Before we dive into Disco Elysium, let's rewind a hundred years. In the 1910s and 1920s, Lev Kuleshov demonstrated the Kuleshov Effect — a new meaning emerges based on the juxtaposition of two shots placed side by side. Kuleshov filmed a close-up of an actor's face, followed by three additional shots: a bowl of soup, a girl in a coffin, and a woman on a sofa.
Depending on which pair of shots was shown to the audience, their perception shifted. Viewers thought the man was either hungry (soup bowl), sad (girl in the coffin), or enamored (woman). But in reality, the man's facial expression was the same in all cases; only the first shot differed. This psychological effect, known as the Kuleshov Effect, illustrates how content influences the meaning extracted.
The Kuleshov Effect appears in branching narrative games and serves two purposes: first, to make choices impactful, and second, to limit the plot.
Example. A character betrays the protagonist at a certain point in the storyline. The player can make a choice that affects their relationship with this character:
- "Good": the player helps him, and the character responds positively. When the betrayal occurs, this character becomes a scheming manipulator.
- "Bad": the player harms him, and the character distances himself. How is this character perceived in that case? He is viewed as the expected traitor.
To limit the plot, in the Kuleshov effect, the player's choice can be classified as a contextual "shot" (the first "shot" = soup bowl). The betrayal is a "shot" interpreted in context (the second "shot" = the man's face). The player has freedom of action with the first, but not with the second. This helps us make decisions about what choices the player can make. For example, there cannot be a choice to kill the traitor because the second "shot" requires him to be alive. This restricts the influence the player can have on the plot while still allowing them to explore their own story.
Now let's return to Disco Elysium. It’s an RPG, so like any other, it has character statistics. These aren't your typical D&D attributes, like strength, wisdom, charisma, etc. The stats in Disco Elysium are empathy, encyclopedia, and authority. The more points a player invests in these skills, the better the character becomes at them, and the more they influence the character. If you haven't played, you might ask: "How can a player's character be affected by empathy?" The answer: relationships.
Relationships are dialogue lines influenced by your character's statistics. For example, if a character has high empathy, it will manifest in a conversation like: "He tries not to show it, but he is upset by the corpse in the backyard." Then, when the player receives response options in the dialogue, they evaluate them based on that empathy hint. The funniest moments in the game occur when two traits offer different action options. For instance, if empathy suggests showing sympathy because the character is on the verge of a breakdown, authority advises pushing him harder towards it.
Why is the choice in Disco Elysium much more convincing than in the earlier betrayal example? In the first example, the player's choice involves a contextual "shot." Inevitable betrayal is a "shot" interpreted in context. In Disco Elysium, relationships serve as the contextual "shot," allowing for dialogue choices to be a "shot" interpreted as a "future shot." The player's choice is no longer about context. As a result, an action with context creates meaning.
Relationships are the Kuleshov effect on a micro level. The dialogue options available to the player have their context influenced by their character's traits. This time, the Kuleshov effect is not just perception — the player can act upon it.
Source: habr.com
