(Warning: although I don’t spoil specific plot points, I do discuss in depth some themes of the movie that would give a lot away.)
Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is not the best superhero movie ever.
The good superhero movies of recent years (Spider-Man 2, Iron Man) have followed a fairly standard plot structure: the superhero’s powers define not only his own moral code, but the framework of his nemesis. What takes place in the course of the story is the external projection of an internal struggle, until the superhero defeats his enemy in a fistfight symbolic of the overtaking of his own demons.
Batman Begins, in my opinion, was the best superhero movie of all time for this reason. Bruce Wayne’s “powers” come to him through his dedication to the greater cause of Justice. Alfred represents his own conscience, and Ra’s Al-Ghul articulates the thirst for vengeance that sleeps deep down inside Batman. Ultimately, Wayne’s moral code triumphs: that of justice, not born of vigilantism, but out of a real thirst for peace and harmony.
The Dark Knight has its own superhero: Harvey Dent. He is described throughout as the “white knight” of Gotham, while Batman’s “dark knight” moniker is only implied by contrast to it. The real dychotomy, the dialog that takes place in The Dark Knight is between Batman and Harvey Dent. Batman is initially rendered obsolete by Harvey Dent, who rallies Gotham under his leadership and banishes the ghosts of crime. Harvey Dent couldn’t have accomplished this without Batman, of course; but Batman likewise needs Harvey Dent to center his morals in a coherent frame. Dent, quite simply, is the pillar on which Batman’s moral code rests. Without Dent, there would be no justice in the way Batman envisions it.
And then the Joker comes in. He is not a villain in any traditional sense of the word. Even using the word “character” is rather inappropriate. The Joker’s role in The Dark Knight is closer to that of the Oracle in homerian tales, which announces the wrath of the gods. He is the Oracle, but also the god itself, striking chaos into the heart of Gotham. He is not a terrorist but Terror itself. He is Shiva, come to this world to test its mettle. To test Batman and Dent’s equilibrium.
The sense of gloom and despair seeping out of The Dark Knight comes from this very traditional device of the Oracle announcing impending doom, then the gods enacting it. The Joker never loses; he is never truly put to the test. All he does is carry out his plans, assaulting not only Gotham, but Batman and Harvey Dent’s own moral framework. The Joker puts it in sublime terms himself when he says to Dent, “I am just a mad dog chasing cars.”
Until the framework breaks.
What happens next is the deconstruction of the white knight: how Harvey Dent’s approach simply cannot work in the context of chaos and social frenzy brought on by the Joker. Dent holds on for the longest time, while Bruce Wayne doubts his own role, as he naively sees himself as a white knight lurking in shadows. Alfred is the first one to point out the need for a new approach, that of realism: “Endure. You can be the outcast. You can make the choice that no one else will face - the right choice.”
And so, as the white knight of Gotham falls and becomes a creature of pure chance, the Dark Knight rises from its shadow.
Batman, who will spy on the whole of Gotham to get at his enemies. Batman, whom cops fear and accuse of murder. Batman, who must take upon himself the pain and anger of others so the city will endure. Gordon says it himself: Batman is not a hero. He’s a guardian.
Batman rises from the corpse of Harvey Dent like a malevolent shadow, prepared not to do what’s right, but what’s necessary. The Joker never won, and never lost; he is above this contest. He defines it, rather than play a part in it. Chaos has come and gone, and the balance is broken.
The Dark Knight is a morality tale, a conflict between two men in balance who see their roles crushed by the arrival of fate. It is a moral tale of the post-9/11 era, where good and evil simply dissolve in the face of chaos, and we are left to wonder how to reframe the world.
And that is why The Dark Knight is not the best superhero movie ever. It is something entirely different, much darker, and much more satisfying.
+ + +
Update [2008-07-22 18:30]: I just want to point out that I’m not dismissive of the source material, or of the medium of comicbooks here. I’m fairly well-read in comics, and my point was more addressed to the existing conventions of superhero movies. Thing is, superhero movies, even when excellent, follow a fairly simple superhero formula. The Dark Knight, in my opinion, really transcends this formula, and offers a story that is set in the superhero genre, but well outside the superhero movie formula. The title of this post was specifically chosen to counter expectations, but loses in clarity. Hope that makes more sense.
Posted under Entertainment by Daniel on 21.07.2008
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BioWare, being the awesome, nerd-friendly company that it is, has treated us to private showings of Second Skin. The documentary on the lives of a few MMORPG hardcore players has received positive reviews from the MMO community, so I was eager to take a look at it.
