Before moving on to Disco Elysium, let's go back 100 years. In the 1910s and 20s, Lev Kuleshov demonstrated the effect of film montage - depending on the comparison of two frames placed side by side, a new meaning appears. Kuleshov shot a close-up of the actor's face, and then 3 more shots: a bowl of soup, a girl in a coffin and a girl on the couch.
Depending on which pair of frames was shown to the audience, the perception also changed. The audience thought the man was hungry (a bowl of soup), sad (a girl in a coffin), or charmed (a woman). But in fact, the facial expression of the man in all cases was the same, only the first shot was different. This psychological effect, called the Kuleshov effect, shows how the content affects the extracted meaning.
The Kuleshov effect appears in branching game narratives and serves two purposes: first, to make choices impressive, and second, to limit the story.
Example. The character will betray the protagonist at a certain point in the plot. The player can make choices that affect their relationship with that character:
- "Good": The player helps him, and the character reacts kindly. When betrayal occurs, this character becomes a manipulative schemer.
- "Bad". The player harms him, and the character distances himself. How is the character perceived in this case? He is an expected traitor.
To limit the plot, in the Kuleshov effect, the player's choice can be classified as a contextual "shot" (first "shot" = a bowl of soup). Betrayal is a "shot" interpreted in context (the second "shot" = the man's face). The player is given free rein on the first, but not on the second. This helps us make decisions about what choices the player can make. For example, there can be no choice to kill a traitor because the second "shot" requires him to be alive. This limits how much influence the player can have on the story while allowing them to explore their own story.
Now back to Disco Elysium. This is an RPG, so like any other, it has character statistics. These are not your typical D&D stats like strength, wisdom, charisma, etc. 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 affect him. If you haven't played, you might be asking, "How can a player character be affected by empathy?". Answer: relationships.
Relationships are dialogue lines that are affected by your character's statistics. For example, if a character has high empathy, then it will pop up during a conversation like: "He's trying not to show, but he's upset by a corpse in the backyard." Then, when the player receives dialogue options, they rate them based on that empathy prompt. The funniest moments in the game happen when two stats offer different options. For example, if empathy tells you to sympathize because the character is on the verge of a breakdown, then authority advises to push him harder to do so.
Why is the choice in Disco Elysium so much more compelling than the betrayal example above? In the first example, the player's choice includes a contextual "shot". Inevitable betrayal is a "shot" interpreted in context. In Disco Elysium, contextual "shots" are relationships, so a dialogue choice can be a "shot", interpreted as "future shot". The player's choice is no longer a context. As a result: action with context creates meaning.
Relationships are the Kuleshov effect at the micro level. The dialogue options the player receives have their own context, influenced by their character's stats. The Kuleshov effect is not just a perception this time - the player can act on it.
Source: habr.com