 This week brings us a new God of War game, and in a stark departure from previous games in the series, the developers have attempted to do something bold and innovative. The new game tells a story about families and consequences, rather than just focusing on one really, really angry guy working out his pent-up aggression in the worst way possible. The story behind the development of this game is interesting, and we might visit it in detail in the future. Any game that starts as an official Lucasfilm script for an Emperor Palpatine prequel story is going to make for an intriguing tale. It's interesting to see how the developers have gone about building Kratos as a father to the younger Treyas. At the time of writing this video, the game hasn't arrived, so we have yet to see what much of the story will feel like, but the logic behind the decisions that created this game reflect a growing change within the gaming community as a whole. The point of this game, its central theme, is one of parenthood and of making mistakes. This is a far cry from the stories that were being told a decade ago within this medium. Speaking of the gameplay for the new God of War, creative director Corey Barlog explained the kind of experience that the studio is attempting to create. As a parent, when you mess up, you don't really mess up and everything stops. You kind of mess up and keep moving on and reflecting on all the dumb choices you make. With Kratos, he's a flawed human slash God who has made so many mistakes, but we sort of force you to just make those mistakes. He's placed in the situation where his mistakes are constantly reflected back at him in his kid. He is constantly mirrored and constantly reminded that he is trying to do something better. These themes of parenthood aren't just being touched on within God of War. Many prominent games in recent years have explored family, putting players in a position of parenthood as they care for a child, or even deal with their grown up offspring if they come face to face with the consequences of their actions. There are games like Dishonored 2 or Bioshock Infinite which focus on biological children, as well as games like The Last of Us or Telltale's The Walking Dead, which instead explore the importance of surrogate father figures as new families form in the wake of global disaster. This is to say nothing of dream daddy, the dating simulator that's all about dads. But let's leave that game to one side for this discussion. It's interesting to note that in almost all cases, the father figures involved are less than perfect. The games industry is very interested in exploring broken men in their quest to make things right with their children, as they try to evolve past their previous mistakes. So why is the games industry so obsessed with this theme at the moment? At least in part, this is a reflection of the designers that are making these games in the first place, as well as the players who are embracing these stories. Cory Barlog has been very upfront about where the inspiration for the new God of War's parenting focus came from. In a recent interview, he said, I had just had my son at the start of this game, and I was kind of looking at it like, oh wow, how much of myself do I want to show here? How much of my faults do I want to mask and cover up? And how many of the dumb things that I've done in my life do I want to prevent him from doing? And it's like, wow, that's Kratos. That's Kratos to a T. He has made the worst decision in his life, but he needs to be able to actually, honestly, be a parent. Video games have gone through a cutesy, colourful period of appealing cartoon mascots. As their audience grew up, a new generation of game makers rose up to make darker, edgier games filled with gratuitous violence. The gaming medium has continued to grow with the same core demographic of fans, as we now see a slew of titles that are eager to tell more nuanced stories of family responsibility and parental obligation. Presumably, the next wave of games will deal with the pain and frustration of hitting a midlife crisis, and after that, all game protagonists will be elderly men coming out of retirement for their one last heist. There's no need to fear that you might outgrow games, even as you start a family. This medium will continue to evolve with you, and that's wonderful. That said, when Kotor and I were discussing this the other day, we did find ourselves wondering about the missing piece in all these video game families. We have plenty of games about imperfect fathers. So where are all the mothers? Broken families and fictional stories are nothing new. Heck, Disney cartoons all thrive on murdering parents with grim regularity. For some reason, representations of motherhood are nowhere near as common as deadbeat dads in video games. In making The New God of War, Corey Barlog and his team made the conscious decision to remove Kratos' partner from the picture. According to interviews, they refined and polished this story to a great degree in order to make both the gameplay and the narrative fit the themes they were looking for, and apparently this didn't involve Kratos co-parenting his child within a loving relationship. The theme of the game would be very different if Kratos weren't a single dad. While, again, we've not played God of War yet, one would assume that if Atreus' mother was around, Kratos wouldn't be forced to make tough decisions by himself as much. His struggle would be shared, and he would have the support of an equal partner to help with his own personal development. Perhaps that's simply not the game that the designers behind The New God of War want to make, nor is it the game that any other major studio wants to make. Exploring motherhood in games does happen, albeit rarely. The classic example is Metroid, so beware, mild spoilers for the entire series now. In the second Metroid game, bounty hunter Samus Aran is tasked with exterminating an entire aggressive alien race. Upon killing the final adult Metroid, she comes across a newly hatched baby, and she can't quite bring herself to destroy it. Instead, Samus forms a bond with the baby Metroid that carries over into subsequent games, as she strives to protect it, and as it in turn provides help for her. It's a rare instance of a game series exploring motherhood in any form, and in its more touching moments, it can be quite special. But then came Metroid, other M, and if you're familiar with the series, you'll know that this story does not end well. The games over themes of motherhood are so painfully handled that it all but killed the franchise, until a remake of the first game to feature the baby Metroid came along in something of a soft reboot. So, what's going on here? Why do we see so many complex, nuanced explorations of video game dads, but relatively few well-handled attempts to convey the experience of motherhood? This is a big question, and there's probably no one answer. To hazard a guess, it's entirely possible that this has something to do with the fact that the overwhelming majority of professional video game developers are male. It's great that they're writing what they know, but it's also no surprise that they can't really do motherhood justice. But who knows what will happen in years to come? As gamers and game developers grow and mature, there's a need for nuanced stories about family and responsibility. It's interesting to see how things have developed thus far, and we're optimistic that the future will give us even more engaging tales about what it means to be a parent.