I have to admit I’m disappointed in Second Skin. It purports to present an unbiased view of the subject, and while the lack of preaching on the dangers of game addiction was refreshing, I felt neither side had a coherent argument to present. As a result, I didn’t feel the movie offered any insight on why MMO players play the game and build relationships with fellow players.
It got me thinking, though.
I’ve known a fair share of hardcore players addicted to the online gaming lifestyle, both in my MUSH days in University, and more recently while playing WoW. While Second Skin didn’t offer any outrageous tale I hadn’t heard before, it got me thinking on how close I’ve flirted with online gaming addiction myself.
You see, I did do the online dating thing myself, way back when. I’ve flown to a few cities in the US in the hopes of transforming an online romance into something tangible. These attempts never imploded violently as much as they fizzled out; online gives you the illusion of proximity for a while, and then you meet face-to-face and realize there’s still a chasm to cross to truly be close. Online worlds aren’t so much alternate realities, as much as a refuge from the one reality we all live in. It’s not to say I haven’t made dear friends over the Internet (some of my longest-lasting friends I met through social gaming), but these friendships grew into something concrete once pulled out of their gaming context, instead of existing solely through online.
Ultimately, that’s the lesson I took away from online social relationships. They are real, and sometimes very significant, but they exist in a space that’s a refuge from the real world. And when a relationship exists in a place of comfort away from the rigors of the real world, it’s hard for that relationship to exist in the real world you’re trying to escape in the first place. I’m glad to say online dating is something I moved away from quite a few years ago.
I don’t know what prevented me from truly falling into online addiction myself. I mean; I did, for a while at least. Helene would surely agree that she had to put with some grief during those times when I was obsessed with World of Warcraft. But somehow, these things passed, perhaps because I never tolerated that they would put real elements of my life at risk. Somehow, this has prevented me from falling down the cliff, where my real life would have slowly eroded around me. Something inside me forced me to keep my life and play in balance.
That’s the kind of reflection I would have liked to see in Second Skin, I think. Not some self-professed expert exhalting the values of “synthetic worlds”. Not a Dolores Umbridge-like videogame addiction “expert” still seeking revenge on games for the death of her son. (Although the tragedy of that story - of how a geek seeking solace in videogames was persecuted by a concerned mother - was pretty haunting.) I would have liked Second Skin to truly take a hard look at online worlds, and understand its illusory promises and limitations all at once.
Because beyond all that, there is a reason why we game. It is neither a simple addiction nor a utopia of acceptance, but a social phenomenon all in itself, a symptom of an information age where, as Gordon Walton of BioWare Austin puts it, we are estranged from our neighbors against all conventions of human social instincts. Online worlds are the new tribes of the Information Age. They exist in World of Warcraft and Second Life, but they took root way before them, in BBSes and newsgroups.
And, I’m afraid, the exploration of this reality by traditional media has been merely skin-deep.
Posted under Gaming by Daniel on 18.07.2008
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Daniel Roy. I realize this is a pretty common name… And it does make it much harder to Google myself than if I were named, say, ‘Jelatinous Marcelathon’. But Google myself I did… And I found out there are many, many Daniel Roys out there.
They’re all obviously my evil clones. Here they are.
MIT Daniel Roy
Website: http://web.mit.edu/droy/www
Why he’s evil: He’s a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at MIT, dealing with the “intersection of computer science and probability”. If that doesn’t sound like the evil plot for the bad guy of the next Die Hard, I don’t know what is.
Further proof of evilness: 15-year cello player; uses a Dvorak keyboard; uses the word ’skillz’ in his curriculum vitae
DanielRoy.com
Website: http://www.danielroy.com
Why he’s evil: He registered the domain name danielroy.com and puts a simple page with broken links on it. Obviously an AI trying to pass as a human being.
Further proof of evilness: Wrote Facebook applications; registered the domain name danielroy.com so I couldn’t get it; also has danielroy [at] gmail [dot] com.
Cajun Daniel Roy
Website: http://www.johnnycajun.com/daniel.htm
Why he’s evil: He plays mandolin in a Cajun band. I mean come on.
Further proof of evilness: Admits to having been created when somebody combined “extra firm tofu with Zycofax, and [added] half a cup of muddy water”. Oooook. Also, uses the words ‘overflowing cornucopia’ in his bio.
Emo Daniel Roy
Website: http://profile.myspace.com
Why he’s evil: He’s Emo. ’nuff said.
