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Nier: Automata: android bodies, games that benefit from being games, fic rec
so Nier: Automata made me wonder about this too, with approximately equal amounts of fanservice
but what is "naked" for an android or cyborg
Blackwatch Genji is really not wearing any more clothing than a mask, he just doesn't have a lot of skin anymore; but essentially, he's naked, except that mechanical augmentations here don't read as nudity b/c they don't resemble human skin
Automata plays with bodies with more intent and less grace (b/c of the gender dynamics of the fanservice) but that honestly only made me compensate more in my headcanons, like: why would A2 even have any remaining lingerie (since it would be even more fragile than overclothes), is a lot of it essentially just painted on; their clothing is status and a form of personalization/depersonalization, but 1) do models chose their outfits? do individuals? do their builders? 2) is it actually "cloth" clothing or essentially armor; aren't all external elements of an android essentially armor; it's printed/assembled when they're printed/assembled, so is it just "more android body part, with different appearance, designed to mimic how humans looked"
in my head, I sincerely believe that most of the android "clothing" isn't a removable part separate from their body, it's just colored and/or shaped exoskeleton that wears in the same way as their "skin" would
Genji's Nomad & Bedouin skins also indicate obvious differences between "mechanical parts that make up my body" and "pieces of cloth I drape over it" that emphasize that a lot of his exterior that we see and consider "clothed" is just ... cyborg skin
nudity has a lot of vulnerability/decency/shame connotations for flesh-humans
what are the connotations for non-flesh; how does that alter definitions of nudity itself
???
#more feels than cogency at play rn but like naked robots and stuff? what's up with that??
Why NieR: Automata Could Only Work as a Game (Spoiler Analysis) by Writing on Games
"Is being a game fundamental to this game's narrative" is my favorite way to interrogate video games, and this is a fantastic example of asking the question when the answer is yes.
I actually quibble on a few important points; namely, I think Automota needed to push its mechanics-as-narrative trope further, specifically as regards respawn and quick-travel. Whoever enters an access point second should come out of an access point second, instead of the companion character magically teleporting to the destination; quick travel/respawn mechanics should change when the access point infrastructure is destroyed; chip configurations should be stored per character—despite all the emphasis on the absence of autosave, there's a lot of concessions made for convenience that undermine the conceit that the UI/mechanics represents the android experience.
I also want a closer examine of iterated consciousness, more of bridge between 9S′s experience in endings A/B to the beginning of C/D, more examination of the machine/android similarity (9S′s instability almost entirely revolves around interpersonal grief; there's not much room for reaction to worldbuilding revelations), there's many little wishes I could make here, but you get the gist.
I loved Automata, but I came away wishing it were more, that it noticed its immersion-breaking moments and pushed its themes further. But it still does so much to capitalize on an interactive medium, and that's super cool, and so is this analysis.
srsly tho, "make a list of games that actively benefit from being games/interactive media" is the best game (no redundancy intended):
Nier: Automata (mechanics, multiple ends, cyclical narrative)
999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors (the way the ending finally!! makes the connection between bad ends/player cumulative experience/player character knowledge)
Corpse Party (bad ends as fundamental worldbuilding, cumulative player experience as narrative)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (the sequel to end all sequels—proactively making player character expectation/experience/memory mimic player expectation/experience/memory from the first game)
Dark Souls series (talk about proactively engaging player culpability, cyclical structure, interrogating game structure as plot motivation)
The Path (culpability: the game—the player has to violate instructions to engage with the game; success is literally failure)
Bioshock series ("would you kindly" interrogating player autonomy + parallel worlds confronting player meta-experience)
SOMA (hinges on culpability, iterated experience, player's emotional reaction to player character's situation—this is the most this trope that this trope can be)
Loved (a little browser game, but does this quite well)
The Stanley Parable (game as construct, interrogating player autonomy)
Saya no Uta (almost a minor example, but the interactions between the endings the cumulative experience & those pivotal few decisions is everything)
Undertale (like, I don't care about this game a lot, but gotta admit it nails this)
shout-out also to Persona 3 & 4 and Dragon Age II & Inquisition, which don't hinge on player engagement with metanarrative or game as mechanic, but to use interactive medium as roleplaying experience to superb effect
Fic rec:
Took a Knife and Drove it Deep by AceQueenKing
I love Nier: Automata and it frustrates me, because it does so much but I want more; and I feel like I found a lot of that more in this—
—android bodies; the mind as extension of an android body, equally manufactured but more intimate, less accessible; life as an iterated experience, where the sequence breaks themselves are integral to, and as important as, the continuity
and these are all things the game does, but the game doesn't link sex to hacking to information sharing to an inevitable downfall to death; this ups the ante in a visceral, anguished way that I find profoundly enjoyable
but what is "naked" for an android or cyborg
Blackwatch Genji is really not wearing any more clothing than a mask, he just doesn't have a lot of skin anymore; but essentially, he's naked, except that mechanical augmentations here don't read as nudity b/c they don't resemble human skin
Automata plays with bodies with more intent and less grace (b/c of the gender dynamics of the fanservice) but that honestly only made me compensate more in my headcanons, like: why would A2 even have any remaining lingerie (since it would be even more fragile than overclothes), is a lot of it essentially just painted on; their clothing is status and a form of personalization/depersonalization, but 1) do models chose their outfits? do individuals? do their builders? 2) is it actually "cloth" clothing or essentially armor; aren't all external elements of an android essentially armor; it's printed/assembled when they're printed/assembled, so is it just "more android body part, with different appearance, designed to mimic how humans looked"
in my head, I sincerely believe that most of the android "clothing" isn't a removable part separate from their body, it's just colored and/or shaped exoskeleton that wears in the same way as their "skin" would
Genji's Nomad & Bedouin skins also indicate obvious differences between "mechanical parts that make up my body" and "pieces of cloth I drape over it" that emphasize that a lot of his exterior that we see and consider "clothed" is just ... cyborg skin
nudity has a lot of vulnerability/decency/shame connotations for flesh-humans
what are the connotations for non-flesh; how does that alter definitions of nudity itself
???
