June 23rd, 2008
The Other East
When someone talks about the influence of “The East” on game development they typically mean Japan. For many Western developers Japan is basically seen as the only “other” way of doing things. We often compare ourselves to many of the things that they are doing. They, of course, are the platform holders of the Nintendo and Sony systems and are home to some of the largest publishers in the world like Sega, Capcom, Konami, Square/Enix, etc. For me it often seems to come down to cultural differences as that is the aspect of the comparison that is most interesting to me. Why they do the things they do, why they like certain things over others, why their TV shows are so insane. It is just so amazingly intriguing, I guess. However, there is another East that game developers often overlook. Eastern Europe. I’ve been playing a lot of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (a game that I finally got back to after missing it at launch, thanks Steam!) and have enjoyed it tremendously. Though I’m not done with it yet, I think I have played enough to understand its sensibilities and particular brand of craftsmanship. There is a fine art to the game that is not US or European and it obviously isn’t Japanese. It is uniquely Eastern European and cannot be directly compared to anything else. Though people try to describe it as just another shooter, there are more elements at play there than just a feature set. Their feel and themes drive much more deeply than that and I find that I must always put them in the context of their creators and audience. Things are quite different over there in Eastern Europe. Politically, Economically, Historically. Obviously games or any other art form is going to be affected by its surrounding culture, no matter how hard people try to copy it. It just may be too complicated to boil down in such a way as to be able to replicate the same feeling. In fact, we really shouldn’t want to. We should enjoy those works of art for what they are and within the culture they were created and intended for to more closely understand their perspective.
STALKER takes place in the area surrounding Chernobyl. This is the setting for a post-apocalyptic story about loners wandering the wastes and one in particular who is searching for a forgotten enemy (you know typical stuff). The setting is the hard par though. Apparently, as I’ve seen from research on the web, they created a world that is very close to parts of the real Chernobyl exclusionary zones. Walking around there in this setting and context has a foreshadowed and ominous feeling that a game like Fallout (one of my favorites of all time) could never achieve. This really happened in Chernobyl’s case (to some degree) and at times it makes it hard to play on some level. Even Call of Duty 4 (Infinity Ward, CA) goes to that area in a legendary sniper mission and it just isn’t the same. They use it as more of a backdrop for an interesting mission rather than a world setting for a broken people. That is how Western developers think. I feel like I should know, I’m one of them. “What cool locale can we find this time?” Well for some people Chernobyl isn’t just a cool locale. In fact, the devs of STALKER (GSC Game Worlds) live near the exclusionary zone, or at least near enough. Yes there are sci-fi elements, but this is the content that resonates for them. Rarely do games remind me (or anyone) of tragic past events which embody our shortcomings as humans with self-made disasters like Chernobyl. This one, as I carry a modified sci-fi rifle and equip strange radioactive power-ups to survive, reminds me of just that. In CoD 4 it is just another setting for destruction and West meets East and wins.
The final thought comes from my typical cross-over medium of theatre. As my wife would tell you, my favorite genre of theatre is Post Modern Eastern European. Yeah, that is pretty specific and ridiculous, I know. For some reason though it resonates the most with me. Studying a lot about Polish theatre specifically, they used theatre as an outlet (like all other art at the time) for feelings and attitudes toward their situations. Poland was pretty much fucked for decades upon decades just because of their geographic location. They went through hell over and over again. Their theatre reflects this very strongly. Eastern Europe has had such an interesting history it is no wonder that its output of art has been so complex and yet so specific. When I play STALKER (and to some degree other Eastern European games like Crysis) I sense a similar feeling to what I love about Polish or Russian theatre. There is a longing for change within a world of desperation. Yes, usually it is metaphor but it is much more powerful in its honesty than some glorified US armed forces commercial where the Westerner saves the day once again.