Further proof of evilness: Spells his name “DaNiEl RoY”; current occupation is “Shop Floor Assistant and Return Operator”.
Director Daniel Roy
Website: http://www.usw.ca/program/content/921.php
Why he’s evil: He’s the “District 5 Director”. That makes him, like, a villain in a SF dystopia.
Further proof of evilness: Was born in Sept-île, where I was also born.
Poet Daniel Roy
Website: http://roydaniel.com
Why he’s evil: He’s a poet; that makes him automatically mad. Has published 17(!!!) poetry anthologies in French, which makes him possibly the most well-known of my evil clones.
Further proof of evilness: His website is roydaniel.com, which sounds like Daniel Roy from the Mirror Universe; he is a certified highschool teacher.
***
There are many more Daniel Roys out there, but the evilness of these ones is overpowering. I’ll get back to you when I find a way to return them to their evil, parallel dimension. Here’s a partial list of Daniel Roys I haven’t covered:
The Daniel Roy Corporation
Musician Daniel Roy
Semi-Pro Hockey Player Daniel Roy
Cowboy Daniel Roy
Fisherman Daniel Roy
Norwegian Daniel Roy
Muscle Daniel Roy
Australian Emo Daniel Roy
Daniel Roy III (I guess he’s a Pope or something)
So many Daniel Roys, so little time…
Posted under Silliness by Daniel on 17.07.2008
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Whether you think Gamerscore is relevant or not, X360 Achievements are now part of the console gaming landscape. Yeah, they can be gamed, and no, a Gamerscore is not an indication of anything besides time spent playing games. But there’s something strangely satisfying about seeing the words “Achievement unlocked” pop on your screen.
Myself, I admit to being driven by Achievements when they are well thought out. If an Achievement prompts me to accomplish something I consider fun or challenging, I will go out of my way to get it. What I won’t do is pick up a game solely for its easy Achievements (although I did play Peter Jackson’s King Kong - the easiest 1,000 Gamerpoints I got), or go out of my way to get a difficult Achievement.
I played Half-Life 2, Episode One, Episode Two and Portal on PC, and I finished them all. Recently, however, I purchased The Orange Box, in the hopes it might get Helene to play Half-Life 2, since she’s not a PC gamer. (Yeah, it means I paid twice for the same game package, but Valve deserves it, I guess.) Anyway, I found myself playing through Portal again, for the fun of it… And then I started getting Achievements.
The Achievements alone made me play through the entirety of Half-Life 2 and both episodes. They’re that well-done, in my opinion.
The way I see it, the Achievements of a game play two key roles:
- Provide small, incremental reinforcement as a player progresses through the game;
- Encourage the player to toy with elements of the game off the golden path, such as easter eggs, or simple yet rewarding exploits.
With that definition in mind, I believe The Orange Box has the best Achievements available on Xbox 360.
When playing Half-Life 2, Episode One, Episode Two and Portal, the core of The Orange Box’s Achievements constitute a breadcrumb trail that rewards you in a small way whenever you reach a key point in the story. The Achievements laid out on the main path are always there at key moments where you accomplished something a bit tricky or intense. Beat a boss, or resisted a major assault, and the “Achievement unlocked” message adds to the reward of having accomplished that particular segment of the game.
Then there are the secondary elements of the game that are rewarding in their own right; these are not necessary to accomplish the game, but they’re clever and rewarding, and the Achievements encourage you to seek them out. These include killing 30 enemies with thrown physical objects, running over enemies with your car, stealing a grenade from a Zombine, fall 30,000 feet in Portal… the list goes on.
These Achievements have pretty much defined my playthrough on the Xbox 360. Whenever I got to a new section of the game, I brought up the Achievement list to see if there was something there I could accomplish. Some of them made me aware of small easter eggs in the game I would have otherwise missed, such as the Half-Life HEV recharging plate in Eli’s scrapyard, or the infamous garden gnome you can actually launch into space in Episode Two.
Add to it the constant reinforcement of the breadcrumb Achievements, and I was hooked from the moment I re-entered City 17, to the final moments of Episode Two. Even worse, I’m considering going back to pick up some Achievements I missed. How’s that for Achievements enhancing replay value?
Another thing that Valve has done exceptionally well with The Orange Box is the in-game Achievement list, complete with pop-ups that show you progress at key points. For instance, let’s say you’re going after the Achievement where you kill 30 enemies with physics objects; at 10 and 20 enemies killed, you’ll get a pop-up notifying you of your progress in that particular Achievement.
