a more destructive hero in this time as the first game he featured in was an upscale version of the plot line, "Destroy the Enemies and Explore!" While he may not be the first, Meta Knight from the Kirby series is arguably one of the most well known, making his debut appearance in "Kirby's Adventure" which was released in 1993. When you fight him here, and in many games after this, despite being an enemy, he will not fight you unless It's an even match. Long story short, he will not begin the battle until you accept the sword he offers you before the fight begins. Most people attribute this action to him being a knight, one that follows a code of chivalry, though some do speculate that there's an ulterior motive. Throughout the rest of the main series games he is featured in, the knight slowly becomes less of an enemy and more of an ally before outright siding with you. The reason why is often just left to speculation however, so It's still debated weather or not this newer version still counts as an antihero.
But why is this all Important you might be asking, why on earth are these barely coherent ramblings of any relevance to me at all? Well, I'll do my best to explain. As of now, your typical antihero is usually classified as either A) A hero with questionable motives who usually does the right thing for all the wrong reasons, or B) A hero who firmly believes that the ends justify the means, and doesn't care what happens to everyone else during this process. These antiheroes serve as a vital reminder of that small but very important gray area between the light and dark of good and evil. Not to mention, if video games always told the same story of good Vs. evil, even when you're playing as evil, you're still telling the same story over and over again, maybe with a different perspective every now and then, and let's face it, if games are to mirror life, then you'd see a huge uprising of the antihero character archetype. In conclusion, I think that this important brand of character should be ignored no longer but should be embraced to bring on more complex and darker story themes. While they are on the rise, not many games have the antihero as the main character, and even fewer feature the main antagonist. Links to research are Here, Here, and Here To sum everything up:
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Creator InfoThis is a blog for a Game Art Design class. Future programmer and currently an artist and writer. Archives
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