Tomb Raiders Traveler's Guide: Editorial

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	Lara Croft: Hero or Zero?
	Character Assassination	When you play video games, it seems to be practically a given that you will encounter some degree of violence in the game. One should expect that a gun toting action/adventure game like Tomb Raider ought to have some inherent violence. If violence is a problem for you, then you ought to be playing Tetris. Acceptable violence notwithstanding, there was actuallly some criticism from players in regard to the fact that Lara Croft shot down so many creatures, most of which are endangered or rare [ie. should be extinct], in the original Tomb Raider game. I think in that most of those criticisms were in jest. There was always a clear idea in my head when I played the original Tomb Raider game such that when I had Lara draw weapons it was primarily to address the situation which was: "kill or be eaten". In the occasional encounter with human enemies, it was clear that they were the hired gunmen of a ruthless enemy, and players felt no hesitation in blowing them away. However, players of the Tomb Raider II and Tomb Raider III games have noticed and commented on the amount of violence directed toward human enemies has increased dramatically in the sequels. We could get into the relative value of a human life versus an animal life, but that gets into the realm of religion, and is relevant to the topic at hand. The war that Lara Croft wages against those fanatical cultists in Tomb Raider II became permissible in the minds of the players because the cult initiated agression toward Lara and she was out to, once again, save the world. Now enter Tomb Raider III. So Lara blows away a few cannibals along the way. In a sense, we're face with "kill or be eaten" once again, however when Lara Croft trespasses on a US military base and stirs military police to react in force, shooting down these poor saps definitely touches a nerve with many players. What about museum guards in London? Lara pops holes in these poor slobs who stand in the way of her breaking into a museum and stealing an artifact. That's pretty cold. Gavin Rummery, programmer for Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider II even comments that Tomb Raider III has turned Lara Croft into a "genuine thief who kills any poor sucker who gets in her way".
	It's Just a Game	Some people will argue, "Hey chill, it's just a game." Others will go even further and ask the all important question, "Who bloody cares?" Well, I believe that game players do care. Tomb Raider fans care. Core Design and Eidos Interactive should care. Regardless of whether or not you believe the latest soda pop commercials that tell you that "image is nothing", the truth of the matter is that in marketing, image is everything. Tomb Raider loyalists continued to purchase the sequels for many reasons. One of which is the main character. Majority of Tomb Raider players like the fact that the main character can be thought of as the "heroine" of the game. If you examine most games on the market, very few games cast the main character as a villain. That makes sense doesn't it? Most of us want to be the hero (or heroine) don't we? If there is going to be senseless death and gratuitous violence, don't we want it to be because we are eliminating some evil hell spawn to save the world? In the latest game, our heroine appears to shoot fairly innocent people who are just trying to do their jobs (military police and museum guards). Do the level designers think that Lara's perceived character doesn't matter to the players? Well, the players noticed, and Lara's cold-blooded murder spree was a hot topic of discussion when Tomb Raider III was released. Clearly the players care, and that's why Core should care. If the percentage of people who currently purchase and play Tomb Raider become fed up with playing a game that takes the player to take the role of a murderous thief, and these consumers choose not to purchase the next sequel, then Eidos and Core will certainly feel it in their annual report. Tomb Raider launched a new genre of video games, but now other companies are putting their entries into the genre. If Core and Eidos wishes to capitalize on their share of that market, and yet are faced with delivering "more of the same", then they need to take care that whatever they deliver, be it the same or different, needs to be of the utmost quality and must be sensitive to what the player wants.
	The Spin Doctors	Since this is the age of spin, and everybody's doing it, so why shouldn't we? We at the Traveler's Guide weren't happy with the way the Lara Croft character was portrayed in her recent adventures. The character that we saw in the full motion video sequences of the original Tomb Raider game has lost her charm in the latest game. We took it upon ourselves to put a positive spin on Lara's latest adventures. We did this by simply writing a little fan fiction and inserting our text in our walkthroughs where we normally place cut-scene or full-motion video sequence transcriptions. Our hope was to portray the character as a heroine and not as a villain. Besides the main hero versus villain issue we strove, in our sometimes overly wordy plot additions, to portray the Lara Croft character as someone who is impulsive, brash, good-looking, and has a sense of style, but is also eccentric, insecure, lonely, moody and seeks external validation. We are in no way striving to portray her as a "real archaeologist", like "Professor Indiana Jones", but more of a "resourceful adventurer". Basically, we want to present the character as a human being and not some kind of caricature or a sociopath. We're out to reestablish the character we thought she had in the original Tomb Raider game. We made an effort to present heroic motivations for her actions rather than just a "magpie complex" as one familiar Tomb Raider player calls it¹, and we do it by simply adding a little plot to the game. We don't mind the violence too much. When juxtaposed against most other games, Tomb Raider is mild by comparison. We just want to feel better about the character we're asked to play. It is our hope that Core Design take care to defend Lara Croft's image in any future Tomb Raider games to come, and that they'll work at continuing to develop her character while remaining true to the Tomb Raider legacy.
	Hope Lives	In a recent chat session with developers of the additional levels for Tomb Raider 2 Gold, I caught an inkling that there would be at least one cut-scene at the beginning of the four additional levels. I'm glad that someone at Core/Eidos thinks that the plot is important and worth the effort to include, even for add-on levels. I know Phil Campbell, who was the level designer for the add-on levels for the original Tomb Raider Gold, is also the lead level designer for the Tomb Raider 2 Gold add-on levels. I want to encourage him to continue this trend of returning to the game play of the original Tomb Raider game while keeping the plot of the game a priority. As one person put it, it will be nice that if the new levels didn't seem like "Unnecessary Business". As always, you're welcome to agree or disagree. Let me hear what you think at ichou@trinity.westhost.com
	Footnotes: That individual is the familiar "snark^" who can be found prowling the alt.games.tombraider newsgroup.