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Playing the Player: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|Games tend to be very trustworthy--good guys are good, bad guys are bad. What you see and perceive is real. Sometimes characters are betrayed, but the ''player'' never is. |Ken Levine to [http://au.gamespot.com/features/6130956/ Gamespot]}}
The above quote from [[
As such, the common relationship between the player and the game constitutes a trope. Therefore, it can be [[Playing with a Trope|played with]].
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[[Playing the Player]] is a [[Video Game]] plot device that occurs when this common relationship is played with in a manner ''designed to make the player uncomfortable''.
There are quite a few ways to do this. Most involve deliberate deception of the player (not just the player character). But it has to be a significant betrayal of the player's expectations in order to qualify, and this betrayal must be intended to make the player squirm. And this is not the only manner in which a game can do this. By definition, the game has to have a level of understanding about how players relate to it in order to pull this off.
[[Seinfeld Is Unfunny]] also applies to this trope. To someone that has played, for instance, ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' or ''[[
This trope is often easy to implement in a [[First-Person Shooter]] because players will have a tendency to see their player character ''as'' themselves. Needless to say, most [[First-Person Shooter]] games do ''not'' use this trope. However, it can be implemented in less immersive perspectives by having an [[Audience Surrogate]] character.
This trope is frequently seen in [[Deconstruction|deconstructions]] but in and of itself, it is not necessarily a deconstruction. Additionally, this is not the same as having [[No Fourth Wall]]. Also, this trope deals often deals with plot details, so spoilers ahead.
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* [[Tales (series)]] has the first few hours as a [[Cliché Storm]], before providing a [[Wham! Episode]].
* In ''[[Ghost Trick]]'', {{spoiler|the one thing you think you know is what Sissel looks like, since the corpse is so blatantly obvious in the first ten seconds of the game and is also the picture on the box. But the yellow-haired man in the red suit isn't Sissel. Sissel was actually the man's pet cat (who was in the box right behind the man's corpse), and the red-suited man is the game's [[Big Bad]]. Sissel just assumed he was the red-suited man since it was the first corpse he saw.}}
* ''[[System Shock]] 2'' is ''infamous'' for doing this. The game begins with you waking up from cryo-sleep with [[Cyborg|cybernetic implants]] stuffed into your head and throws you into a spaceship overrun with aliens. Sounds relatively standard so far. Until you [[The Reveal|discover]] that {{spoiler|[[Mission Control]] is really the [[Big Bad]] of the first game and lied to you by assuming the identity of someone else. Oh, and said villain [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|tampered with your memory restoration]]. Said villain remains as [[Mission Control]], declaring that your only chance to survive is to destroy the alien infestation with her help. So you go along with the plan, as she [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|creepily dotes on you]] and declares you to be her "avatar" (or more correctly, pawn). Her [[Plan]] just happens to involve [[Unwitting Pawn|using you to gain control of some]] [[Reality Warper|reality-warping technology]] and then discarding you afterwards.}}
** A particularly disturbing part of this is {{spoiler|1=how SHODAN actually had you rendered unconscious and then [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|stuffed your cranium with implants]] [[Rape as Drama|without your consent]].}} Combined with the [http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?page_id=1103 dominatrix overtones] of her characterization, you get a situation where the game is metaphorically ''raping'' the player. The ''advertising'' of the game even has a picture of her with the caption ''"she doesn't need to use her body to get what she wants... she's got yours."''
