Tracer Tong
| Personal Details | |
|---|---|
| Name | Tracer Tong |
| Augmentations | |
| Non-Augmented Human | |
| Personality | |
| Myers-Briggs Type | INFJ[footnotes 1] |
| Deus Ex |
|---|
| Characters |
| Organizations |
|
| Deus Ex mapping |
| Scripting |
In Deus Ex, Tracer Tong is a member the Luminous Path triad and ally of Paul Denton. He is curious with technology, but ultimately, sees it as corrupting. In 2052, Tracer Tong resided in a small underground laboratory beneath the Luminous Path compound in the Wan Chai district. Although ordered to assassinate Tracer Tong, JC Denton eventually earned his trust after learning that the triad conflict in Hong Kong was engineered by Maggie Chow. Tracer Tong with the assistance of Daedalus saved JC Denton's life by deactivating a lethal device dubbed a "kill switch".
Background
Tracer Tong was originally a shady pseudo-scientist who modified and traded nano-tech augmentations illegally on the black market, but this gave him knowledge and understanding of augmentations. He viewed augmentations as detriment to society and so would order JC Denton to destroy the Aquinas hub at Area 51. In 2052, Daedalus would steal key semantics of Paul Denton's biochemistry from Majestic 12 and transmit these schematics to Tracer Tong, to be used as a basis for deactivating lethal kill switch augmentations maliciously installed into Paul Denton and JC Denton.
Although, Tracer Tong ultimately takes responsibility for saving JC Denton's life in 2052, in many ways, his life was saved by Daedalus who transmitted the needed plans to Tracer Tong, and it was Daedalus who initially facilitated JC Denton's escape from the Majestic 12 facility.
Personality
Tracer Tong develops strong relationships with Paul and JC Denton, eventually fully trusting JC Denton after he assists Luminous Path triad leader, Gordon Quick locate evidence that Maggie Chow had hidden the Dragon's Tooth Sword as a plot to start a civil war between the two major triads: The Red Arrow and the Luminous Path. When JC Denton first meets Tracer Tong, Tong urges that the crisis in Hong Kong, be settled not through diplomacy but through infiltration of the VersaLife facility where the blueprints for the Dragon's Tooth Sword are found. Tracer Tong is a curious man, naturally interested in JC Denton and his augmentations. He also interested in unity among human beings, but he is naturally cautious and slow to trust and only once a person has earned his trust, will Tong then show his helpful side. Tong is also more than cooperative on finding a cure for the man-mad virus dubbed the Grey Death, showing that he strongly values the well-being of society at large, focusing on practical solutions to bring about his vision for the world, namely, a twenty-century style of government free from nanotechnology. Thus, in accordance, with this vision, he directs JC Denton to help restore the Illuminati back to its former power, because in Tong's view, the power structures of the Illuminati means that there is a distribution of power, so that no single person ever has control over the world at one stage.
Trust of JC Denton
Although Paul Denton is fully entrusted by Tracer Tong, JC Denton must fully earn the trust of Tracer Tong. To do so, JC Denton must find proof that the triad war was engineered by Ms Chow. The then Red Arrow leader, Max Chen would stubbonly refuse to believe that Maggie Chow could start a war, until JC Denton presents the missing Dragon's Tooth Sword, which was hidden in Maggie Chow's Tonnoci road apartment (but whom Max falsely assumed was stolen by Gordon Quick).
Tracer Tong strives to make peace with the triads by making the Dragon's Tooth Sword available to both the Luminous Path and the Red Arrow, because until then, only the Red Arrow had access to the sword due to corruption by Majestic 12. However, JC Denton, complying with orders from Tracer Tong, would infiltrate the VersaLife facility in Hong Kong, where he would find the schematics of the Dragon's Tooth Sword. These semantics allow the manufacture and mass production of the Dragon's Tooth Sword, effectively arming both triads to resist the rule of MJ12. He would then order JC Denton to infiltrate the lower levels of VersaLife and recover the "Grey Death" virus schematics, confirming that the Grey Death is a man-made virus manufactured in Hong Kong by VersaLife using a universal constructor. When JC Denton finds the schematics, the facility is locked down and he is forced to destroy the said universal constructor on the advice of Daedalus to escape.
Tong continues to aid JC (as much as JC continues to aid Tong). Tracer Tong aided the research into the cure for the Gray Death virus along with Morgan Everett and Dr Gary Savage. During the game, one of his experiments backfires and infects him with the Gray Death, but Tong's life is saved with the help of Gary Savage at Vandenburg.
Psychological type
Tracer Tong has been typed as either an ENTP, INTJ or INTP.[1][2] We propose that the INFJ psychological type is a better fit for Tracer Tong.
INFJ
Tong's patterns of thinking involve creating a personalized, subjective vision (Ni) that facilitates social harmony (Fe). This suggests that Tracer Tong is an INFJ Myers Briggs type. His technical side, especially, with augmentations is driven by his need to understand how these things fit into the holistic picture of how society functions, suggesting a preference for dominant introverted intuition and auxiliary extraverted feeling. Fe is auxiliary but it is hidden from persons, other than those whom Tong trusts and only then does Tong convey his vision through the use of Fe. He is also rather matured, as evident by his tertiary Ti that helps him to develop the scientific and hacking skills he needs to resist MJ12 and help shape his vision. Finally, Tracer Tong uses inferior Extraverted Sensation, which means that, although Tong, has a sound grasp on social issues due to Ni/Fe, his isolation in a lab in Hong Kong and trust issues limits his effectiveness. For example, he once infected himself with the Grey Death while trying to cure it, due to unrealistic explanations and, expressing Se destructively, destroys his equipment. Though Tong had good intentions, his vision he foresaw when JC Denton destroyed the Aquinas Hub in Area 51 had the unintended affect of creating a power vacuum and wars as Wars Lords fought over the remaining resources. Moreover, the system which Tong had indirectly destroyed, was rebuilt within a mere couple of decades.
Inferior Se
Tracer Tong's vision for a cohesive society had gaps and limitations due to blind spots in practical matters. As a result, his intention of creating a twentieth-century style society backfired badly, despite JC Denton destroying the facility on his advice. Although the game allows the player (i.e. JC) to select one of three alternate endings, each ending eventually leads to the destruction of the Aquinas hub at Area 51, fulfilling Tong's vision. But due to maladaptive use of Se, these actions do not bring about the envisioned society. While Tong usually possess great insight and wisdom, his ambitions to destroy the facility were based on desperate impulses and overly extreme ideology common in gripping INFJ types. At the time, Tong was experiencing burn out and great distress due to frustration with trying to unsuccessfully cure a nano-technological virus and this trigger likely fueled the unusual dynamic observed in gripping INFJ types.
Tong's trust issues, whether justified or not, likely also stemmed from insecurities with Se. In contrast, an ESTP with dominant Se would more likely trust anyone and clean up the mess they create as they go, readily adapting to take advantage of the mistrust of the other persons. Also, Tracer Tong regularly felt compelled to monitor JC Denton, especially after they formed a mutual alliance, likely due to distrusting JC's concrete actions, or feeling the need to "control" JC Denton's actions through monitoring and instruction. While it is uncertain, Tong probably had a lot of guilt or self-criticism when his plans did not go the way he expected because of difficulty adapting his vision to reality due to inferior Se.
Footnotes
References
- ↑ "r/mbti - Typing Deus Ex Series". reddit. Retrieved 2019-02-08.
- ↑ "Deus Ex Series MBTI". Retrieved 2019-02-11.
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