9/11 and the Rise of Postmodern Video Games

I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that everyone knows where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001. It was a crucial moment in history, as the horrific events on this day took the lives of almost three-thousand people. The real world stopped for what felt like eternity, but as time went on and the US began to heal, there was a dramatic shift in popular culture that can still be traced back to this nightmarish morning.

I distinctly remember being at my brother's house, as we had woken up that morning with a plan to play video games all day. As we continued to put hours into the likes of Twisted Metal: Black and Onimusha Warlords, we had no idea what was going on until he had taken me home that day.

Alongside the likes of film and television, video games were affected by the events of 9/11 in some big ways. Multimedia became something quite different, both more caring about the feelings of others impacted by the attack, while also embracing a more cynical edge.

After the events of 9/11, the world of video games took a dramatic turn. It was a combination of games developing more complex, nuanced stories, in addition to modifying their contents out of respect for the victims and their families. Even today, this postmodern shift and golden age of video game storytelling has its roots in this truly fascinating era.

A Post-9/11 Video Game World

Pop culture has a way of reacting and adjusting itself to the world and its current events. In the 1970s, movies reacted fiercely to high-level corruption from their political leaders, replacing the traditional heroes of the past with downtrodden vigilantes and darker, seedier stories about violence and mayhem.

In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, Grand Theft Auto III was delayed by three weeks, as the team at Rockstar changed the color of the cop cars in order to make sure they didn't look like NYPD cars. Rockstar also removed a mission that referenced terrorists, and changed some dialogue that may have felt insensitive at the time. Brothers Sam and Dan Houser, founders of Rockstar, also considered canceling the game completely.

Across the industry, other games followed suit. Command & Conquer 2: Red Alert's cover art was altered, as the original showed a plane impacting the World Trade Center, while Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro was also delayed in order to remove any image of the twin towers. It was an industry in panic, as everyone was trying to make sure their game didn't have anything that may have caused any more emotional harm.

The Rise of Postmodernism in Gaming

It's important to really define what postmodernism is. If you go by the most widely accepted definitions, it's any work that seeks to dismantle what one would consider traditional narrative styles and techniques. The reliance on meta storytelling, a sort of wink-wink that yes, this is a story, is also a key ingredient in postmodern storytelling. Postmodern stories are also keen to use some sort of unreliable narrator, and characters that break the foundations of what is true or not.

The most obvious example of what I'd call a postmodern game is Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, which was also greatly impacted by the events of 9/11. Series creator Hideo Kojima and his team worked furiously to remove a scene where Arsenal Gear crashes into New York, as well as removing the World Trade Center from any skyline where it was visible.

Sons of Liberty ticks all these boxes. Kojima is using the world he already established in 1998's Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 in order to both break his bizarre world from a third-person perspective, yet also reinforce it earnestly by the game's end. It's a game well aware of its own silliness, and is seemingly one step away from declaring itself as a video game within the prose. Themes of simulation and virtual reality are at the crux of the game, as Kojima seems to come screaming out of the frame at every point to remind you of the truth.

This isn't to say that the entire industry turned into an art house indie film with a thematic focus, as there were still plenty of games that fit the traditional mold. Indeed, there were, and still are, far more games with traditional stories and heroes being made than ones that may be considered postmodern. In the years following 9/11, however, games were starting to become more postmodern even without realizing it.

I don't think anyone necessarily sets out to make a game in the postmodern style, it just kind of happens as a result of the storytellers involved. Sons of Liberty just opened the floodgates, as we saw more games with similar styles of narrative start to emerge. Games like Killer7 and BioShock were a couple of other key postmodern games from this era.

Contemporary Postmodern Games

Postmodern games started to really come into their own in the late 2000s, then exploded even more in the 2010s. Spec-Ops: The Line is a prime example of that, as it explores the horrors of war within the context of framing itself as a video game. It also uses themes of war as a way to examine video game violence, and while I understand those who consider it too heavy-handed, it's still a textbook example of a great postmodern game.

Both Portal and its sequel, Portal 2, are also excellent examples of postmodern narratives. Chell's journey through both games is complicated by a homicidal robot named GLaDOS, whose mere presence feels like some sort of rejection of traditional storytelling devices. She treats Chell's entire existence like a hostile video game, one that she seems to have a twisted fondness for. The sequel would double down on that, with a strong emphasis on the mockery of corporate overreach.

During the 2010s and certainly a fair bit of the 2020s, there have been some excellent examples of great postmodern games. Titles like NieR: Automata, The Stanley Parable, and the appropriately named YIIK: A Postmodern RPG are textbook examples of the concept. This style of storytelling is.

That being said, while I love this style of story, it's clear that the video game industry is healthy when everyone is making what they want to make. Were it not for a fateful day in New York City in 2001, it's possible that this style of game may not have ever come into vogue. Much like other entertainment industries, video games are a representation of the world around them, and that's exactly what allows us to reflect on our own lives in the wake of tragedy.