The Influence of Video Games

Video games are often criticized as mindless entertainment. However, video games often deal with serious issues, both topical and timeless, just as other forms of literature do. But can video games make people think? Can they get people to look at issues in a new way? Can they influence the people who play them the way that texts influence the people who read them?

Deus Ex: Human Revolution deals with the issue of cybernetic augmentation of human beings, an issue that carries ever more real-world significance. A large portion of the game’s plot centers around the conflict over this issue; in the game, there are two sides to the debate, and they clash in many different ways. On one side are the people who believe that mechanical augmentation is bad for humans and should be banned, or at least heavily regulated (these people are derisively referred to as “purists” by the pro-augmentation side). And on the other side are people who support augmentation and believe it will lead to the betterment of humanity; one of these people is David Sarif, who was discussed in the last post.

So, given that so much of the game’s plot centers around the conflict between the opposing sides of the augmentation debate, did the game cause its players to think about this issue and the debate surrounding it? A look at the official Steam forum for the game suggests that it did, at least for some. Shortly after the game came out, a user on the forum wrote a post titled “Would you be willing to have a chip in your head?” This is a reference to the fact that the game’s main character, Adam Jensen, has a computer chip connected to his brain that allows him to control his cybernetic augmentations, allows him to communicate with his employers, and performs various other functions. The poster, who goes by the handle “esperanzo,” framed his question in such a way as to suggest that he wanted to know if the game influenced people’s attitudes toward cybernetic augmentation:

Meet David Sarif

Deus Ex: Human Revolution has a great many secondary characters that the player can and must interact with throughout the course of the game. Some of these secondary characters are minor, only appearing in one place in the game to perform one specific role in the narrative. Other characters have much more impact, appearing at several times in the game and driving the narrative to a large degree.

David Sarif is one of these major secondary characters. Sarif is the head of Sarif Industries, a major biotech firm, and Adam Jensen (the game’s main character, who the player controls) works for him. One of the central questions posed by the game is whether cybernetic augmentation of humans is the next step in human evolution, or whether it strips away essential humanity, and Sarif is the game’s strongest voice for the former point of view. Sarif Industries has several military contracts, but a large portion of the company’s work is focused elsewhere, and Sarif believes that his work is improving the lives of everyday people.

There are two conversations in particular that illuminate Sarif’s view of human augmentation. The first takes place about a third of the way into the game, when Sarif and Adam are discussing an attack on Sarif Industries by an unknown group of mercenaries. The relevant portion is quoted below:

Introduction to the project

For this project, I have chosen to study a video game—Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The game was recently released for the PC, the Xbox 360, and the Playstation 3. The version that I will be playing for the project is the PC version, though all the versions are identical save for technical specifications. I will be supplementing my analysis of the game’s story elements with other opinions from the Steam forum for the game (found at http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=233), but my primary focus will be the game itself.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the prequel to Deus Ex, a game that came out in 2000. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is set in the year 2027, at a time when cybernetic enhancements of humans (or “human augmentation,” as it is termed in the game) is becoming increasingly commonplace. Gameplay is from a first-person perspective; the player controls Adam Jensen, the game’s protagonist, and sees the world through his eyes. The game could best be described as an action RPG (role-playing game), where the player is faced with obstacles that must be overcome in order to accomplish goals. The player usually has the choice as to how to achieve a particular objective; the player could choose to fight the guards blocking the way, find a way to sneak past them, or hack the security systems to distract the guards, for example.

The goal of this project is to examine the potential for video games as a literary genre. And so my research for this project will consist of playing the game and analyzing its story elements. Specifically, I plan to focus on two things: First, what are the game’s thematic elements and how are they conveyed through the medium? The overall theme of the game is humanity, and what makes a person human; does a person cease to be human when a certain percentage of their body has been replaced with cybernetic implants? Or is there more to being human than just biological characteristics? The theme of humanity is present throughout the game, and is featured heavily in some of the advertising for it, such as here:


Deus Ex: Human Revolution "I Never Asked For This" from Jaclyn Yuan on Vimeo.

This is a serious question that is becoming more relevant by the day, and so I feel that a game that deals with it is a good choice for analysis. The question I will ask is: What are the advantages (and disadvantages) that the video game medium offers with respect to storytelling? How does storytelling differ thanks to the interactive format?

The second object of focus will be the way that gameplay elements impact story elements, such as characterization. Specifically, I will be looking at the way that the developers influence these story elements through the options they give to the player. While the video game genre offers more choices to the player in experiencing the story than other genres (such as films, novels, etc.), choices are not unlimited, and game developers may offer a lot of choices in one area while restricting choice to almost nothing in other areas. Also, even when the player does have choices, the developers can influence the choices made through the rewards offered to the player. Since this effects the overall experience of the story, this practice also warrants analysis.

Again, I chose this game not because it has what I feel is the best story ever in a video game, but because it has good potential for analysis of both these areas. I hope to develop this area of study and advance the potential for video games to be seen as legitimate vehicles for storytelling through this project.