Chaos and order are two essential components in every game and any developer who leans
toward one more than the other is risking his game of becoming very monotone and boring.
In this video, we explore how the ideas of Nietzsche on Chaos and order can make the
path clearer for developers to strike the right balance between the two sides in video
games.
Nietzsche explained the concept in his first book, the birth of tragedy, which consists
of twenty-five chapters; the first six are basic introductory.
The heart of the book starts in chapter seven until chapter fifteen.
Nietzsche uses the Greek gods Dionysus and Apollo as metaphors to chaos and order.
Apollo, who is defined by his reliance on reason, control, order, and sober thought.
On the other hand, the god Dionysus is associated with drunkenness, emotion, and chaos.
By using these two gods he explains two very fundamental principles.
First is the Apollonian principle that is clearly expressed through the visual arts
like painting, sculpture and architecture, which, Nietzsche states, they are representations
of the world, fantastical in nature but calm in their form, at the same time, they allow
us to escape from the cruelty of the world we live in, like an enjoyable dream.
On the other hand, the Dionysian principle is closer to the cruel reality of nature and
is expressed through non-visual arts like ecstatic dance, music, and theatrical plays.
Such opposite feature in these two Gods can be found everywhere in our human world.
These two states are also psychological forces, which are alternatively dominating the individual's
mind, as well as culture, art, and the artist.
Nietzsche states that the human mind is sometimes Apollonian and sometimes Dionysian and that
the culture is the product of both forces.
Nietzsche criticised his time for being too Apollonian, all aspects of art were avoiding
dionysian elements thinking that it would denigrate their arts.
He saw the classical Greek Drama works as the model to follow where both the Apollo
and Dionysos elements merge together in a balance that makes the work transcends the
pessimism and nihilism of a meaningless world.
Nietzsche concludes that it may be possible to reattain the balance of Dionysian and Apollonian
in modern art through following the example of Richard Wagner Operas.
If we look at most of the stories, books, and ideas that have fascinated humanity throughout
the centuries, to a certain degree they have this duality in them.
Christianity insists on giving Jesus a human side beside his divine one.
Salome's fascinating beauty is also combined with her dark motives.
Liberté, égalité, fraternité are the bright apollonian side of the French revolution that
was followed by Dionysos 40,000 executions on the guillotine.
Denying these two sides in us is denying our humanity.
As Nietzsche said both states are fighting inside each person's head.
Even in politics, when a party rules for a long time, people tend to vote for the opposing
party in the next election.
Societies and individuals don't like to stay in one rigid form for a long time.
Look at any midterm elections in the US.
The party in power regardless of their performance usually tends to lose some seats.
It's a feature of our humanity in many fields of life we try to keep a balance between the
Apollonian and Dionysian components.
Games are no different and it saddens me when many developers don't get that balance right
in their games, some games are more Apollonian and some are very Dionysian.
very few strike the right balance between the two.
And I insist that there isn't a single excellent game that is not having a good balance between
the two
There are three areas in games where developers can apply that balance.
Gameplay, Story and game environments.
First Gameplay, Gameplay should have a repeated switch between
calm, slow and apollonian moments and chaotic, turbulent dionysian ones.
Resident Evil 3 on PlayStation one played on that balance through the character of the
nemesis.
It would leave you for an hour or two calm, exploring the story and the events that happened
to Raccoon city and then suddenly throw the Dionysian element called the nemesis to drive
the whole game into chaos for a couple of minutes and keep on switching between the
two states throughout the game.
The Witcher 3 is another great example, the player would keep on switching between Apollonian
and Dionysian missions throughout the game, a quest like family matters in which Geralt
is asked by Baron Phillip Strenger to help him find his missing wife (Anna) and daughter
(Tamara) is calm filled with investigations and questioning tasks and then the game would
throw Dionysian missions at the player like the ladies of the wood.
Even within that mission the developers brilliantly put the player through calm moments when they
talk to the orphans, investigate their claims and chaotic moments like facing the terrifying
ladies themselves.
Another example but one that didn't get the balance right in gameplay, is Resident Evil
7.
it starts very well balanced between order and chaos, Arriving at an abandoned house,
everything looks calm, then you end up fighting your supposedly dead wife and things get relatively
calm after that.
