Imaculata
Hero
I understand that. I just feel it's vague and weak.
I kind of understand where the Man in Black is coming from. It is one of the reasons I stopped playing Guild Wars 2.
Going on a small MMO tangent for just a bit, but GW2 was sold on the promise that the world could change. Instead of quests resetting and repeating every few minutes, like in most MMO's, the creators of GW2 promised a world that actually has dynamic events, where players affect and change the world. Once it turned out that this wasn't the case, I quickly found myself just as bored as the Man in Black. There were no stakes or consequences. Quests would reset almost as quickly as they had been completed, and thus the game had become exactly what the creators had promised it wouldn't be.
It is hard to feel like a hero when everyone is doing exactly the same heroic deeds as you, and the world immediately forgets about your heroic deeds the moment they are completed. It is obvious to me that the show takes its inspiration from MMO's, and it addresses a common problem with the genre. West World basically is an MMO. And much like in a videogame, nothing ever changes, and the challenges are all fake. There are no real risks.
This kind of explains why a lot of people embrace games like Dark Souls, where there is no hand holding, and you have to live with your choices. I don't feel the Man in Black's motives are weak. And I suspect many MMO players can probably empathize with him, even if he's presented as sort of a villain (I'm not convinced yet that he is a villain though).
The show tells us how the Man in Black started as a normal player, who was captivated by a wonderful illusion. He even fell in love with one of the hosts. But in the world of West World there are no coincidences. Any romance with a host is scripted and set up as a quest hook, just like in a videogame. I think the Man in Black thinks that Arnold had a different game in mind, and that is why he has been chasing this "maze" throughout the show. I've often found myself in the same position in MMO's, hunting after intangible secrets that no player may have discovered. As long as a game can maintain the illusion of mystery and surprise, it remains captivating. But once that bubble is shattered, it all falls apart.
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