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]''. The plot of the game is a [[Deconstruction]] of how [[Misaimed Fandom|some people]] played [[Metal Gear Solid|its prequel]] as [[I Just Want to Be Badass|a power fantasy]]. Oh, so you wish you were just like Solid Snake huh? {{spoiler|Well, [[Be Careful What You Wish For]] barely describes what this game does to the player. After hours of having the [[Audience Surrogate|player]] [[This Loser Is You|proxy]] Raiden [[Butt Monkey|humiliated, beaten up, and annoyed by his girlfriend]], the player eventually gets their [[Wish Fulfillment]]... during a segment of the game that takes place in wireframe with the specific purpose of reminding the player that they are playing a video game rather than actually kicking ass. And then, the game reveals that every event preceeding this was actually part of a mind-control experiment designed to turn Raiden/the player (its deliberately ambiguous) into Solid Snake; explaining why several areas and sequences within the game are copies of parts from the original game. Basically, the game shows you exactly what it would be like to be a deceived, manipulated, backstabbed and controlled [[Blood Knight]] [[Super Soldier]]. [[Captain Obvious|It would not be fun]].}}
** It gets better than that. {{spoiler|The ultimate goal of the villains is to demonstrate that they can control human thought and behaviour. Thus, they created a scenario very similar to that of the previous game in the series and placed Raiden in the middle of it, hoping to prove that by putting someone in the middle of an extreme situation and providing the appropriate context for his actions, they can make him do whatever he wants. Thus, for most of the game Raiden (and by extension the player) believes that he is a member of a FOX-HOUND sent in to resolve a crisis very similar to that of the first game, despite the mounting evidence to the contrary - they have only the villains' word that this is the case. Even after it's revealed that Raiden has been acting under the orders of the villains for the entirety of the game, he ''still'' goes along with their instructions - and so does the player. The fact that neither Raiden nor the player has any choice but to follow their instructions is one of the major points of the game.}}
* ''[[
** Doubly clever, since the player mindlessly {{spoiler|follows Atlas' orders}} under the assumption that they're the only way to progress in the game, as one does in nearly every video game. However, the game takes a usual video game [[Acceptable Break From Reality]] and then ''repapers'' the fourth wall to explain in-game why Jack is {{spoiler|doing everything this guy he barely knows and has never met orders him to do.}}
* ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories]]'' has you playing as a man named Harry Mason as he searches for his lost daughter Cheryl. In a major plot twist, it's revealed to both Harry ''and'' the player that {{spoiler|Harry (or at least the one you play as) doesn't even exist, and he's only a delusion in Cheryl's mind. The real Harry died many years ago in a car accident.}}
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* The [[Alternate Reality Game]] ''Majestic'' was marketed as [[Lampshade Hanging|"the game that plays you"]]. As an [[Alternate Reality Game]], it presented itself as part of [[Real Life]] and many of the people that played the game reported being rendered [[Paranoia Fuel|completely paranoid]] during the time they played it. Indeed, "messing with the guy that plays ''Majestic''" became an office hobby during the time the game was operating. The game began with the player receiving news that the developers had been killed, and it only got worse from there. Since the game focused on [[Conspiracy Theory]] material, the player being constantly lied to makes sense.
** [http://forums.ukcs.net/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=38035&start=0 OUR NEW OFFICE PASSTIME IS MESSIN' WITH THE GUY WHO PLAYS MAJESTIC]
* ''[[Heavy Rain]]'' does this to the player regarding the identity of the killer. {{spoiler|The killer is one of the player characters that you control and said character's thoughts do not directly allude to his deeds except in hindsight. You control the character under the assumption that his actions are to solve the mystery, when in reality he's trying to find his [[Jack the Ripoff]] and collect and destroy any remaining evidence.}}
* ''[[Nie R]]'' is arguably an example, at least on subsequent playthroughs. First time one plays through, its a typical [[Eastern RPG]]. Fight the monstrous Shades, save your daughter, defeat [[Big Bad|The Shadowlord]] and [[Happy Ending]] ensues. But then, you start your second playthrough {{spoiler|with the ability to understand the [[Black Speech]] of the Shades. Suddenly the entire tone of the game shifts. It turns out most of the Shades are innocent victims who are just trying to defend themselves, many of the game's antagonists are seriously provoked, and to them ''you'' are the monster. You're cutting them down, killing their children, invading their homes... you did this on your first playthrough too, but your limited perspective kept you from this.}}
* ''[[Haze]]'' attempted to play this trope straight. The game has you as a trooper for [[Mega Corp|the Mantel Corporation]], jacked up on a performance-enhancing supplement called "Nectar" and fighting a guerrila-terrorist army led by a madman that wears human skin. Of course, Nectar is really an hallucinogenic mind-control [[Psycho Serum]] that blinds you to the fact that [[You Bastard|you're really a mass-murderer drug-junkie treating war as if it were a game of]] ''[[Halo]]''. This ''might'' have been a shocking twist and a highly effective deception of the player...if it ''weren't revealed on the back of the box and in all the game's publicity for months before release'', and if the supposed good guys weren't basically carrying around giant signs saying "hey, I'm a totally evil bastard, me" in flashing neon. Not a bad idea, but the execution was lacking, and it didn't help that the gameplay doesn't hold up terribly well.
* Many feel that the depth of ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' deals with this trope. Players are used to being the good guy out to destroy the evil monsters. This seems to be the case at the start of the game, but as time goes on, the hero's appearance begins changing, becoming ragged and dark, and some of the monsters you defeat seem benign or even peaceful. One won't even attack you. The player must confront his or her own feelings of the morality of continuing to play the game.
** The big turning point probably comes after killing Phalanx (#13), a ''truly'' majestic creature that never once tries to attack the player. As this is also around the time the plot kicks in, it counts as somewhat of a [[Wham! Episode]].
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* ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius|Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance]]'' reveals rather early on that there is a [[The Mole|mole]] in the player's party, but who they are is ambiguous. Potential candidates include [[Tall, Dark and Snarky|Volke]] and Nasir, based on the timing of the reveal, but when [[The Lancer|Soren]] confronts the latter over the possibility during a mid-game conversation, Nasir basically shrugs him off and implies that ''Soren'' is hiding something. It turns out to {{spoiler|have been Nasir all along}}, but the game does a ''really'' good job of making it ambiguous as to who the real one is: to the extent that you may not be using either of the playable units under suspicion until it all clears up for fear of them backstabbing you mid-chapter.
** It doesn't help that [[Fire Emblem the Sacred Stones|FE8]] had exactly that happen, so people who played that game knew that the developers weren't above such trickery.
* Arguably the campaign of ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops|Call of Duty Black Ops]]'' could also count as an example. While the main protagonist, Mason, isn't silent or faceless, the player is still encouraged to identify with him, as almost all the missions take place from his POV. Throughout the game, you constantly see and interact with Reznov, one of the main characters from ''[[World At War]]'', as he encourages Mason to take out the three main villains at any cost. The player, who can only see what Mason observes, unless they are playing as Hudson, simply take Reznov's word for it, like Mason. However, there are subtle hints throughout the game that not all is as it appears, as no one else, minus the interrogater, {{spoiler|who is Hudson,}} even acknowledge Reznov's appearance. One even asks what is wrong with you. As it turns out in the big reveal, {{spoiler|Reznov was never by your side. He had instead hijacked a brainwashing attempt on you in order to take revenge on the three main villains, hence his constant quote, "Dragovich, Kravchenko, Steiner. All must die", whenever he appears, and why only you acknowledge his presence. Indeed [[But Thou Must!|you were just simply following his commands]], not unlike the protagonist from ''[[
* Being of the mystery genre, it's no wonder the [[Ace Attorney]] series pulls this from time to time. The most shining example is the final case of the second game: apart from your assistant being kidnapped, its set up like a petty formulaic case, all the evidence points to your client, but they really don't look the type to commit murder. Meanwhile you have a witness who seems to know a lot more than she's letting on. There's a dark secret hidden behind everything, which could form a plausable motive for her. Pretty typical, you'd probably be thinking. {{spoiler|Except your client really IS guilty this time, and not only that, he's one hell of a [[Complete Monster]]. You confront him in prison and he taunts you by casually revealing everything, but also saying you'll never get him because he had your friend taken hostage. He's so succesful at being a [[Magnificant Bastard]] that not only Phoenix, but also the PLAYER feels like he played them. Meanwhile, that witness I mentioned? Completley and utterly innocent. Not only that, but she has some pretty crippling co-dependancy issues, making her all the more of a Woobie. But you've done such a convincing job of revealing her frame-up, (basically, the thing you've been doing for the last game-and-a-half) you've utterly convinced the court that ''she's the prime suspect''! And you have to keep it up, otherwise your friend will be killed. To further drive the point home, late in the case, Phoenix is given a choice of whether to plea guilty or innocent for his client. He is interrupted by a [[Big Damn Heroes]] either way, so the choice doesn't impact the plot at all. So, basically, the [[Sadistic Choice]] is posed to the ''player'': would you rather have a [[Complete Monster]] go free and an innocent woman convicted, but save your friend, or would you see justice is served but effectively condemn said friend to death? Needless to say, the entire case is one big [[Heroic BSOD]] for Phoenix, even though it ends well.}}
** Several other cases do this to a minor degree:
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