Responsible Entertainment—Why We Need “Good” Stories

by Tanner Brooks

Role-playing games are excellent ways to teach and encourage societal values, but only if we create them responsibly.

Role-playing games (RPGs), especially video games, are becoming increasingly more popular. Game franchises that traditionally excluded characteristics of RPGs are now quickly adopting them in an attempt to stay relevant in a changing entertainment market. Like books, movies, and other narratives, these games create discussions about the human condition and push their players to ask important questions. Their main advantage over other narratives, however, is that the player gets much more say than the reader in what the narrative showcases. These games can be a great tool in helping encourage and instill societal values, but only if we’re creating responsibly.

True: Practice Makes Perfect

Public discourse changes public minds. This is an essential concept to our human society and a fairly simple one to grasp, but it is also a concept that remains true despite changes in medium. Whether we’re reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or listening to the BYU devotional “Putting Off the Natural Man and Becoming Saints” we can still understand the question being asked about what it means to be human. And if this concept can survive moving from speech to narrative to art, why can’t it survive the jump to gaming?

Narrative driven games, video game or not, like RPGs have a direct influence on the human brain. We treat the characters we see in these games the same way we treat our favorite characters from books, and the same way we treat our favorite characters in our real lives when it comes to forming our belief system. We see what they do and then decide whether it is right or wrong based on what we already believe and the consequences of those actions the narrative provides for us.

In a very direct way, RPGs allow us to practice being human before being human has consequences.

An Open World

But, this lack of consequences is a double-edged sword. Studies have broken down the behavior of players in RPGs into two categories: self-expansion and self-suppression. Self-Expansion is a reference to taking socially acceptable values and ideas we don’t normally get to explore in our daily lives and acting on them in game, while self-suppression is a reference to exploring behaviors and ideas that our society suppresses for various reasons. When faced with saving a town from a dragon, a self-expansionist rushes into the dragon lair to deal with the threat. The self-suppressionist becomes an arsonist and destroys the town before the dragon can even get there.

There is a voice that believes that arson-like behaviors are not dangerous if they stay inside the game, however this isn’t quite true. Self-suppression behaviors in game lead to negative behaviors in our society. Players who engage in “badwrongfun” begin to feel withdrawn from a society that tells them they are wrong. Many began to feel angrier, missed more social ques, and had a harder time with empathetic thinking. Negative behavior in game led to a lower satisfaction with life outside of it.

Self-expansion, on the other hand, led to the opposite. Which is important to note because there is a very loud voice in our public discourse that is willing to accuse these games of every seen problem or evil in our societies. Players that use these games to explore the best parts of their become more empathetic and have an easier time being socially active. Positive behavior in game translates to good behavior and more happiness outside of game.

More True: Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

Assuming we want our entertainment to make audiences happier outside of the experience and assuming that we want to encourage positive societal values, what do we do? How can we create self-expansion over self-suppression without turning to Big Brother’s bag of tricks? Unfortunately, the question of whether or not a developer should try to influence has already passed us. A Modest Proposal and Gulliver’s Travels are prime examples of entertainment with moral clout, but not the first. Developers, just like the writers, directors, actors, and every other narrativist before them, are already creating games that have influence. And will continue to. So, what do we do?

My suggestion is to put the consequences back in these games.

Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game where a narrator takes a group of friends through a story, allowing them to make choices and affect the progression of the planned narrative. It is one of the more social RPGs I’ve played, which creates a feedback loop that can encourage self-expansionism.

Picture this:

Jordan and his friends are in the middle of an apocalyptic story where zombies have taken over the world. They’re exploring an abandoned city when they find a young child. They decide to rescue the child, but Jordan starts to wonder if that was a good choice. This little boy does not know how to be quiet. Jordan’s worried about being heard. He decides to turn and backhand the child.

Did you cringe? Jordan’s friends did, and promptly told him so. He read a situation and acted on it. His friends then read his action and reacted to it, allowing Jordan to understand why his actions could have been negative, or defend his reasoning. Within a minute, the players have gone from walking through a fantasy world to having the modern equivalent of a parenting soiree.

There is a social consequence again. And Jordan gets to practice positive behavior.

This same effect can be achieved by mimicking the narrative consequences other narrativists have used to reinforce their ideas. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, our protagonist doctor creates life, but, being a flawed human, can’t properly teach his creation how to be human. Frankenstein’s monster then takes apart the doctor’s life, destroying everything he knows and loves. Games that actively portray consequences to negative actions can discourage negative behaviors.

Role-playing games have the incredible ability to help their audiences practice happiness. But, only if created responsibly.

Sources:

Activity Engagement as Escape from Self
Frankenstein
Gulliver's Travels
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
"Putting off the Natural Man and Becoming Saints"
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