We know you care about your NPCs— but will anybody else?
This chapter offers
ways to give an NPC Rooting Interest.
Rooting Interest Techniques are techniques that make us “root for”—or, more precisely, identify and empathize with—a character. The term sounds like it means we cheer on the character who has Rooting Interest. We do, but that's just a byproduct our identifying with him or her. Thus a character with Rooting Interest is one with whom we empathize. This term, and “Character Arc” are the only two phrases in the book that come from the film industry.
Luckily, the witch trials of Salem are behind us, because I suspect you're a sorcerer.
note
Because this chapter focuses on ways to help make the player identify with one or more of the NPCs, you might well ask the question, “How do we get the player to identify with the character he or she is playing?” That topic is tackled in Chapter 2.19, “Role Induction Techniques.”
In the Lord of the Rings, we're introduced to Palantiri, or “Stones of Seeing.” They're enchanted rocks used to see what's happening in the vicinity of other Palantiri, no matter where the stones are placed in the land. Sauron ends up controlling one, much to Gandolf's dismay, for it gives him visual access to the vicinities of the other stones, wherever they're scattered.
You don't need to be the evil overlord of a planet, however, to have access to the same sorcery. You too can cast your eyes far out into the oceans of human experience. In fact, I suspected that you daily adopt the viewpoints of complete strangers and see the world through their eyes.
The two biggest reasons artfully written films or television shows move us are:
We identify or empathize with one or more characters.
What happens to them then feels just like it's happening to us. If the character or characters undergo an emotional experience, so do we.
If you can get the player to identify with one or more of the NPCs, then he or she isn't just experiencing his or her own emotions, but the emotions of the NPCs as well.
Thus you can actually experience viewpoints of several characters simultaneously. It's certainly one way to create emotional immersion.
This happens in Star Wars—Episode IV. We simultaneously feel what's going on inside the hearts of Luke, Obi-Wan, Han Solo, and Leia, among others. Is it any wonder people became very attached to those characters?
The Character Diamond enables you to create colorful and fresh characters. Season them with a few quirks and the characters develop even more uniqueness. They may become so unique and so unlike us, however, that we can't identify with them. If we don't identify with them, we've lost a major opportunity for creating emotional immersion in the game.[1]
It's worth reiterating that NPC Rooting Interest Techniques are just an other Emotioneering tool and not necessarily one that benefits every game. For instance, if you were creating an urban game where you were alone in a hostile city, fighting and killing everyone you encounter, then you probably wouldn't want any of the NPCs to have Rooting Interest.
Even in this situation, however, it might be worth asking the question if it wouldn't be worth changing the design of the game and using Emotioneering to create greater emotional engagement by the player. In this example, I might ask the developer if the game wouldn't be improved by having a few NPCs in the game who are more than cannon fodder.[2]
Sword-and-sorcery games have gotten short shrift in this book, so let's rectify that by using one to illustrate several ways of adding Rooting Interest.
Picture a rolling green landscape. There's a forest in the distance. Stick a few medieval villages over here, a castle over there, inject some trouble into paradise, and suddenly there's a gaping need for a hero like you.
The enemy, Alrik the Dark, has unleashed a wild, powerful dragon that has been passing time by barbecuing a few of the neighboring towns.
You enter the village and find it crowded with refugees. One in particular is terrified. It's a young woman, Serilda, who is descended straight from a line of powerful wizards. To protect her, her parents gave her up at birth. Thus, she walks the earth unaware of her own latent powers.
Because of these powers, she could potentially pose a threat to Alrik. Dead, her blood can be infused into his and make him more powerful.
The reason the dragon has been destroying town after town is Serilda. Alrik, through magic, knows she's somewhere in the land, but doesn't know how to find her nor identify her. She's the target that the dragon and the man who controls it (a henchman of Alrik) are seeking.
Though Serilda is normally strong, confident, and smart, these events would be harrowing for anyone. Having narrowly escaped death from the dragon once, and knowing that it's continuing its pursuit of her (although she doesn't know why), she's terrified.
Where will she turn? The villagers, learning that the dragon is after Serilda, have rightfully concluded that if Serilda dies, the dragon's path of destruction will cease. So, just as you enter the village, Serilda is being attacked by an unruly mob.
She's in grave danger, and we “feel for her.” We identify with her.
Some might say that we would understand Serilda's plight but not feel for her. If the writing and animation are artful, you will. To use a film analogy, start the film off in a galaxy far, far away. Immediately introduce a small group of people in a spaceship being chased, fired upon, and boarded by shock troops from an Imperial Starfighter. The danger closing in on the small group causes you to instantly identify with them.
Serilda joins you on your quest to kill the dragon, as well as the unknown henchman of Alrik who controls it.
At some point in the game, Serlida comes to grips with the truth: If she allows herself to get killed, no more innocents will be harmed. She decides to sacrifice herself.
This too gives her Rooting Interest; it makes us identify with her.
In The Lord of the Rings, each member of the Fellowship is willing to sacrifice himself to prevent Sauron from returning to power.
