Mask at stake: between unknown faces and possible realities

Today is a Shrove Tuesday full of masks and we fans of the gaming world know enough! Just think that, when we play video games, we are reflected in the very identity of the face we are borrowing. There are those who say that when we wear a mask, we hide ourselves and identify with something that most of the time does not belong to us. It is as if we partly wanted to cancel our interiority because we are afraid of the judgment of others. Generally we use phrases such as "take off your mask!", "That guy always wears a mask", "what's behind his mask?". The moment we appropriate one of them, we reveal what we are not really and we hide our authenticity.

So why do we need to wear them so much? Yes, because in the end we don't just dress in one but we need constant change. But have we ever thought that the mask could be a means that reveals things to us rather than hiding them? In a sense, it allows us to play the role of something or someone else and brings us closer to different and possible realities. I believe that this concept is very well expressed by the actors, who impersonating a role identify with, and make us participate in, a different reality. Obviously, actors are also the protagonists of our beloved video games, each of which has its own story and lives in a universe that does not belong to us. Yet we are fascinated by it and are waiting for nothing more than to play a new title, which maybe only from the trailer can seem interesting to us. Looking at it from my point of view, the interest lies not in the mere experience of the game, but precisely in the fact that I can be free to know and get close to something that before that moment I would never have imagined. Generally we like to think how we would have behaved in that particular situation and living it, even if through the screen, makes us feel like heroes; and sometimes we love that role so much that we just don't want to leave it and we think “why not dress up as him for the next party / fair?”.

In the videogame field there are many masks but there are some that my mind immediately matches. Due to my passion for Final Fantasy titles, the term mask in video games immediately refers me to Cecil Harvey: the transition he takes when he realizes he is on the wrong side, therefore from darkness to light, is interesting. I find this concept truly fascinating and this is underscored not only by the armor change but also from the loss of the helmet that masks his true face. But it must be said that the mask par excellence suggests it to me from a 1996 title, probably because it was one of the first I played as a child. I'm talking about Aku Aku from Crash Bandicoot and I must admit that that of the bad brother, Uka Uka, worried me a little! Then there are the masks like that of Majora's Mask in The Legend of Zelda that I would never pass off as evil! But in short, apart from the shamanic masks there are really many interesting masks in the videogame world: the recognizing ones of Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover, the one with the telescopic function of Corvo Attano in Dishonored, or even the wrestlers of the fighting games, which immediately lead me back King and Armor King of Tekken.

Even League of Legends champions enjoy changing skins! But have you ever thought that a mask could rewrite a man's destiny? Yes, it seems there are those too (or at least as Prince of Persia tells us). All this to say that even in video games there are masks for many reasons, both to instill fear, both for appearance or for reasons much more serious than changing clothes! A bit like us when we decide to wear a costume or rather, to stay on the subject, a mask and, unlike our heroes, we choose which one to wear. Now we dress for any occasion and the fairs that allow us to do them are more and more. I believe that cosplay is not just a way of being or thinking “what character do I do at the next fair because it makes me cool?”. Just thinking about creating and playing a role that we love makes us artists in making a fiction something real and that can exist in its terms of existence.

It is wrong to think that cosplaying is for misfits, it is simply an art, a dream that is lived for a short time. Personally, when I decide to prepare my next cosplay, I choose a reality of which I would like to be the actress. In fact, most of the time those we play are the characters in which we see each other the most. We would never think of cosplaying a character that we don't like or that we know that it would have nothing to do with ourselves, with our being! By cosplaying, you also discover parts of yourself, you get rid of useless shyness (myself included), and sometimes lasting bonds of friendship are created, dictated by something that goes beyond going out on a Saturday night. Then slowly you realize that the funniest part is actually creating them and new hobbies and passions begin to arise. I believe that cosplay is an art that foments the desire to create and finish that thing in its interpretation; and it's nice that it doesn't exist just today to do it, because masks open many worlds and realities to us, hiding our face but revealing infinite ones.