Publication
Vampires in Video Games: Mythic Tropes for Innovative Storytelling
Publisher:
James Cook University
Date:
30-05-2017
DOI:
10.25120/ETROPIC.16.1.2017.3578
Abstract: This paper discusses traditional v ire tropes as a tool for innovation and novel experiences in the history of video games. A selection of games and v ires will be analysed in terms of gameplay and storytelling elements to show how the rich mythology and folklore that characterises these liminal beings can be successfully employed in a variety of settings and contexts. We draw on ex les from the early days of video games with titles like “Dracula” (Imagic for Intellivision, 1982) set in a virtual London and evoking European folklore, to the rich possibilities offered by “V ire the Masquerade: Bloodlines” (Activision for PC, 2004) which conjures up the sub-tropical New Orleans v ire tradition, and then turn to the latest experimental games using the ex le of “Tainted” (ITE/NUS for PC, 2016), which taps into the rich Pontianak v ire-ghost myths of the Malay Archipelago. Different experiences will be discussed via explanatory lenses – such as Labov’s (1972, 1997) narrative analysis and the AGE/6-11 framework (Dillon, 2010, 2016) – to gain insights into how to build compelling myth-based narrative in games in original and surprising ways. The paper also analyses how specific v ire myths reflect socio-cultural issues of particular times and places. Thus, every telling of such myths – whether though oral tales, novels, cinema, or video games – brings the myth alive to engage with liminal or repressed aspects of a society.