This particular technique was also used extensively in the first Star Trek series, and in many of the succeeding Star Trek series as well. Kirk, Spock, and Bones never think twice about sacrificing themselves to save their comrades, and often risk their own lives to protect others.
At a certain point, you learn that Alrik's henchman who created and now controls the dragon isn't who you thought it was. He was a wizard whose mind was taken over by Alrik. In fact, this wizard (the one whose mind is being manipulated) is, in fact, Serilda's father Valdemar. (She has never met him until this point.)
He struggles against the spell that controls him and begs for your help. He wants his mind and soul back. In short, he has experienced Undeserved Misfortune, and he'll thus have Rooting Interest, too.
In the first few minutes of the film The Fugitive, Harrison Ford's character fails to prevent the murder of his wife. Then he's arrested, charged with that murder, and found guilty. Because of his Undeserved Misfortune, we strongly identify with him.
In the village, you meet an NPC named Spengler, a cynical man. He doesn't care if his entire village is destroyed.
Initially Spengler is set up as someone you dislike. But later in the game, you learn that he wasn't always this way. His wife and young son were visiting friends in one of the first towns destroyed by the dragon. They all perished.
Spengler was devastated. All purpose and meaning evaporated from his life in an instant. His life effectively ended at that point.
The next time you meet Spengler, despite his cynicism, you'll understand the pain underneath it. And even he will have Rooting Interest.
In Sling Blade, Billy Bob Thornton plays Karl Childers, who is mentally retarded. At one point, he relays a painful part of his past to a boy for whom he feels protective. Karl tells of how he had a terribly physically abusive father. When Karl's mother gave birth to a very sickly child, his father forced Karl to bury the child, even though the child was still alive. Karl was horrified and distressed by the act. Karl, afraid of his father, did as he was told—but the experience emotionally devastated him. This painful part of Karl's past causes us to identify with him, despite his retardation.
When the dragon comes to the village, one of the first NPCs to attack it is Spengler. Now this brave man, whom at first we disliked, acquires even more Rooting Interest.
Where do we begin? William Wallace in Braveheart. Luke Skywalker. Frodo Baggins. Indiana Jones. And hundreds of others.
As the book progresses, you might notice some overlapping techniques. Some Rooting Interest Techniques are also Character Deepening Techniques. For instance, Spengler, the man with the Mask of cynicism, may have Rooting Interest because we learn of his pain—but pain is also NPC Deepening Technique. So is self-sacrifice, which he does when he attacks the dragon.
Not every NPC Deepening Technique (an NPC exhibiting insight, for example) is a Rooting Interest Technique. And not every Rooting Interest Technique (an NPC being genuine, for instance) is a Character Deepening Technique. But some of these techniques do overlap.
Characters you invest with life also have Rooting Interest.
It's easy to observe that childrens' stuffed animals have Rooting Interest, for kids love them immensely and easily identify with them. They'll often imbue the animals with characteristics, give them voices, use them to enact stories, and get caught up in the personalities they've created.
So, like the NPCs discussed in this chapter, the animals are used by kids to extend their imagination into new viewpoints, at least for a time. It's empathy—even though it's empathy for characters for whom they themselves create.
The Sims is a great example of characters that have Rooting Interest because players invest them with life, as well as their Sims' families and even neighborhoods.
Of course, many additional factors contribute to The Sims being emotionally engaging, but we're just talking about Rooting Interest for now. In that regard, The Sims exemplifies another Rooting Interest Technique as well: being responsible for characters.
In The Sims, players do something more than invest the characters with life. Compared to a stuffed animal, Sims already look fairly alive, so it doesn't take an extreme amount of “investing.”
Players are also responsible for their Sims. Characters for whom we feel responsible have Rooting Interest (meaning that we empathize with them).[3]
You can see this even in real life, for instance, parents suffer when one of their children experiences a major setback or disappointment.
Going back to our game with the dragon: You come to know the villagers, and they depend on you to save them. Assuming they're made life-like enough and with techniques to give them Rooting Interest, you want to save them. You feel responsible for them. This increases your empathy for each of them.
Take a look at another example.
In the hypothetical game illustrated on the following page, you play Jen Cranston, a surveyor under contract with the government of Peru. Your life is pretty drab and uneventful, until you get lost one day (which happens to be where our game begins) and hear screams from inside a cave.
You explore and discover this ancient artifact, as well as Citlali, the woman who's been trapped by it and who's been writhing in pain for 1,000 years.
You smash the artifact and free the woman from her agony.
It's true that empathizing with someone leads us to wanting to have some responsibility for them. But the reverse is also true: taking responsibility for someone causes us to empathize with him or her. In this case, you'd empathize with the woman for whom you took responsibility, and whom you liberated from her torment.
We can see this in life not just with parents and children, but even with pets. If you take care of a dog or cat, soon you start empathizing with it. Thus, if the animal gets sick or wounded, it will affect you emotionally.
The parameter of our being expands to encompass those people, and even animals, trees, and things, for whom and which we feel responsible.[4] For them, we'll feel empathy. This is that almost mystical ability I noted at the start of the chapter—our ability to see through the eyes of others.
