Characters - How We Care

To my left is Agro, the horse. For those who have played Shadow of the Colossus Agro is a dear friend. Despite any handling issues most gamers can agree that the wanderer wouldn't have gotten far without Agro.

This week I'm talking about the differences in how an audience sympathizes with characters between mediums. Agro is here for video games and I've chosen Carl from Pixar's UP! to represent film.

An interesting thing, or lack thereof, in Shadow of the Colossus is dialogue. There are maybe about a hundred lines of it in the entire game. For those unfamiliar: The player's avatar is the young man in the picture known only as the wanderer and Agro is his horse. The game briefly sets the scene, tells you which way to your first boss fight and then lets you soak up the scenery. What's odd is that in the in between time and throughout the 16 conflicts of the game we come to care about these two characters. Here I'm focusing on Agro.

Over the course of the game players come to sympathize with Agro. How? He's a horse? Yet the end of his story feels as powerful as the fall of Tony Montana (Scarface) or Donnie (Donnie Darko). Interactivity bred this attachment. [2] According to Murray Smith's Structure of Sympathy we come to like characters by Recognition, Alignment and Allegiance.

Recognition = is this character the same one from the last cut scene?

I'll disregard because it's irrelevant for this game. We never really leave Agro's side so there are limited opportunities to recognize Agro from one scene to the next.

Alignment = how often are we with them?

Agro soars in this element. We spend the whole game with Agro. Wander a few feet away and he will trot after you; patiently waiting as you climb trees or ruins. Through hours of wandering a green pastures devoid of life we bond with Agro. Players will be with Agro chasing lizards in the sun and galloping hard after a mile-long serpent risen from the sands of a forgotten desert. He's always with us. For the carefree fun and the fight.

Allegiance =  do we value the same thing they do?
Again this is an easy win for our horse. Agro is loyal. Should you whistle Agro will come running to your aid. I couldn't say if  Agro knows what's going on in the story or game world but it doesn't matter to him. His master and friend wants something. So Agro wants to help. He wants what the player wants.

Over the hours the player spends wandering the forgotten land and battling ancient creatures Agro becomes more than pixels. The player eventually shares the same relationship with Agro as the Wanderer must. He becomes our horse.

This post has run a little long so I'll save Carl for next week. If you haven't seen UP! I'd recommend giving it a look. Was the first Pixar film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. An animated film was nominated for Best Picture, it's that damn good.