The switch between the two states worked well until the middle of the game where that balance
started to tip to the Dionysian side, suddenly the developers decided to challenge the player
with more and more monsters to fight without getting any break, and the player keeps on
expecting to switch back to the Apollonian side at any moment but the struggle keeps
on going.
Gameplay should keep on switching between tension and calm moments to keep the player's
brains satisfied.
Even a peaceful and calm game like Flower which is dominantly apollonian has its dionysian
moments full of dark and doubt
Second Story: Mad Max Fury Road is a very good blueprint
to follow in balancing Appolo and Dionysos in a story.
Those who watched the movie think of it as an action-packed film but actually, it keeps
on switching between the two states very quickly, which makes the impact of the action scenes
more memorable.
The film starts with Max being followed by the War Boys, the army of the tyrannical Immortan
Joe- Dionysos- We are then moved into the Citadel and see life in it - Apollo - Furiosa
decides to smuggle Joe's five wives - a transition to Dionysos - we then witness the first chase
after Furiosa - Dionysos - the characters stop for a moment to know each other - Apollo-
I'll stop for now, I think you get the point without me spoiling the whole film.
now compare this story structure with a structure like that of a recent movie I watched called
Annihilation, starring Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac, a good movie in general with
some flaws.
I kept on feeling that something was missing throughout the film and then it struck me
that it's the balance between Apollo and Dionysos that is absent in the film.
The film takes a very Apollonian approach to telling a dionysian story trying to stay
calm and restrained even in chaotic scenes, shying away from embracing the Dionysian nature
of the scenes that require it.
Something similar is also visible in the last guardian, most people will praise its beautiful
ending and the very well written conclusion to the whole story but sadly from a story
structure point of view, the game didn't offer a lot throughout the course of the game.
only those who were patient enough until the end liked the story.
It lacked the switching between Apollo and Dionysos in its structure.
Give the players something to be excited about in the story then provide time to rest and
take a breath to think about what happened.A total contrast is Last of Us which starts
with a strong and important dionysian section of the story and then calms down into showing
you the world people live in modern times then switches back to Dionysos when you discover
Ellie's secret then calms down when Joel meets Bill, an old friend and so on.
the story keeps on moving up and down between Apollo and Dionysos throughout the game and
I'm not talking about gameplay here but purely about the story.
Imagine if a game like Call of Duty world war 2 offers something similar.
A fight mission that puts the player in the middle of the Normandy invasion followed by
a short calm mission where you simply walk in a French village listening to old women
telling the player about what happened, children hiding behind walls afraid of the soldier's
appearance or a woman crying about her dead son.
If you think the action nature of the game won't allow such a thing then making them
even very short and spread in between can enrich the whole experience without changing
the action nature of the game.
It's like adding a small amount of apollonian salt to the main dionysian dish.
Third: Game Environments
The latest installment in the Prey series started with a very clean, calm apollonian
environment that calmed the players for 20 minutes followed by chaotic events turning
everything upside down.
this switch between two opposites worked brilliantly in the first act of the game, the tragedy
is that it ceased to happen again for the rest of the game leaving the players in the
same environments for the rest of the campaign.
A problem the second dead space brilliantly avoided, unlike the first installment in the
series which kept the player in the same claustrophobic Gothic like ship.
Dead Space 2 continued to shift between a wide variety of areas such as the clean Apollonian
Church and the Dionysian ship of Ishimura, this variety of environments makes the player
anticipate the next place through the healthy mixture of chaotic and neat places.
A video game by Nietzsche would definitely strike a balance between Appolo and Dionysos
in its Story, Gameplay, and environments.
And they don't have to be two separate elements, both could be implemented at the same time
like what happened in the side mission Conning Tower in Dead Space 3 where Isaac is stuck
in a room where the entrances are controlled by a maniac who sends waves of monsters and
plays cheerful music at the same time.
The mixture of fighting, killing and being stressed together combined with cheerful music
is magical like a Smiths song where they would pick very cheerful and playful melodies to
sing about a girlfriend in a comma.
I think Nietzsche would like a song like "Girlfriend in a comma" apollonian melodies mixed with
dionysian lyrics.
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