Down with the sickness

WARNING: Very mild spoilers for some of the relationship story arcs in Mass Effect: Andromeda

Guys, we need to talk about my sickness. This isn’t going to be easy. It consumes me, leaves me reeling, leaves me lying awake at night with burning eyes. We need to talk about my addiction, to fanfiction.

Many of you reading will be rolling your eyes – trashy slashfic for trash babies. But this is serious. I am addicted. I trawl the archives, tumblr, anything I can get my grubby mits on and live out the wild fantasies of strangers I will never even meet about characters I already love and when their fantasies don’t scratch the itch I write my own.

The fanfiction phenomenon is a tribute to the artistic merit of the original IP. Content creators weave rich tapestries of captivating characters whose personal motivations drive the narrative forward.

Fanfiction exists for all narrative media but no community works as tirelessly, produces quite the variety of fiction as the videogame community. And yet, storytelling in videogames is often lacking. Perhaps it is because of this that the writing community flourishes, however, this is not always the case. Games famous for their strong character driven narrative like the Bioware RPGs have spawned some of the most thought provoking, shocking and occasionally down right filthy fanfic I’ve ever read.

Sexy space-Zevran, Reyes Vidal

And now we come to the route of my problem. In the last week I have spent 8 hours reading Mass Effect Andromeda fanfic. That’s a full day’s work worth of time. Released on 21^st March 2017 to a barrage of criticism, Bioware’s latest offering has fallen short of many fans’ expectations. Aside from technical  problems and less than seamless facial animations many fans were left feeling short changed by the human interactions that helped put Bioware permanently into the videogame hall of fame.

Full disclosure I am a die-hard Bioware fangirl – I have a Mass Effect tattoo and my honest opinion of the latest Mass Effect game is “it’s alright”.  “Not bad”. I am enjoying it. I’m at 75% completion and I’ve dicked around exploring for so long I’m nudging level 61. The over-arching story is exciting and I like the side story that ties the game to the original trilogy and includes an element of intrigue. So far so Bioware.

I don’t know if this is just my playstyle (I’m a 100% completionist) or this is a true reflection of the relationship system in the game but the interactions seem light and too disjointed and in serious need of fleshing out. In one of my (many) saves I am romancing the cheeky engineer Gil. After 50 hours of solid game play (okay – see my comment earlier about dicking around) we finally managed to seal the deal, fade to black (which was disappointing). Then, in the very next conversation he asks me if I want to start a family! Call me old fashioned but I don’t think a little courtship would have gone a miss…

My other saves see romances for Cora, Jaal, and my new husbando for life (after Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Dorian obviously) Reyes Vidal; the sexy space-Zevran that he is! And once I’ve finished I’ll start saves and romance all the other characters too. So far the only evidence that I have seen of Michael Gamble’s “pretty good banging” has been Cora’s story arc which feature a scene that is nothing short of x-rated. There’s thrusting, oh my God the thrusting. All of the other characters, in particular the homosexual ones appear to have been treated as something of an after thought.

There’s thrusting

After Dragon Age: Inquisition, which was celebrated for its natural approach to the diversities of human sexuality I have to say I was expecting more. Yes, before my fellow Bioware defenders jump on my back, they are created by different teams, but Mass Effect 3 included some really memorable gay romances and Bioware has made a big deal about its commitment to fair LGBTQ content in videogames with excellent panels at GaymerX  and PAX.

And this is why my quest for fanfiction has reached epic new heights. I need more. I need my characters fleshed out – and not just the kinky stuff but their motivations, their back story, why did they come to Andromeda? What were their lives like before? Not “I came here to start to start again” – that doesn’t cut the mustard. That might be an analogy for the entire reasoning behind Mass Effect: Andromeda but you can’t bring that forward into your writing.

If anyone from Bioware ever sees this hook me up for pointers. I’ve got some great ideas for your characters that I’d be prepared to share gratis. Until that inevitably never happens you’ll find me on Archive of our Own. I am a trash baby. Anon.

You may also be interested in reading my take on videogame sex and addiction

Let’s Talk about Sex, Baby

No really, sex and video games. What’s not to love?

Video games are a lot like sex. Both require mental and physical dexterity. They are fairly repetitive, predictable, and both are driven by the offer of rewards for achieving goals linked together by a veneer of narrative. Both leave you feeling drained, keep you up late at night, and teenagers find it hard to stop thinking about either. They are also both the subject of seemingly new, often media-spun addictions. That’s right, I’m looking at you, Tiger.

Video game addiction, like sex addiction, has become a widely used term often bandied around to mean doing something to excess or used as an excuse for lack of self-control. An actual addiction is a serious mental health issue and as such requires the attention of medical professionals and academics. When asked to define addiction, Senior Lecturer in cognitive neuroscience at the University of the West of England Dr Caroline Brown said;

“Biologically, addiction is related to the increased dopamine signalling [broadly speaking, the happiness hormone] that occurs in appetitive behaviour. The dopamine response may increase with each repetition, and in turn it becomes difficult to do without the pleasurable response.”

