The Gamer's Quarter

[player 2]

alpha male
definition: a domineering man; the dominant member in a group of males, esp. animals

Videogames offer a surprising amount of Alpha Male.

In the new Zelda, for instance, Link epitomizes the most castrated alphaest male ever. He always has, in ways. Mario is also quite the alpha male - see: Luigi for comparison. Any RPG has a ton of alpha male characters. Balthier is a recent favorite. Cecil was one, too. In fact, the entire Cecil/Rose/Kain melodrama was about alpha males. So is Earthbound.

But no matter how often the topic can be explored via videogames, it's very rarely explored via the game portion of the videogame. We are always given the context of alpha males and then from that context we are given freedom. Very rarely have I played a game where my decisions could be valued. And even more rarely would my value be taken into account relative to the rest of the world.

It's as if videogamers are fascinated with being the highest scoring, most machismisimoed, most badass badass, but... they don't know how to do it.

Sure there are games in which a person's alpha male tendencies can be judged. Halo 2, for instance, has many levels of alpha male as evidenced by the 14 year olds who, for the love of alpha male, use too many derrogatory words. Domination has been very natural in FPSes.

But I'm not very interested in the meta game. It relies too heavily on our notions of the outside world. Competitive games will inevitably deal with the alpha male. That's the point. They've been done and that aspect is fully coming to fruition. Cyber Pro League and whatnot.

What I am interested in is ways and methods games have dealt with this idea of the alpha male*.

Note: I only say alpha male because alpha sounds ridiculous. Terra from Final Fantasy 6, for instance, represents the alpha male in the World of Ruin when she protects the town of Mobliz from the crazy, rampant esper. Actually, FF6 has a lot of interesting portions examining the alpha male type...
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Wii #: 8749 9109 9732 3653

"It is a peaceful way of understanding life, to play"
_Marcel Duchamp

[Lackey]

Alpha Male Game?
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| Little bird fighting against a bat sect game |

[player 2]

That nobody wants to talk about alpha males and videogames saddens me.

I just watched Casino Royale
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Wii #: 8749 9109 9732 3653

"It is a peaceful way of understanding life, to play"
_Marcel Duchamp

[Redeye]

[Harveyjames]

I thought you fallout kids went home already >:|

[Cycle]

harveyjams why do you never respond to my messages
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[Redd]

[kirkjerk]

I guess the Alpha Male thing is pretty fundamental to gaming as it has happened over the past decades, and probably will stay that way. After all, it has precedents in literature, going all the way to Gilgamesh (and his good Beta pal Enkidu)

There are some basic reasons for it... story wise, games offer the chance of being the Hero, and heroes very often fall into that Alpha role.

Gampelay wise... well, it gets into AI and our ability to simulate co-operation. It's generally easier to code a "lone wolf" as the hero, because then you don't have to make smart teammates, and you can have an interesting adventure without trying to make an epic setting.

On the other hand, is a "lone wolf" an "alpha" or do you need a pack/group to have the idea make sense?

Your comment about Link as "casrtrated Alpha" (Hmm, maybe I should say "Alpha Male", other wise it sounds like your talking about the eugenic distinctions made in "Brave New World"... while reading that one of my classmates described me as an "Alpha Plus Semi Moron"... a description that makes me giggle to this day...anyway) reminds me that this topic is tangental to one of my personal talking points in gaming, games where it feels that the whole world is designed for the hero's current adventure. That's what Zelda is all about, with its dungeons carefully arrange at the outside edge of Link's current abilities. Sure Link starts from typically humble beginings, and then grows up to be a lone wolf bad ass, but given the worlds they place him in it seems inevitable. I imagine real life succesful Alpha Males feel a bit the same about the real world...

[dhex]

i never replied because i have no idea what the topic is about.

the second half of far cry is stupidly hard.

best bad guy conversations in a game ever, however.

"so i had this rash! and i put some ointment on it! and it got better!"
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[Redeye]

[dhex]

i've only forced my way through it once. the sudden changeup was deeply unfortunate, but it is still one of the finer $20 experiences i've had in my life.

it's always a pisser to have a game severely change mechanics (rather than environment, or a plot twist, or just increasing the difficulty) without much warning in the middle or near the end of a title. far cry is a terrible offender in this case, as is a few other titles i've otherwise enjoyed - fear, to some degree; the first devil may cry stands out; etc.

(if i may be permitted the conceit, fallout 1 doesn't do this; fallout 2 does. that's what makes fallout a better experience even if fallout 2 is a better game for the most part)
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[Dracko]

I'm not too certain what you mean by the Fallout 2 and Devil May Cry examples.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

[dhex]

the very end of devil may cry becomes that weird over the shoulder strider shooter thing. that was annoying.

fallout 2 switches gears entirely and yanks you into an insane nwo plotline that, while it kinda fits the series, felt completely slapped on. it's not a mechanics change like dmc, however.
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