Psychoanalytical
Paper
Psycho-Eziolitical:
Ezio as a Vessel
Ryan
Harvey
Dr.
Gerald Voorhees
Com
342
3/24/10
In Assassins Creed 2 there are over 35 different weapons that the
player can use to kill their enemies. Assassins
Creed 2 is a game of opportunities that players can explore to their heart’s
content. When looking at Assassins Creed
2, through a psychoanalytical lens, broad desires of control and
empowerment can be identified from within a Ezio that provides freedom of
movement as well as the many weapons it lets the players acquire. The game lets players enter a vessel of
exploration and fulfillment as they move through this open world as the main character,
Ezio. Helen Kennedy psychoanalyzes Lara
Croft: Tomb Raider, and the same can be done for Assassins Creed 2. She identifies the desires, identifies what in
the game satisfies those desires and then looks at the constitutive effects,
and this is what will be done to Assassins
Creed 2.(Lara Croft)
Assassins
Creed 2 is an adventure game that takes place both in the
past and the future. In the time of Leonardo da Vinci, you’re an assassin whose
father and brothers have been killed and you are out for revenge. Players play
as Ezio who lives in fifteenth-century Italy, but moves around the Venice,
Florence and Tuscan countryside. Desmond Miles is who players will play as in
the future (2012). He has been hooked up to the Animus 2.0 which lets other Non
Player Character’s look at your genetic memory. The player will use it to
search Ezio’s genetic memory and this is how players experience life as Ezio.
Players can do many things during the game such as find many hidden items.
Players can bring codex pages to Leonardo da Vinci so he can make new weapons
for you. They can also upgrade Ezio’s family villa, change the color of his
outfit, complete tons of side missions or just explore the incredibly detailed
world that Assassins Creed 2 provides
them with. When Ezio gets hurt, he can be healed by street doctors with
medicine. The free running capabilities are a staple to the games uniqueness. The
variety of fighting maneuvers and their implementation only adds to the
complexity of this game. The player ultimately wins the game by going through
the motions to defeat the people who betrayed his family. (Assassin's Creed II)
An urge that a person
might feel is the desire to control the space that they live in. The desire to
move, almost limitlessly, throughout an environment and perform stunts that
come with almost no consequence. A desire to see the world from all kinds of
perspectives and not be tied to the traditional means of transportation
provides a new outlook. This kind of movement would change how everyday
activities are performed. This desire to take control over the space around a person
is most likely from restrictions that are placed on them in real life. When
people are confined all day, they go home and want to get out and explore. Assassins Creed 2 provides an
opportunity to fully explore a virtual representation of 15th
century Italy. Someone who is limited
by a physical handicap that impairs movement probably shares this desire. If
they could move around their environment flawlessly scaling walls and jumping
from high towers, their handicap wouldn’t exist and they would be free.
Therefore, player’s desire to control their environment to benefit them, is
fulfilled.
Another person may want
to control their environment in a different way, someone who wants to release
anger and frustration and longs for a variety of ways to do so. The craving to
take out frustrations about annoying people or situations on evil people or
maybe anyone that gets in your way is common since frustrations are everywhere,
even though most just hold them in. The way people release their frustrations
can be unhealthy and dangerous. The desire to control the people around themselves
in this way shows the control issues that exist in real life. Ultimately, I
believe these longings are the desire for confidence and empowerment. These
issues most likely revolve around people that don’t get shown enough respect, or
maybe they are just constantly annoyed, belittled and asked to do other work.
But the desire to do something about it cannot always be filled in real life so
taking it out into the virtual world is a good way to express these
frustrations.
More desires that a
person might be trying to fill, are
power and control in and of their life. These desires arise when people don’t
feel powerful enough or in control of their own lives. Maybe they don’t get the
credit they deserve or the position they’re in doesn’t let them express
themselves as much as they would like to. The player might be very wary of the
outside world, all the hazards and stresses it contains can be very
overwhelming. At any rate they are not feeling powerful or in control enough of
their own lives and need something to ground them that will help strengthen
their shortcomings. The means in which these desires are fulfilled is identity tourism.
