"Gaming and the arts of storytelling" introduction

The title of this Special Issue of Arts makes use of some ambiguous terms: ‘gaming’ rather than ‘videogames’; the plural ‘arts’ rather than the singular ‘art’. [...

Restless Dreams and Shattered Memories : Psychoanalysis and Silent Hill

This paper applies psychoanalytic frameworks to the survival horror franchise Silent Hill, a series which is itself informed by psychoanalytic themes. Concerns include the construction of game space as maternal womb, cinematic sequences as primal fantasies, and the representation of memory across the games within a psychoanalytic context. The horror genres' preoccupation with monstrous mother figures is evident in boss battle adversaries, the depiction of gamespaces as bloody «maternal caves», and in narratives concerning characters' searching for their parental origins Distinguishing between videogames' playable sequences and cinematics as conscious and sub-conscious aspects, cut-scenes are analysed as reproducing primal fantasies, serving to explain protagonists' backstory and situating play within narrative contexts. Such moments intrude into the game, marking transformations between the ordinary world and the abject Otherworld, or heralding the emergence of psychoanalytically-resonant monstrous creatures which the protagonist must destroy. Finally, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is examined as a game which, even more than others, foregrounds the series' explicit reference to psychoanalytic preoccupations, engaging with contemporary understandings concerning the relationship between memory, media and fantasy.En el presente artículo se aplica el marco de estudio psicoanalítico a la serie de survival horror Silent Hill, ella misma basada en temas psicoanalíticos. Entre los asuntos tratados cabe mencionar la construcción del espacio del juego como un vientre materno, las secuencias cinemáticas como fantasías originarias (Urphantasien), así como la representación de la memoria durante las partidas en un contexto psicoanalítico. El interés del género de terror por las figuras maternas monstruosas es evidente en los adversarios que combate el jefe, en la descripción de los espacios del juego como sangrientas «cuevas maternales» y en los relatos sobre la búsqueda que emprenden los personajes para hallar su ascendencia. Distinguiendo entre secuencias jugables de videojuegos y secuencias cinemáticas como aspectos conscientes e inconscientes, las cinemáticas son analizadas como reproducciones de fantasías originarias que sirven para explicar el pasado de los protagonistas y emplazar el juego en contextos narrativos. Tales elementos irrumpen en la partida, señalando el paso del mundo ordinario al abyecto Más Allá (y viceversa) o anunciando la aparición de monstruosas criaturas de resonancias psicoanalíticas que el protagonista debe destruir. Finalmente, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories es estudiado como un juego que, incluso más que otros, pone en primer plano las referencias explícitas de la serie a cuestiones psicoanalíticas, entroncando con las interpretaciones contemporáneas acerca de la relación entre la memoria, los medios y la fantasía

Nice, But Not Necessary: An Examination of Narrative in Horror Games

Videogames as an artistic medium have made incredible strides in the last ten years. With the inclusion of quick time events, decision-driven gameplay, and more recently, the production of virtual reality consoles, developers have sought to integrate narrative and gameplay in ways that were previously unexplored. Despite this, the idea of narrative being “nice, but not necessary,” has prevailed in the videogame community since the popularization of gaming in the 1970s. This thesis argues for an approach that analyzes narrative and gameplay equally, termed “ludonarrative,” and examines the function of narrative in videogames, particularly those in the horror genre. Part One will examine the prevailing fields of videogame study and propose another method for analyzing games. It will also argue for a new way of discussing the relationship between gameplay and narrative, while deconstructing Gonzola Frasca’s model of simulation and determining what the essence of narrative is in a videogame. The primary goal of this section is to restructure the argument between ludologists and narratologists, gameplay and narrative. Part Two explore the ways in which the player creates and interacts with narrative through choice, consequence, and rewards, while observing the way in which the developers create the narrative in a way that allows it to be manipulated by the players. The videogames analyzed will be those that have positively affected the videogame community through their combined ingenuity of gameplay and narrative, namely Limbo, Soma, Resident Evil 7, Amnesia, Undertale, Until Dawn, The Last of Us, Silent Hill PT, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and Loved. Part Two will also offer a psychoanalytic analysis of horror game narrative in relation to the player, through the concept of parallelism. This section will combine theories from Freud’s The Uncanny and Carl Young’s “Shadow,” as well as videogame critics James Portnow and John Bain. The primary goal of this section is to address the unique nature of the narrative in horror games, as opposed to other games, and the double consciousness of the players who engage in them. It is the goal of this thesis to encourage publishers, developers, and the gaming industry as a whole to consider narrative designers as something more than “nice.” Narrative is an integral part of every game, especially horror games, and dismissing its importance will limit the videogame medium from reaching its full artistic potential

Introduction: Videogames and the Fantastic

Instroduction to the Special Issue. Susana Pajares Tosc

Catch and Release: Ludological Dynamics in Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