#more feels than cogency at play rn but like naked robots and stuff? what's up with that??
Why NieR: Automata Could Only Work as a Game (Spoiler Analysis) by Writing on Games
The idea of viewer culpability is something of an abstract concept in film and books. In games, however, it's mechanical. You're concretely complicit in what occurs. It's just that few games utilize this interactivity and the way it implies responsibility to such fascinating, eye-opening extent as Nier: Automata.
"Is being a game fundamental to this game's narrative" is my favorite way to interrogate video games, and this is a fantastic example of asking the question when the answer is yes.
I actually quibble on a few important points; namely, I think Automota needed to push its mechanics-as-narrative trope further, specifically as regards respawn and quick-travel. Whoever enters an access point second should come out of an access point second, instead of the companion character magically teleporting to the destination; quick travel/respawn mechanics should change when the access point infrastructure is destroyed; chip configurations should be stored per character—despite all the emphasis on the absence of autosave, there's a lot of concessions made for convenience that undermine the conceit that the UI/mechanics represents the android experience.
I also want a closer examine of iterated consciousness, more of bridge between 9S′s experience in endings A/B to the beginning of C/D, more examination of the machine/android similarity (9S′s instability almost entirely revolves around interpersonal grief; there's not much room for reaction to worldbuilding revelations), there's many little wishes I could make here, but you get the gist.
I loved Automata, but I came away wishing it were more, that it noticed its immersion-breaking moments and pushed its themes further. But it still does so much to capitalize on an interactive medium, and that's super cool, and so is this analysis.
srsly tho, "make a list of games that actively benefit from being games/interactive media" is the best game (no redundancy intended):
Nier: Automata (mechanics, multiple ends, cyclical narrative)
999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors (the way the ending finally!! makes the connection between bad ends/player cumulative experience/player character knowledge)
Corpse Party (bad ends as fundamental worldbuilding, cumulative player experience as narrative)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (the sequel to end all sequels—proactively making player character expectation/experience/memory mimic player expectation/experience/memory from the first game)
Dark Souls series (talk about proactively engaging player culpability, cyclical structure, interrogating game structure as plot motivation)
The Path (culpability: the game—the player has to violate instructions to engage with the game; success is literally failure)
Bioshock series ("would you kindly" interrogating player autonomy + parallel worlds confronting player meta-experience)
SOMA (hinges on culpability, iterated experience, player's emotional reaction to player character's situation—this is the most this trope that this trope can be)
Loved (a little browser game, but does this quite well)
The Stanley Parable (game as construct, interrogating player autonomy)
Saya no Uta (almost a minor example, but the interactions between the endings the cumulative experience & those pivotal few decisions is everything)
Undertale (like, I don't care about this game a lot, but gotta admit it nails this)
shout-out also to Persona 3 & 4 and Dragon Age II & Inquisition, which don't hinge on player engagement with metanarrative or game as mechanic, but to use interactive medium as roleplaying experience to superb effect
Fic rec:
Took a Knife and Drove it Deep by AceQueenKing
You never seem to remember until it is too late. It's only then you're given the option of remembering the bitter salt of 9S' tears, the burning pain of your wounds. You have lived and died with him far too many times.
I love Nier: Automata and it frustrates me, because it does so much but I want more; and I feel like I found a lot of that more in this—
—android bodies; the mind as extension of an android body, equally manufactured but more intimate, less accessible; life as an iterated experience, where the sequence breaks themselves are integral to, and as important as, the continuity
and these are all things the game does, but the game doesn't link sex to hacking to information sharing to an inevitable downfall to death; this ups the ante in a visceral, anguished way that I find profoundly enjoyable