Putting the Dope in Dopamine

It is this dopamine response that make video games so enjoyable and so-called ‘video game addicts’ fall victim to a pleasure-punishment cycle called Pavlovian conditioning. When we enjoy something we get a rush of pleasure so we do more of it. In contrast when we don’t enjoy something it is like a punishment so we try not to do it again. This is called reinforcement and video games have many ways to reward us for doing well and penalising us for failing. Rewards come in many forms but are usually psychological; collect coins, points, perks, better weapons and gear. Unlocking trophies/ achievements also adds to the warm fuzzy glow we get while playing games. It is like a teacher giving you a gold star. On the other hand games also give us negative reinforcement; you can lose points, fail objectives, or restart the whole level. In team games you can fail the objective on behalf of your friends adding a level of social pressure to the pleasure-punishment spiral. Games would not be worthwhile playing if you simply won everything you attempted and therefore this carrot and stick is fundamental.

Addiction to gaming however is hotly contested by academics. Dr Brown says,

“The concept of addiction to video game playing is debated. Playing games in excess may have underlying psychological causes such as depression, or poor time management, for example.”

In this case, excessive video game playing could be the symptom of a wider problem and not in fact the cause. This is the case for many compulsive behaviours and addictions such as gambling or drug abuse. Not enough research exists to simply dismiss video games as the root cause of all evil and by doing so we might actually be failing those in need of help. It is not a leap to imagine someone who is depressed coming to rely on the dopamine released by playing video games and in this sense playing games has become a self medication in the same way that an alcoholic might turn to drink. However, it seems unlikely that these factors will be taken into consideration when it’s so easy to shake a stick at games themselves. Gamers should take heart that it’s only a matter of time before the witch hunters find another axe to grind. So what will it be? Place your bets. My money is on VR.

This article was originally submitted to the VG247 2015 writing competition and made it to the list of finalists. It didn’t win. That’s next year’s challenge.
Read the winning submission here.

 

Do it. It’s your Destiny.

My Destiny journey started a few weeks ago when I impulse bought it second hand at my local independent. Anyone who’s seen me play Battlefield or Halo knows that traditionally I’m terrible at FPS and I received more than a few puzzled enquiries from my Live contacts when I first booted up the game.

Buying the vanilla game a year after release and a week or so before a major game changing update was also a decision that I clearly hadn’t thought out. If my head had been screwed on I should have waited for Taken King which comes out on 15/9/15 and comes bundled with the game and the two previous expansions The Dark Below and House of Wolves. The thing is, as I’ve been offered an opportunity by EA for a hands-on with Battlefront at the upcoming EGX I felt it was probably time to sort out my FPS affliction or face embarrassment on a fairly public platform. I am supposed to be a serious industry individual after all. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried.

From very early on I felt that Destiny was trying to push me towards the Endgame – that the Endgame was the most important place to be. I know it’s been oft criticised so I shan’t dwell on it here but the story missions really are shallow and you level remarkably quickly. Whether by luck or design I received my first legendary weapon (a scout rifle called One/One Synesthete) from my first public event at level 4. Although admittedly the weapon can’t be used until level 20, by the end of the week I was using it to wrack up impressive numbers of precision kills.

My Titan takes a break to enjoy the sunset in The Tower.

As a self-confessed FPSphobe (I’m making that a thing, let it go) Destiny was refreshing because the controls are extremely tight and made my other FPS experience seem fudgy and dull in comparison. I discovered that I’m actually pretty nifty with slower firing weapons such as scout rifles or hand canons and I regularly enjoy 75% plus precision kills of my overall PvE kill total. This feels rewarding as a player and requires a modicum of skill over and above my standard “spray and pray” Halo approach.

The Crucible, Destiny’s PvP platform, is another matter entirely however. The arena opens at a laughably early stage and I was completely unprepared for the total shit storm it was going to be. At level 5 I decided to check it out and quite frankly it was a slaughter fest. By the end of my first control game I had a 2/10 KD and one of the two was posthumous because I panic launched a grenade at the hunter that was coming at me AGAIN with Thorn.

Luckily for noobs like me much maligned, over powered PvP weapons such as the hand canon Thorn and the rocket launcher Gjallerhorn have faced a royal nerfing with the 2.0 Taken King update and now that I’m level 28 I probably should tackle the Crucible again and I will, just as soon as I stop being a total chicken.

So now I’m faced with the prospect of buying Taken King. At £40 GBP it’s not a decision I’m in a position to make lightly. People who’ve been invested in the game since day one will probably be close to breaking the £100 mark with the latest expansion and I am aware that not only is this an MMO model but an Activision one too. It is a strange marriage between the slow, thoughtful Bungie and Activision who notoriously enjoy pumping out the same re-skinned bilge several times a year. But what other publisher would commit to an MMOFPS with a proposed 10 year life-cycle? First person shooters are fast. They burn bright and never for very long and then players turn to the next one. It’s therefore crucial for Bungie to keep Destiny fresh as I’ve discovered after just shy of two weeks where I’m now faced with the prospect of the same strike maps over and over again but with a smattering of different difficulty modifiers in the Endgame. In this respect I feel like I am being channelled towards the expansions.

Then there is the recent information made public by the infamous Marty O’Donnell v. Bungie lawsuit which hints at a darkness seeping in to the production line. It’s not clear to what extent Bungie’s creative freedom has been stifled and I don’t know enough of the particulars to comment personally on whether Bungie has failed to protect its employees from the jaws of the industry machine but now is the point where I need to decide if Destiny is a game in which I want to become properly invested. I’ve dipped my toes but once I’ve taken the plunge I’m not sure there’s any going back.