Lisa Nakamura, describes, in her article Reading
Digital Culture, the term as, “the process of appropriating another
identity on the web, and more specifically, an identity involving another
gender and/or race than one's own”.(238-237) This notion of identity tourism
within Assassins Creed 2 lets players
experience a lifestyle that, to most people would only exist in their dreams. The longing to take on another persona and
live in another person’s skin is very common and Assassins Creed 2 is not the first game that lets players immerse
themselves into an alternate routine. But the hero of Assassins Creed 2 provides a unique look into a protagonist
lifestyle. Assassins Creed 2 provides
a view from an assassin in fifteenth-century Italy. To tour this identity is to
feel the power that Ezio contains at his fingertips.
All of these desires
come down to one person, Ezio. He is the vessel that players will use to
conquer their desires and fill the gaps that exist in real life. These desires
may be unconscious or conscious, but either way people are drawn to this game
for one reason or another and that’s because of how much this game has to
offer. It offers the control and empowerment that comes with being Ezio.
Miroslaw Filiciak describes a hyperidentity, in his article Hyperidentities, as, “a complex
structure that we update incessantly by choosing from the multitude of
solutions”.(Miroslaw) The players will use Assassin
Creed 2 take on another self and connect with themselves in a way they
hadn’t before. Miroslaw talks mostly about MMORPG’s, but even though you cannot
creat your own character he still does what you say. This lets players become
Ezio in a way. Ezio has the power to scale tall buildings, kill anyone that
gets in his way or be a hero. He has the power to stick to the main mission or
complete every side mission and objective. But it is the player that controls
him; Ezio offers the player his power but the player must provide the control.
Ezio provides the player with power which the player must control to make
themselves feel empowered. They use his abilities to fill the gaps that exist
in their real world lives by controlling Ezio’s actions, by existing for a
short period of time through someone that they are not. It helps players to realize
their own potential, relieve unhealthy tension and fulfill desires from which
real life lessons can be learned.
Players of Assassins Creed 2 can use the freedom of
movement the game provides to fill their desires of control in real life. Ezio
has free running abilities beyond comprehension and this allows him to move
around his environment very easily. When someone in real life cannot move as
normal people do they need this escape to overcome their frustrations. They can
escape into Ezio as a vessel of movement and explore a world that they couldn’t
in real life. Using him to complete impossible feats of acrobatics that even
normal people without handicaps will have a hard time completing. This desire
to control the environment and make it yours to use in any way you see fit is
easily fulfilled by controlling Ezio. Imagine moving like Ezio around Venice,
Florence and Tuscan country sides that a lot of people will never get a chance
explore. Ezio is a vessel of escape from the mundane scenery that most people
have to experience every day. When people come home from work or school, the
strong willed capable character in Assassins
Creed 2 that has the ability to explore cities using nontraditional means
proves very appealing.
Players want to
experience violence in ways that they couldn’t have in previous games. A look
at some of the most popular digital games played today reveals that violence
sells. Aside from tons of people enjoying these kinds of games they aren’t as
bad as some may want you to believe, they can be used for good. Dr. Helen Smith
who has evaluated thousands of violent minors for tons of organizations states.
“Not one young person in my experience has ever been made violent by media
influence. Young people who are already inclined to be violent do feel that
violent media speaks to them. A few do get dangerous ideas from it. But more of
them find it to be a way to deal with their rage.”(The Sacred Heart) Video
games can be used as a healthy means to release stress and tension caused by
people or situations at work or school is to play video games. With Assassins Creed 2, players can use many
weapons to unleash their frustrations. When people get picked on or belittled
even though they have not earned it, it upsets people. If you aren’t a big
strong, person that doesn’t mean that you can’t get what you want and deserve.
