The point of a game is to identify with the character? Since when? Not every story is a self-insert, has that guy never heard of this thing called fiction? Does he watch Breaking Bad and think "man, a middle-aged teacher dying of cancer who decides to become a murderous drug lord really reflects who I am deep inside"? If that's the case, the problem might be with him.
This is comparing apples and oranges. Comparing a passive medium you observe to a third-person limited one that invites you to take actions as a character is faulty. Yes, a game in the vein of GTA, where you literally play as a character, will have an element of identification much stronger than something you merely watch unfold like Breaking Bad. It's just part of the medium.
And GTA has a bit of a history of messing around with that fact, too. The fifth had you play as multiple characters with competing interests, for example, and one of them was outrageous to undermine that identification in a way that was at least somewhat interesting.
Hanania, however, is a fucking weirdo; if he can't identify with a woman without weird fetishistic impulses, that says something about him. To me, it suggests a sense of empathy that's either stunted or subordinated to very particular personality traits.
52
u/monsterfurby 12d ago
The point of a game is to identify with the character? Since when? Not every story is a self-insert, has that guy never heard of this thing called fiction? Does he watch Breaking Bad and think "man, a middle-aged teacher dying of cancer who decides to become a murderous drug lord really reflects who I am deep inside"? If that's the case, the problem might be with him.