(This post was a response to an exam question.)
The Last of Us is a game I find interesting based on two criteria: the use of vulnerability in the storyline to create a deep emotional connection between the player and the game characters, and the use of an inventory system that reinforces the desperate circumstances in which the video game characters find themselves.
Joel is the character the player controls in the main storyline of The Last of Us. He is tasked with returning Ellie safely to a facility that will extract a sample of her blood and develop an antidote for the contagious fungal infection that has turned most people in post-apocalyptic United States into zombies, since Ellie appears to be immune to the fungus. In the game, Ellie, a teenage girl and a character Joel escorts in the game, is portrayed as a vulnerable character that the player–using Joel–has to protect. Various scenes the player navigates in close-call situations reinforce the relationship between Joel and Ellie as one of the protector and the protected, and the gender roles assigned by the video game designers to the characters echo the archetype of the strong father and the vulnerable daughter. As a result, the player feels emotionally invested in the survival of both characters. Moreover, the inventory system in The Last of Us is based on scarcity and the allocation of resources. Resources are rare in The Last of Us. Consequently, players are forced to ponder the consequences of decisions they make with the few inventory items they collect. An example is the frequent situation in which players have to decide whether to craft a shiv, which is a dagger-like weapon for easily killing the extremely powerful zombies named Clickers, or to instead craft a health pack to use in the likely event that Joel or Ellie gets injured.
Vulnerability is not an element that is used in The Stanley Parable. Although Stanley is accompanied by the voice of an omniscient narrator, the dynamic between both characters is not one of vulnerability. Players can make Stanley obey or disregard the narrator’s advice on a whim. There is no element in the game’s storyline that compels players to feel liable for ensuring the safety of Stanley, or of the narrator, in the game. This difference between The Stanley Parable and The Last of Us makes me appreciate the importance of relationships between characters in a video game. By using the game’s storyline to create compelling relationships between characters, such as in The Last of Us, game designers can draw players into having a deep emotional investment in a game.
