Scary Places and Games: Introduction

Someone who plays games a lot –even a more casual gamer – has probably noted that scary places are in a lot of games. “Scary” does not necessarily mean a place is inherently frightful: context plays a huge role as well. This “area” appears in many games ranging from Mt Pyre in Pokemon to the composers’ crypt in Ocarina of Time and even Dry Bones from the Mario universe. Discussions of death are found – since these truly are the “scary places” of art – are found in even the franchises considered more juvenile. Some franchises explore death fully, such as Fatal Frame and Resident Evil, both of which focus on survival horror style games.

This gothic exploration in many games does not seem to be merely aesthetic due to its prevalence. Gaming allows for a more personal exploration of death as well, which gives the medium a particular strength in this area. You play a character, and then you die – rather, the character dies but you feel some connection to him. Controlling a character whether through motion control, buttons , or some mixture, gives a sense of intimacy and interactivity. In Resident Evil 4, for example, the game over screen reads “You Are Dead.” Playing such a game lets you see “yourself” die and possibly consider the ramifications. In a platformer game where lives are plentiful you die many times. This experience with death is “shallow and transient yet gaming still lets you explore death to some capacity more than in a play or a movie. (In these mediums you more or less see the death, though of course death can still be impactful upon the audience.) Of course all mediums can be effective in portraying a medium.

Games mix visuals, music, video, interactivity, and text to tell a story and speak across the screen. The ability of this medium to feature its own approach to discussing death makes it stand up as a true medium of art. Conveying messages – no matter how shallow – is a hallmark of art, so clearly video games’ ability to do this means that they are inherently a form of art. So clearly this discussion of death happens to some capacity. Why it happens stems directly from humanity’s fascination with death and to a degree the fascination has been re-wired back into modern society so that death becomes something cool to reference.

Death, however, is fascinating for a variety of reasons, so it only makes sense to analyze several different cases across several franchises:
1. Shadow of the Colossus

2. Metroid Prime 2

3. Resident Evil 4

4. Super Paper Mario

5. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Updates-wise, I’ll post each subsequent part marked with the post name (Scary Places and Games) with an esoteric upload schedule.