Citlali also has Rooting Interest due to two other techniques. First of all, she's in Danger—and an NPC in Danger is one we're likely to identify with. Additionally, she has Undeserved Misfortune, which also gives her Rooting Interest. (To be fair, we don't yet know if Citlali's misfortune is undeserved or not, although the way I envisage the game, she wouldn't have deserved this punishment. And even if, later in the game we learn that her misfortune is deserved, she'd still have Rooting Interest until then.)
Some Emotioneering techniques, as you might have noticed, perform more than one function—for example, Taking Responsibility for Another. In our hypothetical game, when you (playing Jen) take responsibility for Citlali, four Emotioneering functions are performed simultaneously:
You (through Jen, the character you play) rescue Citlali, and you'll protect her from many dangers during the game, as the beings who trapped her there now try to find her and capture her again.
As was discussed a bit earlier, responsibility for an NPC makes us identify with the NPC for whom we take responsibility. Thus, it's a Rooting Interest Technique.
Taking responsibility for another character emotionally bonds you to that character. It's one of many ways of creating Chemistry between you and that character, and is thus a Player Toward NPC Chemistry Technique (see Chapter 2.11).
When you are bonded to one or more characters in a game, as you'll be bonded to Citlali, you're more willing to participate in the world of that game. Thus, this Taking Responsibility is also a World Induction Technique (see Chapter 2.18).
When a player takes responsibility for another character, it actually gives the player himself or herself emotional depth—just as taking responsibility for a friend or a child in real life gives a person depth. That's because you need to expand your vision to see not just what you need, but what that other person needs. Thus, you taking responsibility for Citlali is also a First-Person Deepening Technique (see Chapter 2.21).
It's rare to see techniques function in so many ways. I certainly know no other technique such as “Taking Responsibility,” which occupies a slot in four distinct Emotioneering categories.
Usually techniques don't perform multiple functions. For example, a Character Exhibiting Insight is an NPC Deepening Technique, but it isn't an NPC Rooting Interest Technique. A Character Being Genuine is an NPC Rooting Interest Technique, but not a Character Deepening Technique.
But some techniques do occasionally overlap into different categories. I therefore thought it worth pointing out so that it doesn't seem confusing or even a mistake when you periodically come upon other examples later in this book.
Any Rooting Interest Technique, flipped upside down, can make a character unlikable and make us unwilling to identify with that character. For instance, it's a Rooting Interest Technique to have a character risk sacrificing himself for another person who's in danger. Flip this upside down, and it makes the person unlikable.
Thus, we have a sort of dial by which we can control exactly how much we like (or identify with) any particular character.
There are many uses for this “Rooting Interest Dial,” such as:
Creating flawed heroes, and preventing heroes from being “too perfect.”
Creating villains whom we like some of the time or about whom we're ambivalent (for example, “cool villains” of the films Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty, and The Usual Suspects).
Making a character who would normally be unlikable into a hero. If you remember the movie Rocky, you'll find that he's a quite likable hero (because of all the Rooting Interest Techniques employed in the creation of his character). It makes us overlook his job—he's an enforcer for a loan shark.
Making a character go from being unlikable to likable over a stretch of time.
When, as game designers, we give an NPC Rooting Interest, the player will, as if using Tolkien's “Stones of Seeing,” we look at the world through that character's eyes and experience that NPCs emotions.
It becomes even more of an Emotioneering tool when you start having the player experiencing the emotions of numerous different characters simultaneously.
How many characters did you identify with in Star Wars—Episode IV? How many in The Matrix? How many in the Lord of the Rings films? It's no wonder these films take up permanent lodging in our hearts.
Giving NPCs some Rooting Interest becomes a valuable tool in creating emotional immersion.
[1] This assumes, of course, that it's a game in which at least one or more NPCs play an important role. If it isn't, there are still scores of techniques in this book that can be used to make the game more emotionally engaging.
[2] The discussion is by no means academic. Just as this book was being completed, I was hired to help design and write a game in which there wasn't a single character with Rooting Interest. I persuaded the developer and lead designer to allow me to introduce one major and several minor NPCs with whom we'd identify, precisely to make the game more emotionally engaging.
[3] It's important to state that different players relate to their Sims characters in quite different ways. Some players strongly identify with them and try and get quite involved in creating their lives. Other players, however, are simply amused, and we all know that more than a few players have tried to get their Sims into all sorts of horrible situations, and even kill them off in loathsome ways. Thus, though Sims characters have Rooting Interest to some players, the game offers players many ways relate to the characters. This is a Self-Created Story Technique and, as we'll see in Chapter 2.24, it's a great way to foster player immersion in a game.
My guess is that if you could never control more than one or two Sims, you'd be more emotionally invested and there'd be a greater likelihood they'd have Rooting Interest.
[4] If a person has restored a vintage car and labored tremendous time and love on it (taken responsibility for it) and that car gets injured, the person will feel pain. This is what I mean by being able to even empathize with objects for which we feel responsible.