Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy - Manual (Page 384)

Trigger Happy
386
In videogames, regret is an easily vanquishable
phantom; it operates merely as a fleeting wound that
may be quickly salved. If I had timed that jump
correctly, Lara wouldn’t have been impaled on the
spikes. So I will do it again, properly this time. In 1983,
in Mind at Play, Geoffrey and Elizabeth Loftus wrote
the following about classic arcade games: “Computer
games provide the ultimate chance to eliminate regret;
all alternative worlds are available.” This is still true for
the I-died-so-I’ll-try-again paradigm, while the new
story-based games don’t even evoke true regret in the
first place.
More emotionally involving is the brilliantly
manipulative Metal Gear Solid, which slyly made me
feel guilty for killing a woman sniper by playing a
rather well-written dying scene for her and her
opponent. But notice that it makes no sense to wish
that you hadn’t killed Sniper Wolf—that is, properly to
regret your actions—because it is a task that the game
demands be fulfilled before you can progress. This
videogame balances adroitly on the twin horns of the
emotional dilemma by having the main character,
Solid Snake, bitterly decry the violent means he is
forced to deploy—which, however, are exactly the
symbolic gadgets (plastic explosive, grenades,