So in my last post, I mentioned Cognitive Dissonance (CD). Way back in 1962, Festinger wrote a paper called "A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance". To oversimplify this paper, it talks about how people tend to act in the way they believe is right, but there are exemptions to this rule. A parent may believe that going to university is important, so will push their child to do so. The same parent may think fighting is wrong but be proud of their child when they win a fight. This is what Festinger termed CD - the proud feeling being at odds with their moral beliefs.
CD can cause a person a lot of stress when their personal identities, be it their sexual or gender identity, conflicts with their faith or public persona. CD can also be how hunger and desperation can cause a law-abiding person to commit a crime.
CD, however, doesn't always have to be a conscious thought or feeling that the individual experiences but can be a form of hypocrisy. An example of this I have seen recently with covid-19, when this broke out I saw a person, who will remain anonymous, cry out "how we are all in this together" and how "we will look after each other" while bulk buying toilet paper and hand sanitizer and reselling them at massively marked up pricepoint. ( See 1. for karmic resolve).
So with that groundwork set up let's talk about CD in games. An easy example of CD is when the story conflicts with the mechanics.
Bellow, I have a video posted compiled by Alucard3362 on all the heat actions preformed in Yakuza Kiwami. Heat actions are high damaging attacks the perform a short animation when activated. Some of these include a knife attack across the face and to the back followed up by a baseball bat to the head, two heavy hits with a sledged hammer and pinning someone to the ground a sword. Not to mention the heavy use of guns, grenades and even a full canon. All of these attacks are deadly.
However when the game's story unfolds deadly force takes on a lot higher meaning. Yakuza Kiwami starts with a murder, much like many of the games in Yakuza, and how devastating it is. Kazama, the main character, spends much of his life in jail for a murder he didn't commit. People are held at gunpoint throughout and a single bullet or stab wound is enough to put characters in narrative peril. At one point in Yakuza 0 a character is shot and ends up dying to the wounds, but game combat starts, and you are then facing the same shooter with the same gun whos bullets deal less damage then what you can heal from meeting a lunch box bought from a local supermarket via the pause menu. Now by these mechanics Yumi died because she forget to pop out for a Ginsters pasty.
♫ Oh How different my life would be if I had a chicken and bacon slice ♫
This makes the story beats less impactful because the players are distracted by the changing rules of the universe.
1. The poster made a post on social media how angry they were and how hard it will be to have enough food because Tesco won't let them return £230 worth of bog roll without their receipt.
2. Festinger L.A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press; 1962.
Comments