Protagonist and Goal - analysing the Dead Rising series and my concept

A brief task that was set after the lecture was to look at a game in regards to:

What is the relationship between the main character and the goal?

Why does the character care about it?

Dead Rising 2

The main character, Chuck Greene, has two or three separate goals throughout the narrative: To give Katey Zombrex every 12 hours, to escape from the Zombie infested Fortune City in 3 days and finally to discover the truth of the outbreak.  The relationships between the main character and the goals within the game are closely tied to why he cares about them.

Katey Zombrex: Katey is Chuck’s Daughter and therein his relationship with the goal of giving her Zombrex – a rare, expensive and hard to find medicine every 12 hours. Why he cares stems from this. If he does not give his daughter Zombrex then she will become a zombie and essentially die so his unconditional love for his daughter keeps him driven for the goal of keeping her in medicine.

 Escaping from the Zombie infested Fortune City: His relationship with the goal, to escape is simply that he and his daughter are currently inhabitants within the city. He cares about achieving this goal because the city is full of dangerous elements – be it Zombies, Psychos and other outside factions like the military. If he stays with his daughter in fortune city, both of them are in a constant state of mortal peril so to get the two of them to a safer location is ultimately his aim. This can only be achieved by escaping the city.

Discovering the truth of the outbreak:  The outbreaks cause was essentially fabricated – with Chuck being framed for its cause, essentially creating the relationship between the two otherwise un-interacting elements of narrative. The character Chuck cares about discovering the truth because he needs to clear his name or he and his daughter will forever be hunted for a crime he didn’t commit. If he had not been framed it would not be likely that he would care much for discovering the truth of the outbreak, as he only cares about the safety of his daughter.

Dead Rising

Frank West has two goals in Dead Rising. Reach the Helipad at 12pm on his third day at Willamette Mall and discover the truth of the Willamette Outbreak. His relationship between the two goals is ultimately formed from his current position as an inhabitant of Willamette Mall.

The character cares for discovering the truth of the outbreak due to his career as a freelance journalist. Should he uncover the truth of what is happening at Willamette then it could make him a name in the outside world as a journalist – in addition to the monetary benefits of being the sole person with the ‘scoop’. Reaching the Helipad for Frank is reaching safety as his helicopter pilot will fly him out of the Zombie infested area at the end of the three days but only at that time. Without the helicopter evacuation, Frank would essentially be trapped in Willamette due to the military presence outside of the town.

Both of his reasons for caring about the goals are about his own life, be it the promise of riches and prestige in his career, or about surviving the Zombie Outbreak and escaping.

 

My Game Concept:

What is the relationship between the main character and the goal?

The main characters goal is to solve the mystery that was set to free himself from the game of Zork. His relationship is that he is a “player” of this game.

Why does the character care about it?

If he does not achieve his goal he will be killed, either by the bombs set up in the “dungeon” or by “The Dungeon Master” so ultimately why he cares is derived from his will and want to survive – nothing more or less. The character might begin to care for the sake of other NPC’s dependant on the player as he has the power to save everyone, but they are essentially all strangers so this is not the driving force behind his actions although he might not be the type to just let people die.

(In the antagonistic ending, the main character does not care about the goal – he is a twisted individual who only cares for experiencing the thrill of the game and is toying with all of the players/ wardens for the sake of his own satisfaction – which makes his personal goal that, getting enjoyment from the game: Zork. Still for the sake of play his goal would remain to free himself until the ending activates at the final stage of play.)