Television? In My Videogames?

Often times when playing a game it becomes easy to lose yourself in the immersive worlds built for us without realizing the extent to which the world is built. I use the TV as a prime example. More often these days, as the technology evolves to accommodate extensive worlds which developers are able to build, sometimes the player is completely oblivious to the efforts of developers to place a TV in the game-world to make the world seem more complete. It’s not just enough to have a TV in a shop window. It has to display something to make it seem real. The ‘TV within a TV’ motif is used for plot device purposes in a ton of games.

This plot device can be explored in the PS3 exclusive game InFamous. Throughout the game, televisions can be spotted on top of buildings and in shop windows and passing by them will initiate News reports on current events spurned by your actions in the game, as well as random interruptions from an underground frequency hijacker spouting messages claiming your character is the root of all evil and that the citizens should be on the lookout. Even though these shows are meant to inform you that the world is watching your every move, and are placed perhaps to illicit a response they aren’t really all that necessary, and they even have text ads displayed on inactive TV’s for fake products like ‘Jamie’s Soda’ (now available in a 4 liter fun size!) and ads for toys (“toys with Lead-based paint now marked!”).
The TV plot device can also be seen in Mega-man 9, when Dr. Wily announces to the world that he is not responsible for the robot revolution and claims that Dr. Light (Mega-man’s creator) is responsible and broadcasts his bank account number on national television to suck funds from the public for his next nefarious scheme, to the shock and dismay of mega-man and his compatriots.

While the TV is mainly used for a plot device, usually involving a news flash informing the player that news crews and/or police are aware of your actions within the game to create a sense of urgency and tension, developers are taking a much more varied approach to the way television is represented in games. In Max Payne 2, walking by a TV will increase the volume to attract your attention to various shows, such as Lords and Ladies, a satire of ‘Upstairs Downstairs’ styled soaps, Dick Justice, a silly self-referential police drama that has a plot that mirrors the player’s experience through the main story of the first game, and Address Unknown, a twin peaks-inspired show. All of these shows are originally written content and serve no other purpose other than to make the world seem more real (and for comic relief in this case).

The game that takes the cake has got to be 2K Games’ shoot-em-up ‘the Darkness’ for X360/PS3. There are news flashes chronicling your misadventures, and at one point Uncle Paulie, head of the Franchetti crime family, sends you a videotaped message displayed on a TV acknowledging your betrayal and instructing the player to check the closet for an explosive surprise. Scattered throughout the game are various TV’s that let you change the channel to flip between news briefs, music videos (from real bands), episodes of the New Three Stooges, Popeye, Flash Gordon, and features not one, not two, not three, but SEVEN full length feature films available for you to watch in-game (to Kill a Mockingbird, Man with the Golden Arm, Nosferatu, The Street Fighter, the Return of the Street Fighter, Sister Street Fighter, and The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge). This has got to be the most in-depth television system in a game, and the appropriate licenses were obtained to broadcast this material without even instructing the player to pass a glimpse at the television set…you could own the game forever and never know this content was on the disc!

So why go through all the trouble dealing with licenses, creating original video content on top of a game that already has an extensive development cycle and making the TV seem real to us? Isn’t it enough to be playing ON a TV? Simply put, because it’s fun. It’s like an Easter egg, something to keep an eye on and appreciate. It is my personal belief that detail is what makes a good game a great game and little touches like this don’t go unnoticed by the veteran gamers out there. While I’ve mainly focused on the television, let’s also not forget touches like GTA Radio in the Grand Theft auto games have brought much-enjoyment, and while it isn’t exactly necessary to include features like that, it makes the world more believable and enjoyable. So the next time you play a game, keep an eye out, you might end up watching more TV than playing games.