Truly, whenever the topic of X360 Achievements comes up on games I produce, I’ll have to keep The Orange Box in mind. Its Achievements are simple yet very thoughtful, and they contribute to my overall experience with the game. We’ve come a long way from the “Here’s 1,000 Gamerpoints for finishing our game”. I’m looking at you, King Kong.
Posted under Gaming by Daniel on 15.07.2008
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I don’t know about you, but there are days I wake up and feel like I’m living in my own future.
So lately I’ve been plagued with gum problems because of plaque. My dentist recommended I get an electric toothbrush, as they help remove plaque deposits. Yesterday, after my dentist appointment, I decided this might well be the solution that would help me improve my dental health. So I splurged.
“This is the most fancy model,” the receptionist told me.
“I hope it’s also effective,” I said with a smile. She assured me it was.
And so, I got home with my Oral-B Triumph, not realizing I had just added a very techno-geek gadget to my collection.
First things first: yes, this is a very effective toothbrush. I used it for only a day, and I’m amazed at how clean it leaves my teeth. Most of the reviews on the web agree, having seen a major improvement in dental health after 6 months use. So this makes it a very useful toothbrush to have. But is it fancy also? Hell yeah. This is a toothbrush for nerds.
How nerdy is this toothbrush? It actually has wi-fi. In the manual are instructions for turning off the radio signal for, say, boarding a plane. Ladies and gentlemen, I now possess a toothbrush that is forbidden to use during takeoffs and landings, or around pacemakers.
The wi-fi signal is used to hook to a gizmo called the Smart Guide. This is a wireless, battery-operated device that monitors your brush’s use when in range. It tells you things such as remaining battery power, and brush setting (clean, gentle, massage and some crazy all-out super-cleaning setting). It also tells you if you’re pushing too hard on your teeth with the brush, and, of all things, monitors your time spent brushing to make sure you spend a good 2 mins cleaning your teeth.
And so, unwittingly, I’ve gotten myself the perfect combination of useful tool, and absolutely unnecessary gadget. You know the kind that makes your girlfriend frown, but then you explain that honey, you absolutely need to have a PDA Phone with a videoconference camera, and how did we ever live without one?
Cleaner teeth through feature creep: that’s dental hygiene, the geek way.
Posted under Tech by Daniel on 13.07.2008
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I don’t know what took me so long, but I finally got around to reading the classic Ender’s Game. It’s an amazing book, and I’m glad I finally read it. Please check out my review!
Posted under SF by Daniel on 13.07.2008
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A really cool and nifty novel, that a good friend of mine, Alain, recommended to me. If you’re looking for a quirky, fresh yet tone-perfect take on the superhero genre, I strongly recommend Austin Grossman’s Soon I Will Be Invincible.
Posted under SF by Daniel on 08.07.2008
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I developed a financially unhealthy habit of taking cabs in Shanghai, and have been unable to shake the addiction once in Montreal; even here in Edmonton, I still cab on occasion. Thing is, I love taxi drivers. They meet all sorts of interesting people, and often lead fascinating lives themselves.
Last week, in a moment of weakness, I took a cab home. The cab driver was in his fifties, and spoke in a slow, relaxed voice, smiling easily. And he felt he should pitch me his marketing genius right then and there, in the event that I might have a spare million to throw at him.
It went something like this:
Cab driver: “So, what do you do?”
Me: “I make videogames.”
“Ooooh… You must be making millions!”
“Heh. I wish. If I did, I’d stop working.”
“How do you distribute your games? How do you sell them?”
Definitely not a videogame player, then… I explain to him how videogames are sold: in boxes, on the shelves of stores. But that’s not what he was asking about.
Him: “Thing I don’t get is how you convince people to buy them. With music, it’s easy: you hear a few seconds of a song, and you know if you like it. For movies, you can watch a clip on YouTube. But games? How you sell the game itself?”
Ok, he’s got me there. This is actually a pretty damn good question. I explain to him how there are demos, but they take a long time to download. How some specialty websites become trusted sources of judgement on gameplay, so people look at previews and reviews to judge a game without ever playing it.
Him: “But you see, that’s not for people like me. I don’t want to go to a website, read a review, then buy a game and play it at home. Videogames are for nerds and weirdos!” Haha, ouch! “I can’t sit at home and play games, my wife will yell at me.”
At this point, it’s painfully obvious that this guy is not part of my target audience, as it may be. But I always find the perception of non-gamers to be very interesting, so I listen politely and nod.
“What you need to do is set up your games in bars. Like Pac-Man! Or those old pinball machines.”
