The fourth wall is an imaginary wall that separates the audience from the story
We have seen it multiple times in media, whether it’s from movies, books or games. But what is it about this technique that makes it so scary every time that it’s used? Breaking the fourth is a dramatic technique used often in media when character’s display an awareness that they are in a work of fiction. By using this technique, it connects the character to the audience on a deeper level. It feels as if you have a deeper relationship with that character than the relationships that they have with the other on set characters because. It’s like looking into a part of their personality that other set character’s cannot look into.
I will be reading an article by Ken Miyamoto about this technique from a cinematic perspective, taking notes of key points and briefly expanding on them.
- Intimacy with the characters
When the fourth wall is broken and a character steps forward to talk to the audience, it comes off as alarming yet you can feel a connection being made with the audience. When that layer of character peels off it feels like you’re meeting the “real” character.
- Information and exposition
It can also be used to explain complicated terms and difficult information without having the facts watered down too much. This also allows the characters to give some exposition.
- To unsettle the audience
This technique is used more in horror or psychological horror movies; They often stare at the camera for an uncomfortably long period, which creates this uneasy feeling for the audience. It pulls the audience away from the cinematic experience and makes them feel as if the character is staring at them on the other side of a window.
Daryl Talks Games
However, what actually makes breaking the fourth wall so terrifying? I am now going to be dissecting why this feeling is weird and unnatural for us and how this tool can be used powerfully. To explore this question, I will be watching a video essay called “Why you get spooked by 4th wall breaks” by a YouTube channel called Daryl Talks Games, where he goes through the human psychology and why we give such visceral reactions to certain scenarios.
The channel uses a social experiment under the pretence that it’s a gameshow as a way to investigate anonymity, which was conducted by Derren Brown. In this experiment, there is a room with an audience wearing masks that have been given a device to choose either a good outcome or a bad outcome and Chris; A man who doesn’t know that he’s being recorded for the night. However, the subject of the experiment is not Chris, it is the audience.
Throughout the night, the audience tries their best to make his night a living nightmare, he gets drinks spilled on him, getting overcharged at the bar and accused of sexually assaulting a woman. From there on, the choices get more and more cruel, but of course, the audience chooses the less favourable outcome for Chris. Here, it becomes easier to tell that the audience does not care about Chris’ feelings or his safety, their intentions are sinister and twisted. All of these decisions were impacted because the audience were wearing masks, figuratively and physically. They were in a remote location away from Chris and do not know this man. These cruel decisions were easy for them to make because it was easy for them to hide themselves away and blend in with part of an audience. When people are anonymous, it’s easier to make them feel less responsible for their actions.
All of their choices were fine by them until Chris gets kidnapped- an outcome chosen by the audience- and tries to run away from the kidnappers and gets hit by a car, sending him flying. We see the audience gasp in horror and shock, realising that their carelessness had led up to this point. Fortunately for the audience, no one was harmed and they used a stunt double to pre-record the incident and the real Chris was compensated for the night.
The host then talks about the reason for their decisions being so sinister is due to “deindividualization”.
When someone is behind a screen, controlling someone else’s actions, you can do whatever you please because it’s not like you’re personally interacting with them, because the avatar/character are just pixels. Much like Chris not knowing that he’s in an experiment, Mario doesn’t know that he’s from a game and part of a multimillionaire franchise. Because of this very reasoning, it’s easy as players to manipulate characters however we want due to us having that mask of anonymity, which makes it more frightening when they finally break that wall.
Another reason for fourth wall breaks being so terrifying is something called “dual function of gaze”. Our eyes’ main function is to observe and we can also use our gaze to communicate with each other. When someone is near us, we are held accountable for where we choose to look, which is why you’ll rarely feel uncomfortable looking at someone’s Instagram pictures but when being opposite them in real life, you may have difficulty looking at them in the eye. When you’re playing a game, you’re free to look wherever you want on the screen without the fear of being judged. However, when the fourth wall starts to peel off, you’ll start to feel uneased when the character looks directly at you and may want to look away even when no one is really there.
Yet, fourth wall breaks can more threatening, when the character starts to display too much self-awareness of their situation. Ever wonder why we have monitors recording you in self-services? To answer briefly, this is because when we are aware that we are being recorded, it’ll make shoplifters less likely to steal. This makes sense, because when we are reminded of what we look like to everyone and the whole world, we are also reminded that our actions will be seen. Games, unlike movies have the opportunity to break the fourth wall that films can’t replicate, developers are given the opportunity to reveal something personal of the player. So when Monika from DDLC, calls you by your Steam name, you are reminded that you are being watched, not only that but you are also reminded of all the things you did behind the mask, removing the sense of anonymity. Before as the player, you probably were sitting down comfortably, but now you feel more responsible for your actions. When you play games, you don’t really think that your actions have consequences, but for the characters in the game, their entire world relies on you. Similarly in Undertale when the fourth wall crumbles, you are reminded that your actions matter in their world and the guilt consumes you and when it’s broken, you may even feel exposed for your actions.
Review a game that breaks the fourth wall
How can I use this technique to enhance my player’s experience?
In my game, I want to use 4th wall breaking as a way to connect the audience to the characters. Although I haven’t thought much about how I am going to utilise this technique in depth, there are still a few ways how I can incorporate this idea.
One of the ways is by using a horror scene and one of the characters become aware that they are in a game and aware that you are a player controlling an avatar; I can have the character stare at the screen and request the player for their “real name”. Another way I could use this technique is by creating a character that is the “funny character” and have them break the fourth wall, it creates this extra layer of depth and a feeling of unease and unnatural because this character is acting “out of script” and “aren’t supposed to do that”. The other idea I have is the Ring Leader break the fourth wall already but acts as a guide and have him break the fourth wall again but this time in a more unsettling way. E.G the ring leader teaches you how to play the mini games and he admits that he kills one of the NPCs and refers to them as NPCs.