Videogames are software-based artifacts, and their nature as such affords researchers the opportunity to study a range of stable semiotic interface elements. Players engaged with a game become increasingly skilled at decoding these games over a range of semiotic registers to navigate through the game, interpret elements in the visual field, and respond effectively to game challenges. Using techniques drawn from scientific analysis of visual images and video data, the author has examined the videogame Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. After identifying modes of play corresponding to clusters of operations and representations in recordings of game navigation, the author identifies patterns of repetition and suspense which support the aesthetics experience appropriate for a horror game; however, this effect does not operate in isolation. The article also criticizes approaches toward the analysis of videogames which rely on stark distinctions between operational and representational modes of reception, arguing instead for a simultaneous decoding of elements in the visual field. As signifiers are decoded within a given register, whether operational or diegetic, those signifying elements remain latently available for decoding in others. These latent, deferred decodings – evoking the resemblances and eerie identities described in the traditional discourse on the uncanny – are considered another element in the production of uncanny experience in Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. *** En tant qu’artefacts de nature logicielle, les jeux vidéo permettent aux chercheurs d’étudier une variété d’éléments sémiotiques stables au niveau de leur interface. Au fil de leur expérience, les joueurs deviennent progressivement plus habiles à décoder le jeu à travers un éventail de registres sémiotiques pour orienter leur navigation, interpréter des éléments du champ visuel, et répondre efficacement aux défis du jeu. À partir de techniques puisées de l’analyse scientifique d’images et de données vidéo, l’auteur a examiné le jeu vidéo Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. Après avoir identifié des modes de jeu correspondant à des noyaux d'opérations et de représentation dans des enregistements de parties, l'auteur identifie des motifs de répétition et de suspense qui contribuent à l'expérience esthétique appropriée pour un jeu d'horreur; toutefois, cet effet n'opère pas de manière isolée. L'article critique aussi les approches analytiques de jeux vidéo qui reposent sur une nette distinction entre les modes de réception opérationnels et représentationnels, plaidant plutôt pour un décodage simultané des éléments présents dans le champ visuel. Bien que les signifiants soient décodés à l'intérieur d'un registre donné, qu'il soit opérationnel ou diégétique, ces éléments signifiants demeurent disponibles de façon sous-jacente pour un décodage dans d'autres registres. Ces décodages latents, en suspens, évoquent les ressemblances et les identités inquiétantes décrites dans le discours traditionnel sur l'inquiétante étrangeté, et sont considérées comme un élément supplémentaire dans la production de l'expérience d'étrangeté dans Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. This issue was generously supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and published in partnership with Ludiciné

“Game over, man. Game over”:looking at the Alien in film and videogames

In this article we discuss videogame adaptations of the Alien series of films, in particular Alien: Colonial Marines (2013) and Alien: Isolation (2014). In comparing critical responses and developer commentary across these texts, we read the very different affective, aesthetic and socio-political readings of the titular alien character in each case. The significant differences in what it means to ‘look’ at this figure can be analyzed in terms of wider storytelling techniques that stratify remediation between film and games. Differing accounts of how storytelling techniques create intensely ‘immersive’ experiences such as horror and identification—as well as how these experiences are valued—become legible across this set of critical contexts. The concept of the ‘look’ is developed as a comparative series that enables the analysis of the affective dynamics of film and game texts in terms of gender-normative ‘technicity’, moving from the ‘mother monster’ of the original film to the ‘short controlled burst’ of the colonial marines and finally to the ‘psychopathic serendipity’ of Alien: Isolation

Animal crossing: New leaf and the diversity of horror in video games

This paper explores the diverse ways horror can be conveyed in games by investigating how games that are not associated with the horror genre can produce unsettling or scary experiences. To conduct this exploration, this study uses interaction mapping, as outlined by Consalvo and Dutton (2006), to examine a game that has thoroughly pleasant and cutesy trappings: Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Nintendo 2013). The interactions were analysed according to three themes prevalent within literature on horror and horror games: the loss of agency, the Freudian uncanny, and the Heideggerian uncanny. Ultimately, this paper demonstrates that a game which is not explicitly scary is occasionally made so through its rudimentary simulation of human behaviour and societal constructs as well as its autonomous functions and inclusion of real-world time, showing that games have very diverse means of conveying unsettling or horrifying experiences. The paper also shows how frameworks used to analyse games in the horror genre can be applicable to critical readings of non-horror games in order to understand the unexpected player reactions they can evoke

Homesick for the unheimlich:back to the uncanny future in Alien: Isolation

In 2014 Sega released Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation, a video game sequel to the 1979 film Alien. As an attempt to create both an authentic homage to the Alien franchise and a credible successor to Ridley Scott’s original film, Alien: Isolation was received as both a work of remediated nostalgia and as a deeply uncanny survival horror. This article discusses Alien: Isolation framed by theories of the uncanny (the unhomely) and of nostalgia (the homely), with the aim of revealing how the production design of the game reconciled these seemingly contradictory but nonetheless overlapping aesthetic qualities. By drawing on examples from Alien: Isolation’s visual and level design, this article discusses how the integration of nostalgic and uncanny qualities could be of value to horror and sci-fi game design, in particular to the development of sequels within existing franchises, and to remediations, remakes and reboots