This, ultimately, is my taxi driver’s master plan: bring back the arcade to bars. At this point, I thought he was insane, and whenever I try to explain that there are still, in fact, arcade games out there, he talks to me about Pac-Man again.
Except I have this annoying habit of really giving the people I talk to the chance to be heard out, and I try to ask myself, what if they’re right?
What this guy’s point was, he isn’t being reached at all by the videogame market. But he was, once, a long time ago: back in the times of Pac-Man. For all the talks about casual players entering the fray, this guy is the most casual of casuals. He’s never gonna sit at home with a controller to play a 20-hour game, however “accessible” I make it. I don’t think the Wii or the DS cut it either.
So what’s the way to reach this audience with videogames? Thinking about it, he’s already reached, but perhaps he doesn’t know about it. Perhaps he throws the occasional coin into a video-poker machine. Or perhaps he picked up that plastic rifle at the pub and shot a few bucks. (Yes, we have hunter arcade machines in pubs in Edmonton. Not the most un-redneck thing around.)
The truth is, when we talk about videogames, we talk about a very small subset of electronic entertainment, even when we start including casual gaming. We’re talking about home entertainment, distributed for use on the PC or some form of handheld or home console. There’s an entire segment out there that reaches people that never heard of an Xbox. Heck, even the quiz machine at the pub downstairs is a form of electronic entertainment.
The arcade is a dying form, relegated to the dark corners of shopping malls. What happened to it? Most of the games nowadays are less-than-stellar, involving either simple beat-em-up gameplay, or some sort of plastic gun. Is there a way to bring better gameplay to these? And what is “better”? Do better graphics matter? Does it matter than the game does little more than tease you long enough for you to throw a few quarters at it?
I don’t really know. All I know is that videogames are not ubiquitous as music, partly because we have a very specific way of thinking about them, and the hard thinking about alternate means of distribution is left to the video poker and bar quiz machine makers of this world.
As for my taxi driver, maybe he’s the marketing genius he tried to sell himself as. If that’s the case, he’s years ahead of the game. Or years behind.
Or both.
Posted under Gaming by Daniel on 08.07.2008
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One of my purposes in creating this blog has been to write about my work. I have been doing very little of that in the last months, and there’s a simple reason for this: I’m working on an unannounced project, which means every little piece of information could be damaging in the long-term to the marketing of the game I’m working on.
It’s not to say I won’t ever talk in details about my work… I did so back in Shanghai, in the last year of Splinter Cell Double Agent, and the reception both from friends, readers and people at Ubisoft was very positive. This will come much later, though, for in the meantime, this is completely a black operation. I can only tell you what my project is not: it’s not Dragon Age, and it’s not the MMO.
That being said, I do want to tell you a bit about my work at BioWare.
I’ve been at BioWare in Edmonton for 5 months already, and it pretty much feels like home. Since my project is in its early stage, I have a fairly small team, which means I get to build it from the ground up with the team culture I want. People on my team are enthusiastic, hard workers, and extremely talented. Our project is ambitious and exciting and everyone believes in its potential.
BioWare itself is a fantastic organization. The purchase of BioWare by EA has affected some of the administrative practices of the studio, but we remain completely independent from a creative standpoint. So no, you won’t see Madden RPG 2009 come out of BioWare… Hehe. On the contrary, being part of EA’s extended family means we have access to incredible technical resources. There’s a world of technologies and resources out there to leverage. Good stuff.
When I first visited BioWare, I had a feeling that things were different here from other companies I had previously seen. The last five months pretty much confirmed this impression. It’s both a testament to the vision of its CEOs, Ray and Greg, but also probably due in part to Western Canada’s open and honest culture; but BioWare is a company filled with humble yet ambitious people who try and work things out together. My work environment has been pretty much drama-free since I got here.
That’s not to say the studio doesn’t have some issues… What matters most is the way people decide to address them, with humility and a genuine drive to produce great games. I don’t have a lot of bad things to say about BioWare, to be frank; part of it might be that I’m still in the “honeymoon period”. Maybe. But as far as first impressions go, this work environment makes me feel I made the right decision to move to Edmonton. We’ll see how I feel about it in a year!
Posted under BioWare by Daniel on 07.07.2008
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I recently had the chance to reread the dystopian novel Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. Did you know that it was written in 1932? If it had been written in the eighties I would have found it pretty good satire, but from the thirties, this story of a future world where babies are born in bottles, and everyone is drugged into happiness, is chillingly prescient.
Posted under SF by Daniel on 02.07.2008
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