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How Spec Ops the Line Condemns the Player: A Timestamped Excerpt from Games as Literature's Analysis (youtu.be)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The whole video is worth watching, but this section in particular makes a better case than I've seen in other analyses: that the game condemns player involvement not by simply chastising the player for choosing to continue playing itself (as I've seen other analyses argue), but rather for carelessly and uncritically engaging with the power fantasy that games like this cater to.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I just .... stopped playing it halfway through. It's what the game seemed to want, so that's what I gave it. It didn't hurt that the mechanics were bad and it wasn't actually any fun to play.

There's just so much manipulation inherent in the game that its commentary feels cheap for me. It's like setting out a box of knives for your kids to play with and then scolding them when they do. Hey, asshole, you set up the box and put it out there. What did you expect?

It would be so much more meaningful if the player actually had choices within the game. As it was, I decided to go play something fun.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

This reminds me of a joke about BioShock I heard once (bioshock 1 spoiler)

At the end of Bioshock, when the game says to kill Andrew Ryan, I rebooted my console and deleted my BioShock save. A man chooses, a slave obeys.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

At least an option to disengage within the fiction would be appreciated. I'm not too keen on this idea that closing the game works as a conclusion. A closed book doesn't have a different story. It's not like Walker will leave his path if you are not playing it. Without a different resolution, even the guilt that they try to lay on the player can't stick as well.