It is all about taking control and feeling empowered enough to express the
confidence needed in any situation. In the game, you instantly know how to
disarm your opponent and attack him with his own weapon, that is taking control
and showing them who is boss. Playing this game will allow people to explore
their faults, like not having confidence in their abilities, by giving them the
means to take on any challenge. Players can also release this anger by hurting non-existing
evil people and complete tasks that give them the confidence that they
require.
When you control Ezio
you become him. Playing Assassins Creed 2
as a form of Identity tourism captures all the desires that Assassins Creed 2 can fulfill. When
people cannot physically express themselves they can take on the identity of
Ezio and perform acrobatics. This empowers the person that is playing and that
is what identity tourism for this game is all about. People who desire the
feeling of empowerment play as Ezio because he is a great protagonist. He has
to avenge his family by becoming an assassin, now who doesn’t want to do that?
It would be hard to find many gamers that wouldn’t. Playing as this character
that can do so many things that the average population cannot do is very
empowering. Players take advantage of this character’s abilities to fit their
desire. Although he is a male Italian character, women players share a lot of
common desires with the men playing this game. An escape to a world where you
aren’t handicapped and can scale buildings fulfill a desire of control and
ability. The person who plays this game and has this desire takes out of their
game play a feeling of accomplishment. They can say they did all these things
because they inhabited the body of Ezio. Even if you aren’t handicapped the
ability to control the environment around you in this way provides an escape
from an otherwise unpredictable world. When you scale a building and perform a
leap of faith into a bale of hay you are certain that you won’t die, when you
play Assassins Creed 2. This sort of
control can bring a calmness and fulfillment to players that have trouble
living in a world that provides environmental challenges. They take out of the
game, what problems they can overcome and bring to/in the game that betters
themselves. Playing as someone who has no problem moving can provide the push
needed for someone to start heading towards a goal where they can move without
their body holding them back as it does currently.
When people aren’t
getting the respect they deserve it may not always be other peoples fault. If
their work shows they deserve a raise but they don’t go after it because they
are scared of responsibility or pressure they need confidence. Completing the
tasks in the game helps to build confidence in a person. The bonus of Assassins Creed 2 being a big world
where a lot sand box aspects come into play can help them relieve real life pressure
by letting players have freedom from a linear game. Playing as Ezio and taking
on his identity can empower players while they complete the tasks in the game
to take on challenges in real life. Beating challenges in the game only helps
players to realize their capability outside of the game. The game has a great
AI system built in that can be taken advantage of. If a player just wants to
blow steam, they can by killing every AI they see, and this is a safe and
successful way to come back to reality recharged and empty of frustration.
Assassins
Creed 2 offers Ezio as a vessel of exploration through a
world much different than our own. Playing as Ezio allows players to take on
their desires in a fantasy world where players can be something different for a
change, allowing them to explore what it is like to fulfill those desires. A
psychoanalytical approach to Assassins
Creed 2 reveals its effectiveness at satisfying desires because the main
character has many traits and abilities that feed the desires of empowerment,
control and confidence through identity tourism.
Works
Cited
Assassin's Creed II: the Complete Official Guide.
London]: Piggyback Interactive, 2009. Print.
Filiciak, Miroslaw. The Video Game Theory Reader.
Ed. Mark J. P. Wolf and Bernard Perron.
New York: Routledge,
2003. Print.
Kennedy, Helen W. "Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or
Cyberbimbo? On the Limits of Textual
Analysis." Game
Studies - Issue 0902, 2009. Dec. 2002. Web. 04 Apr. 2010.
<http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/kennedy/>.
Nakamura, Lisa. Reading Digital Culture. Ed. David
Trend. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2001.
Print.
Smith, Helen. The Scarred Heart: Understanding and
Identifying Kids Who Kill. Knoxville,
Tenn.: Callisto, 2000.
Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment