A Unique Approach to Storytelling?

The presence of narrative in video games has been the subject of much debate over the relatively short history of the electronic medium, splitting those with an interest in video games into two distinct factions.  Ludologists maintain that games are just that, games; to insert narrative is to take away the principle function of a game, which is, according to Jesper Juul in Half Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds (Juul, 2005, p5) ‘to improve your repertoire of skills’, and in direct conflict with the presence of narrative, which ‘consists of reconstructing a story on the basis of the discourse provided’ (Chatman, 1978, p159).  Conversely, narratologists such as Janet Murray see video games as the basis for interactive storytelling, with the player functioning as both reader and actor within an immersive text.   Nearly ten years later, the divisions between the two disciplines has not changed; issue 231 of EDGE magazine, for September 2011 illustrates this, with columnist Tadhg Kelly unequivocally stating that ‘Games are not a storytelling medium, no matter what people say (Kelly, 2011, p144)’, while Supergiant Games, an independent game company has a ‘unique approach to storytelling’ (EDGE, 2011, p104) as the basis of their debut title according to the magazine.  Clearly, the debate over whether games can, or indeed should, contain narrative is one that has not been resolved in the years it has been discussed by literature academics and game theorists alike.  

Recent years have seen a change in the games being created for the market; games are being released which are stretching the limits of narrative and experimenting with methods of narrative delivery.  Remedy Games, a Finnish company creates games which have at their core a complex and sophisticated narrative.  Their latest release, Alan Wake (2010), is a narrative driven game, building on the success of Max Payne (2002) game whose story base was praised at the time of release.  Another game design company, Quantic Dreams, has also been exploring the potential for narrative within their games; their 2010 release, Heavy Rain is also a story driven game, with the narrative taking precedent over action sequences and skill dominant game-play (Stobbart, 2011).  Given that game designers are producing these titles which, by their own admission are attempts at incorporating narrative into games, the argument concerning whether narrative exists is moot; if it is deliberately being placed in the game, then clearly, its existence cannot be denied. 

The Ideal and the Reality of Game Narrative

One of the ways in which the relationship between video games and narrative is problematic to the gaming community is in the structure of video games; Juul’s ‘4-point program for the creation of a meaningful computer game that is also fun to play’ (Juul, 2000) maintains, as its second point, that a game ‘must not contain narration; everything must happen in the now[1]  of the game’; this is a valid issue, the now of the game, (the time passing within the virtual world) is concerned with game playing aspects such as movement and (more often than not) fighting and involves the player ‘exert[ing] effort in order to influence the outcome’ (Juul, 2005, p36) as well as following rules which make playing possible.  This is in conflict with the presence of narration in a game according to Juul; narration is ‘about something that happened at some other time’, (Juul, 2000) and being relayed to the narratee.  Technological advancements however, have made huge leaps in the past few years in regard to home computing and console gaming.  A decade ago, game designers were restricted in what they were able to include within their games, due to processing and memory capacities within the equipment; this meant that they concentrated on the playing aspects of games.  However, video consoles and home computing evolution has allowed video games to become more complex, incorporating narrative alongside playing, without detracting from either. 

Gaming has been culturally seen as the province of the teenage boy, but the gaming community has changed over the years.  The teenage boys and girls of the 1970’s and 80’s have grown up with their games consoles and their tastes in games, as with a lot of other things has changed; games have become increasingly difficult to master as these first gamers have matured.  Alongside this, graphic capabilities and processing power have meant games have become increasingly photorealistic, and actors can be represented in amazingly accurate detail, as with the character of Scott Shelby in Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain, (Figure 1) thus allowing the player to interact with people, rather than just cartoon characters.  

 

Figure 1 photorealistic graphics. (Thompson, 2010)

Furthermore, the increased processing power allows the game designers to create more complex game; games which will keep the experienced gamer glued to their console screen, as well as recoup some of the huge costs involved in video game production[2].   All these things have allowed game designers to make the products of their labour more than a game; the games in 2011 involve an array of components which comprise something which appeals to a wide cross section of the gaming community – and literature academics.

            For a video game to be financially successful it must be able to recoup its substantial financial outlay and so needs to appeal to a variety of consumers.  This is an important factor in the creation of video games, especially those who are attempting to push the boundaries of the medium.  Alongside the obvious financial restrictions placed on game designers, there is pressure to create something that the game buying public want to play, resulting in similar games being created by different studios.  Whilst this is the case, there are a number of design studios experimenting with game techniques; Quantic Dreams created Heavy Rain (2010), described by designer David Cage as ‘ an emotional experience, an emotional journey based on immersion’ rather than a game (Kendal, 2010).   LA Noire (2011) includes a variety of popular game tropes within the narrative including car chases, gun battles and fist fighting, as well as the use of new ‘Motionscan’ (Snider, 2011) technology to read gestures and tics in character’s faces during interrogations. In Bioshock (2007), 2K games have attempted to create a narrative which runs parallel to the game play; exploring the narrative as an optional part throughout the game, with only a small amount of pertinent story points being compulsory for the game’s completion.  This has the effect of increasing the playability of the game, as well as expanding the target audience of the game. 

Whilst technology has progressed and allowed game designers to create more complex video games which allow multiple layers of content, the presence of narrative in video games is still challenging for the academic community; game theorists who problematize or refute its involvement cite stories as being ‘uninteresting ornaments or gift-wrappings to games’ (Eskelinen, 2001) and that the narrative aspects detract from the game playing capacity of the game and this is indeed true of some games.  The often referenced duo Tetris and Pac-man (Juul, 2005; King & Krzywinska, 2002; Vorderer & Bryant, 2006; Murray, 1997 amongst others) are games; they do not contain a narrative, or need one for the game to function and as such should be studied as games.  However, whilst ludologists are correct in their assertion that games should be considered as a separate entity to literature, with their structure being unlike any other form of media and needing to be explored and considered as a medium in their own right, not ‘just interactive bits and pieces tacked on to narratology or dramaturgy’ (Juul, 2000), there is a fundamental difficulty with this approach when considering video games which include narrative as part of their structure.  To insist wholly on video games being treated as games, is to ignore some fundamental aspects of their intended content, including how they present narrative; this can consist of such practises as using visual techniques found in film, including cinematic sequences, mise-en-scene and atmospheric music.  These aspects of games are established within the gaming community itself, with game designers such as David Cage, the lead creator for Heavy Rain maintaining he is ‘an author and there is no compromise. It's really the story [he] wants to tell’ and that he is ‘inspired by film-makers such as Ridley Scott, David Fincher [and] Orson Welles’. (Bland, 2010)  Similarly, Ken Levine, game designer for Bioshock, can be considered an auteur[3] in his role as lead designer, believing that one of the functions of the auteur in video games is to be ‘responsible for saying yes or no, creatively. That's his job. You can generate content, and he has to look at the content and art, and he has to look at that and say, "This isn't working. This isn't right." And he has to be able to overrule people’ (Kumar & Nutt, 2008), particularly as the creation of a video game is a team effort.     

Narrative Goals and Rules of Engagement

The game Bioshock, although marketed as an FPS, with the primary goal being to shoot, is almost stratified in its construction; as well as the shooting, there is a narrative goal, which is distinct from the competitive (shooting) aspect and can be completed alongside.  The narrative goal involves amassing information as the player traverses the Underwater City of Rapture, an almost derelict dystopia.  Collecting audio files, viewing posters, listening to Public Announcements and the observing actions of the splicers (the remnants of society in the game) allows the player to understand how Rapture was conceived, came to be built as a utopia and the reason it became the dystopian environment that the player is exploring.  Whilst searching and collating information to build a narrative is not unique to Bioshock, the way the game is structured is interesting, in that the narrative goal and the primary goal exist independently of each other.  The narrative of Rapture, as it shall be called from now on, is only related to the actions and events of the gameplay through the recognition of the character and the events in the gameplay as the culmination of the narrative of Rapture.  According to Juul, games should not contain narration because ‘narrative is about something that happened at some other time’ (Juul, 2000); Bioshock’s attempt to create narrative as a separate entity in the game allows the player to remain in the present tense of the game, whilst being presented, through multiple narrators, with the bigger narrative.  This has the benefit of allowing the core gamers to play the game without the distractions that cut-scenes and narrative insertions usually provide, whilst allowing those gamers interested in the narrative to interact with that aspect of the game, should they choose to. 

In 2000 Juul envisaged an ideal for a computer game, with four points that are vital in the creation of a game which ‘is also fun to play’, which was briefly alluded to earlier.  These points are:

1          It must be thematically close to the novel or the movie, be about human relations, feelings, ambitions.

2          It must not contain narration; everything must happen in the now[4] of playing.

3          It must be possible to interact with everything represented onscreen.

4          The game must develop not just on principles postulated; all rules of development must be implemented. (Juul, 2000)

He goes on to explain that these rules are based on problems in video games and interactive fiction, with point three being based on the game Myst (2003), which allows the player to interact with some features and not others, for no apparent reason and point four would allow the game to flow and develop freely.  This ideal was not possible at the time Juul first presented this paper at the Digital Arts and Culture Conference, but the past decade has seen game developers being able, as already stated, to create more complex games and to include more content within the game structure as a result of technological advances, thereby fulfilling the third and fourth points of Juul’s four point plan.  The first two points, however, are more difficult to overcome, and are fundamental to the presentation of narrative in a game.  Bioshock, through providing a separate narrative in the game alongside the game story allows the game-time to remain in the present and contain narration.  The game Alan Wake also attempts to address the issue of temporal narration, through presenting all the action as occurring in the past; that is, the game is presented as a memory, with Wake narrating to the player the events occurring throughout.  This forces the game to be strictly linear, with no possibility of deviation, or exploration of the setting; for the gamer, used to the open landscapes of the FPS and RPG, this is very restrictive.

 Juul’s first point is particularly important in the construction of narrative within the video game industry and is a measure of how games have evolved since 2000; many games rely on the themes Juul cites as being the ideal.  Heavy Rain is a game (or emotional experience) which explores the relationship between father and son as well as the emotions of the player as she plays the game.  Bioshock also explores these themes, with ambition and ideology being one of the fundamental aspects of the narrative; these games also allow the player to make choices as part of this, with Bioshock allowing the player to choose between killing and saving characters known as Little Sisters (which will be explored further later in the essay).  Heavy Rain allows the player to make a number of choices which can significantly alter the narrative of the game and forcing the player to question the way they play games in general through the way killing is portrayed (Stobbart, 2011).  Here the game explores the feelings and attitudes of the player, rather than the character; a significant development in game design both from an interactive point of view, but also in providing branching narrative strands within the confines of a single game. 

Branching Narratives

            A major development in video game construction in the past few years has been the reintroduction of the branching narrative structure; that is, the ability to make choices within a game which changes the narrative development.  In the early days of text based adventure games branching narratives were common, but with the advent of visual point and click games their presence became less important as other features were given priority due to the limited technology.  The ability of modern video game consoles and computers has allowed game designers to once again look at this method of construction in games and has, in fact, become a popular part of many games.  Games such as Black and White (2001) and InFamous (2009) and use branching narratives as the basis of the game play, with the player choosing between being good or evil and events being changed as a result of these choices.   Heavy Rain involves controlling five different characters as they independently search for the identity of a serial killer; the narrative branches throughout the game and range from having the player choose to shoot a character to characters dying in the game.  As a result of this, there are twenty-two different ways the game can end, allowing the player to feel as though they have influenced the game, rather than just follow a narrative structure laid out by the game company. 

            The presence of the branching narrative structure in video games gives rise to the consideration of the player as an author within a game; as detailed, Heavy Rain has twenty-two different endings, which are dependent on the choices the player makes as they are involved in the game.  Janet Murray, in Hamlet on the Holodeck (Murray, 1997, p153), believes that the ability of the player to make decisions which affect the outcome of a game is agency (the ‘power to take meaningful action and see the results of [these] decisions and choices (Murray, 1997, p126)’) rather than authorship.  All the components of the narrative, she believes, are authored by the game designer and the player ‘makes use of this repertoire of possible steps and rhythms to improvise a particular dance among the many, many possible dances that the author has enabled (Murray, 1997, p153)’.  Clearly, there is some truth in this; players are not given the ability to directly create content within games; whilst being developed, all the combinations of Heavy Rain had to be created, scripted and animated so that the player can make use of them.  However, creating games which allows the player to take ownership of events on the screen can be thought of as authorship; especially in games where the narrative branches can be combined.  Heavy Rain can be thought of as a player authored text; there are six ‘main’ endings, in which characters, or combinations of characters, remain alive.  However, there are also sixteen ‘sub-endings’ which can be used in conjunction with the main endings.  The ending of the game is a large cut-scene comprised of a montage of smaller cut-scenes, triggered by the actions of the player throughout the game.  Theoretically then, it is possible for there to be multiple game endings that can be constructed as the game is played, although this is limited by the capabilities of consoles and computers as well as the abilities of game studios to create the cinematic sequences which are needed to do this.

Cut-scenes and visuals

‘The boundary between cinema and videogames often appears to be a permeable one’ according to the introduction to Screenplay: Cinema/videogames/interfaces (King & Krzywinska, 2002, p1), a study into this relationship.  There is a definite interplay between these two types of media; films and TV series often have video games based upon them and video games have been adapted (some terribly) into film.  More fundamentally than this though, video games are primarily a visual and aural medium and so ‘draw on many cinematic devices, tropes and associations (King & Krzywinska, 2002, p1)’ in their construction.  One of the most recognisable points where video games and film coalesce is through the inclusion of the cut-scene in video games.  Cut-scenes are small pieces of cinematic style animation which function in the same way as film; at certain points in a video game, the player becomes a passive observer of any action on the screen as action is played out.  According to Sacha A Howells, the insertion of cut-scenes within the action of the game allows the player to resolve the overarching narrative over the course of the game (Howells, 2002, p112).  Cut scenes are frequently found at common points in a variety of different video games, being used as an introduction, as narrative sequences and as rewards for completion of difficult tasks, with the ending of games being particularly relevant for this and can be likened to established film techniques.

When beginning a video game it is usual to have, as the introduction to the game, a cut-scene which will give the player the information needed to begin the game; this can include establishing the setting, the characters and the timeframe of a particular game.  For the 2011 game LA Noire, this involves establishing the setting of the game in particular, showing the player Los Angeles in the immediate post-war period, whilst establishing the game as being ‘noir’ through the use of the voice over, reminding the player of such Film Noir as The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 2006 ed) and The Big Sleep (Hawks, 2006 ed).  The character of Phelps is also introduced here, although the player may not recognise the avatar at this point.  Using this technique within video games is similar to that found in film; the first act of the classical narrative structure is concerned with ‘the story, their goals, and the obstacles they are likely to face to achieve their objectives (Pacific Cinémathèque, nd)’, giving the viewer all the information they need to understand and appreciate the narrative. 

The second act of the classic narrative structure is also reflected in some video games; the majority of a game is spent in this part of the structure, sometimes repeating complicating actions several times before coming to the end of the act.  (It is also here that the potential to gain a lot of the narrative in the game exists, with the virtual landscape of a video game being used to carry a large proportion of the narrative, a point to which I will return).  It is in this part of the game too, that the player has a chance to become emotionally invested in the characters, as happens in film, with gaming times of more than 60 hours for a single game and involving a number of cut-scenes (Stobbart, 2011).    Finally, the third act is the dramatic resolution; in a video game, this usually features the ‘big baddie’ who can only be defeated if the player can use all the skills learned through the game. The narrative of the game is usually resolved at this point; Mario saves Princess Toadstool, or Alan Wake in the game of the same name manages to save his wife and Bright Falls from The Darkness, just as Indiana Jones saves the heroine or Miss Marple reveals the identity of the murderer.  Usually, the cut-scene which the player is rewarded with at the end of the game is extended in comparison to internal cut scenes, containing spectacular graphics and animation as well as providing closure for the player. 

Conclusion

Clearly then, there is at the very least, a basic relationship between video games and film; the cut-scenes found in a video game function in the same way as the classical narrative structure does and allows the same functions to be fulfilled.  However, game designers are experimenting with cut-scenes; Bioshock is a game which has reduced the presence of cut-scenes, having the opening and closing cinematic scenes, just as there are in the classic structure and functioning in the same way.  However, the cut-scenes in the body of the game have been greatly reduced, meaning the gameplay is not interrupted by the narrative.  As games have become longer and more sophisticated, the middle ‘act’ of the classical structure has been able to expand; as well as allowing more playing, the amount of narrative that can be inserted into a game is increased and the narrative is able to become more sophisticated through this. 

The presence of narrative in video games is a complex subject, which needs to be subjected to further and more vigorous scrutiny than has been attempted here.   However, this preliminary study clearly shows that not only is narrative a reality in video games, but that it is a relatively sophisticated medium, deliberately considered by video game auteurs to be an important addition to games.  Although the storytelling components of games are still refuted in some quarters, the narrative structures found in games is clear; the classical narrative structure is evident in games and the relationship between games and visual narratives such as film is evident.  However, game designers are also experimenting with specific forms of narrative delivery, which may see the narrative structure of games deviating from film dramatically, through the ability to portray branching narrative structures within games; this allows the player to claim authorship of the narrative and to allow the interactive aspects of video games to be brought to the foreground of narrative delivery in a way that many other fictional mediums are not able to.  What is clear then, is that although the infancy of the video game has used methods of narration that have been in evidence in other, seemingly similar mediums, the increased technology is beginning to allow the exploration of other forms of narration, whether that is by having the narrative built into the landscape, or by changing the temporal structure of a game.  Regardless of the way in which narrative is being created in video games, it is becoming evident, through playing and observing games that they are deserving of study, containing complex themes and commentary that in film or literature would be considered important.  

Bibliography

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2K Games (2010) Bioshock 2 [Disc] Xbox 360; New York: Take Two Interactive

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Electronic Arts (2001) Black and White [Disc] PC CDROM; Redwood City: Electronic Arts

Bland, A (2010) Control freak: Will David Cage's 'Heavy Rain' videogame push our buttons? [Online] Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gaming/control-freak-will-david-cages-heavy-rain-videogame-push-our-buttons-1902630.html; Last Accessed: 28 August 2011

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Hawks, H (Dir) (2006 ed) The Big Sleep [DVD] UK: Warner Home Video

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Huston, J (Dir) (2006 ed) The Maltese Falcon [DVD] UK: Warner Home Video

Juul, J (2000) What computer games can and can't do; Paper presented at the Digital Arts and Culture conference, Bergen, Norway [Online] Available at: http://www.jesperjuul.net/text/wcgcacd.html; Last Accessed: 27 August 2011

Juul, J (2005) Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds; Massachusetts: The MIT Press

Kelly, T (2011) ‘What Games Are’; EDGE; September 2011, p.144

Kendal, N (2010) David Cage: the full interview [Online] Available at: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article7032477.ece  Last Accessed: 28 August 2011

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[1] Original italics

[2] Up to $28 Million for a single game, released across multiple platforms.

[3] Other recognised gaming auteurs include Peter Molyneux, creator of a number of ‘God’ games and Shigeru Miyamoto, who creates titles for Nintendo.

[4] Original italics

Videogame or Video Game?

One of the things I am doing for my research, is having to decide whether I am going to use the term ‘videogame,’ or the two words ‘video game’.  Personally, I have always used one word, I am not sure why I started doing this (although the spell checker in Office wants me to use two words.)  So, further investigation is necessary for the resolution of which is to be used in my PhD thesis.

                According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the correct term is video game, which is defined as being ‘a game played by electronically manipulating images displayed on a television screen’ (OED, 2012) which is basically correct.  However, according to the Videogame Style Guide it is a one word term, with the following caveat attached to it ‘Always write as one word.’ (Thomas et al, 2007, p65)  There does not appear to be much consensus in practical use for either version though; a Google search shows that there are a lot of people using the two word version, whilst most of the academic literature I have been reading progressively uses one word.  Juul for example in Half Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds, published in 2005 uses video game; by 2009 however, Tavinor asserts that the term videogame ‘dominates current usage.’  (Tavinor, 2009, p17) Personally, I prefer the single word ‘videogame’ when I am discussing the medium, for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, the term ‘video’ seems a million miles away from the original use of the word, which was (in my simple, non-technological mind) a pixel based method of projecting images onto a raster screen, which was also where ‘bits’ and ‘bitmaps’ come into play; a bitmap was the rectangular grid of pixels on which the bits - single coloured pixels - were imposed to build up a coloured image, which was then transposed onto the raster screen.  The term ‘game’ intimates that the video game is merely an extension of the non-electronic games of which the video game is a descendent.  However, I feel that the videogame in the 21^st Century is so much more than an extension of older games; playing Skyrim on an Xbox 360 is not comparable to playing Dungeons and Dragons as a board game, despite the commonality of both their origins.  Furthermore, the basis of my thesis is that videogames are no longer just games in the traditional sense; they can be experiences and large encompassing narratives which involve playing games as part of the interaction with a diegesis culminating in an immersive and potentially cathartic experience for the player of such a title.

                The term videogame acknowledges the way that the field has grown from this beginning without detracting from its individuality and status as a medium in its own right.  This is not a new thing – films have been (I seem to recall from earlier studies) called both Movies and Talkies as they evolved, reflected their ancestry as moving and talking pictures.  The term also acknowledges the fact that playing a game is part of the experience of 21^st Century gaming, but that is can be just part of the experience.  I suppose though, I could always do away with both terms and use the cringeworthy ‘interactive entertainment’ – but I won’t!

video-, comb. Form Second edition, 1989; online version December 2011. <http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/view/Entry/223262>; accessed 16 February 2012. First published in A Supplement to the OED IV, 1986

Tavinor, G (2009) The Art of Videogames; Chichester Wiley-Blackwell

Thomas et al (2007) The Videogame Style Guide; Melbourne: Power Play Publishing

Wuthering Heights - A Force of Nature

I went to see Andrea Arnold’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights at our local independent cinema recently; I thought it was amazing.  However, I seemed to be in a minority and I just couldn’t understand why; it took a while for me to digest why I liked it – and why it seems that the other people around me didn’t, but I think I finally figured it out (well, a little bit!)

                 When I first read Wuthering Heights, many years ago, I read the story of Heathcliff and Cathy; the novel was all about love and being kept apart and how love would conquer all, even death.  The idea of Heathcliff and Cathy being together in death as they could not be in life was so romantic and appealed to my teenage self.  Over the years I have found a different story every time I have re-read the novel and have lost the idea of Wuthering Heights being the greatest love story ever told; instead, I have come to see a novel about struggle – against prejudice, gender, the environment, just about everything.  The novel, as I see it, is about the harshness of life – not just a love story (although, the feelings of Heathcliff and Cathy for each other bind the story together).  

                So, when I watched the film, I was not surprised that it foregrounded the landscape and the conflict of the characters; I was impressed, and just a little relieved that someone else ‘read’ the book similarly to the way I do! I was impressed by the lack of – well, noise in the film; the characters do not need to speak, they act out their feelings and we (as the viewers) can see the power that Cathy holds over Heathcliff, right from the start, in the way she treats him.  This power ranges from her ripping his hair out of his head (without a murmur from him), to her pinning him to the ground with her foot on his head.  There is no need for a musical score, the sounds of nature – the wind, the rain and the sounds of nature are an apt soundtrack, which I found made me look and listen more, not being distracted by music.  

Arnold also did well in not creating likeable characters.  To be frank, I do not think there are not many likeable characters in Wuthering Heights; Cathy is selfish, Heathcliff is...well Heathcliff, tortured and Byronic. Even Nellie Dean has her bad points and she is one of the nicer characters!  Arnold shows this very well, the characters are not shown as if they belong in a love story – they are harsh and as unforgiving as the landscape they live in, a landscape which they belong in.

Maybe I liked the film because it was the adaptation I wanted it to be, that matched my reading of the novel, and maybe that is the problem with the film too.  There is no resolution, the second generation do not enter the film at all, so there is no happy ever after, just the bleakness of the Yorkshire Moors and the thought of death separating Heathcliff and Cathy – and not the love story that has come to be associated with Wuthering Heights.

Flower, a Different Sort of Game

Playstation 3 - Flower

Sometimes a game is released that takes you completely by surprise, making you sit up and pay attention to what you are doing in the game. Flower, released in 2009 by Thatgamecompany is just such a game. Featuring nothing to kill, no maps, no wrong moves which result in death, no high scores and no avatar, this game seemed to be destined for oblivion and the ‘bargain bin’ with thousands of other games which do not capture the game playing public’s imagination.  However, playing Flower was a revelation.

The aim of Flower is to grow healthy flowers on a windowsill in a Cityscape. There are 6 levels to complete and a playable credit sequence; each level, with the exception of the credit sequence has the player being situated within the dream of a flower and each flower/level represents a different dream, which ranges from the wind to darkness. The game has a basic story arc running through it which is evident as the game is played, despite there being no explicit narration; each level starts at the end of the previous one and the player is able to change the dying and dismal landscape into a healthy and colourful one as they progress through the game. However, the way of doing this is interesting – and certainly novel. The avatar for the game is the wind – which the player controls through moving the control pad, tilting it to change direction and speed to travel through the game’s environment. This is a series of valleys, enclosed by boundaries, so that the player does not venture too far outside the playing area. As the wind, the player travels through these landscapes collecting flower petals from a variety of flowers, which become part of the wind/avatar and the player can use light to ‘paint’ the grass and any water in the landscape at particular points in the game. When ‘collecting’ petals, having a certain number of a specific colour activates further flowers, another enchanting aspect to the game and something that made me smile more than once.

The visual aspect of the game is stunning, blades of grass and flowers are individually rendered and react to the player moving around them, and I was enchanted to find that as I passed each flower, it made a musical note, which changed the subsequent game music. According to the game design company, Flower is intended to be an emotional experience, which I found to be so. I was enchanted by the visuals, the music, the play and by the way that this game made me relax. Instead of running round solving puzzles and finding bad guys to kill, I had to move slowly and gently through the landscape, especially as I collected more flower petals which made turning more difficult. There was also a freedom that I have not felt before in other games, aided by the fact that there is no physical avatar and I was free to move in any direction without constraints such as gravity (within the game structure).

This game has a clear cultural message attached to it; nature is good and some man-made items such as power pylons are destructive. This can be particularly seen in the 5th level of the six, where I encountered something harmful for the first time. Here the pylons ‘burn’ the flower petals, making them smoke and fizz – which made me feel almost sad for destroying something pretty and gentle, especially as I had been interacting with the game for about 2 and a half hours without any destruction. Similarly, the flower representing the night-time (level 4) ends with the dream becoming a nightmare, and leading into the 5th level, with the toxic pylons, which is another emotional point in the game. Coupled with the aim of the game seeming to be the reinstating of nature in a dying landscape, there can be little doubting what the game is saying. That said though, the ecological theme is not overt, the game can be played without paying much attention to its message.

At £6.49 this game is a lot cheaper than most other games on the market, and is a lot shorter too. Playing can take between 1-3 hours depending on the attention to detail and collection of flower petals. However, there is a replayability in this game that is not always present in other games; revisiting the landscapes to just play with the wind is an oddly satisfying experience, which when coupled with the visuals and audio, makes for a surprising, yet substantial seeming game.

The Result of Project Noah: Exploring the Vampire’s Presence in The Passage

Introduction

Vampires are sexy.  Throughout literature the vampire has been endowed with a sexuality that can be seen across many narratives; Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Anne Rice’s creations in The Vampire Chronicles and the range of vampires found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer have all been sexual creatures, a defining aspect of the genre.  Margaret Carter states in her essay on The Vampire in Icons of Horror and the Supernatural ‘vampire fiction [is] suffused with a higher degree of explicit sexuality than found in mainstream’ (Carter, 2007, p630) fiction and a cursory investigation makes this evident, as does a similar examination of the explosion of television and filmic vampires of the early Twenty-first Century.  The popular TV series True Blood shows scenes of sexual intercourse between humans and vampires from the outset and the hugely successful Twilight franchise shows the characters both abstaining from and consummating a physical relationship between the two species. (For clarity, humans and vampires will be referred to as different species throughout this paper, although it is understood that the vampire is usually a mutation of the human it used to be.)  This is something that the reader has come to expect from a vampire narrative, as is the presence of a distinct personality; each of the vampire narratives mentioned so far features vampires who are recognisable as individuals, with distinct character traits.

Whilst usual, the representation of the vampire as a sexual and individual creature is not the only way that the species can be characterised and there are authors who have created vampires which, although recognisable through traits such as the need to feed on blood and stay out of the sunlight, are sufficiently removed from the traditional expectations to facilitate a new reader experience; this is something Justin Cronin attempted in his 2010 novel The Passage, the first in a planned trilogy.  Marketed as a vampire narrative, this novel is, according to an SFX magazine review ‘an exhilarating epic that easily rises above the flood of run-of-the-mill vampire tales’ (Orion Publishing, 2010)  which explores the destruction of American Society and the post-apocalyptic remnants of the civilization that is left behind.  It is understood, but not known indisputably, that the virus which brings about this destruction spreads over the planet and causes worldwide devastation; however, this paper will focus on American society as being razed, as this is the setting explored through the text. 

The Passage incorporates aspects from several literary genres, including Gothic and Science Fiction as part of its construction; this is a deliberate decision on the part of the author, who

‘wanted to write a book that had the attributes of literary fiction – meaning good careful writing and characters with human complexity – and that also operated simultaneously in a whole variety of genres – from the post-apocalyptic to the western.’  (Stanford, 2010)

With the vampire’s evolution into positive role models in fiction such as True Blood and ‘vegetarian’ vampires of the Twilight franchise being dominant in recent literature, the return of the antagonistic vampire preying on humanity in Cronin’s work has clearly been successful; The Passage has topped the New York Times bestseller list and the translation rights have, according to the Daily Telegraph, been sold to at least 28 countries.  (Stanford, 2010) Cronin’s dark vampires allow him, and by extension the reader, to explore the fears of society which are prominent in the early part of the 21^st Century and the novel attempts to ‘awaken its audience from dogmatic slumber through hyperbole and melodrama’ (Edmundson, 1997, p62/63) to the dangers of issues such as religious intolerance and political apathy. 

Setting the (Apocalyptic) Scene

The first portion of the novel, parts one, two and three are concerned with the creation of Zero and The Twelve as the original vampires, as well as charting the reasons behind the downfall of American society.  The second part of this work tells of the post-apocalyptic world which shows ‘virals’ as the dominant species and humans trying to survive in a hostile world of being hunted, and features the more traditional gothic landscapes, which Fred Botting describes as ‘desolate, alienating and full of menace.’ (Botting, 2010ed, p2)   

The opening sections show important events leading up to the apocalypse and permits the recognition of contemporary American society; this allows the reader to postulate on the way society is headed and the ramifications of this and can be referred to as science fiction, as this is, in part, defined as being ‘realistic speculation about possible future events.’ (Heinlein, 1957, p22)  Whilst there are other novels which deal with the same subject, (that of a virus which destroys civilization) for instance The Stand by Stephen King and Robert Matheson’s I am Legend, this novel features the events leading up to and including the release of the virus which causes the apocalypse and the time after rather than the actuality of the downfall of civilization, which Neil McRobert of the University of Sterling says is an innovation by Cronin and ‘affords a heightened pathos to the journey taken by the future survivors as they, like the reader, discover the residue of past trauma in their travels across the empty continent’  (McRobert, 2010)  whilst still giving the reader a level of comprehension that the characters do not have; that is, they (the reader) can understand  the cause of the virus and its initial outbreak.

            As stated earlier, there is a distinct science fiction motif running through the initial part of the novel and this is primarily concerned with the progression of science within society and the consequences of this progression.  Stobbart asserts in her paper on American author Ayn Rand that ‘one denominator remains present throughout [the genre] regardless of the variety of science fiction - technology’; (Stobbart, 2010) and this is certainly true of The Passage; the virals in The Passage are not the supernatural vampires of the more traditional vampire narrative.  These vampire-like creatures are created by the American military’s ‘Project Noah,’ which involves using death row inmates and a genetically modified virus, found in Bolivian bats, to try to create a soldier that will enable America to win the war it is currently fighting.  What the experiments create are ‘the Twelve,’ the precursor to virals and the original vampires of this narrative.  The genetic mutation that creates the Twelve allows them to go through ‘the sickness and the Becoming’ (Cronin, 2010, p569) which in turn permits them to be part of the collective that is Zero and the Twelve, ‘the Babcock-Morrison-Chavez-Baffes-Turrell-Winston-Sosa-Echols-Lambright-Martinez-Reinhardt-Carter.’ (Cronin, 2010, p569) More than this however, the virus also permits each member of the Twelve to control a portion of the ‘Many,’ the virals that spread throughout the country and in turn infect others, causing the apocalypse. 

Mark Edmundson notes in Nightmare on Main Street that apocalyptic Gothic ‘haunt the society at large’ (Edmundson, 1997, p23) and that like Frankenstein, ‘through technology, what we create will turn on us’ (Edmundson, 1997, p23)  This is exactly what occurs in The Passage; the military, having discovered this virus to exist, engineer to have it brought to America, where they, like Frankenstein before them, attempt to create a perfect being and the results are catastrophic, ‘victims are multiple: women, children and innocent men go first, but ultimately the creator himself […] has to pay the full price.’  (Edmundson, 1997, p23) Although this is a common theme within Gothic Science Fiction, there is a particular relevance in 21^st Century society for readers and has been a theme explored through a number of texts and films since the fin-de-millennium.  Scientific advancements are reported in the media to be happening on a staggering scale; it is possible to create a living being and the military are constantly striving for new ways to give them superiority over an enemy who, in some instances, is not afraid to die for the cause that is believed in.  Although seemingly fantastical, it is not far-fetched to imagine such a scenario in contemporary civilisation, and this is as Edmundson asserts ‘one of the common functions of Gothic, to turn the vague but insistent fear of what will happen in the future, into suspense’.(Edmundson, 1997, p12)  Having the setting as being the US is particularly apt for showing societal collapse; in that if America was to become instable and civilization collapse, this would have a detrimental effect on the rest of the world.  They are the dominant superpower in the world as the 2008 economic disaster showed; it was a financial crisis in the US housing market that began the global difficulties that are still being felt three years later.

A New Breed of Vampire?

            The vampires in The Passage, known in the fictional post-apocalyptic America as ‘virals’ are split into two distinct sub-species; there are the originally created vampires, Zero and the twelve and also their progeny, the virals - those who roam the landscape searching for fresh blood.  These virals have some similar characteristics to the traditional vampire; a fact Cronin signals explicitly during the second part of the novel when he has the characters watch Todd Browning’s Dracula adaptation and they recognise Dracula as being of the same species as the virals. (Cronin, 2010, p655-658) However, these monsters are more than representations of the Dracula-esque vampire; these beings also incorporate characteristics of another Gothic creature, the zombie.

The zombie in popular fiction can be defined as a character ‘who has lost the ability of free will, resorting to primitive cognitive function’ (Zombiehub.com, 2007) and although usually a reanimated corpse, this does not have to be so; Cronin’s hybridisation of the zombie and the vampire negates the need to have the virals as reanimated.  Instead, he keeps the instinctive and non-conscious qualities of the traditional zombie, whilst allowing some principal qualities of the vampire to be incorporated into this new creature, such as the need for fresh blood and an aversion to sunlight.  In The Passage the virals are primarily hunters; they roam the landscape, usually in packs of at least three searching for fresh blood.  They are mutated humans, but many of their human characteristics are eroded by the virus that created them; this means that although they are physically recognisable to the humans that they knew, their ability to recognise individual humans is (usually) destroyed by the loss of both memory and soul that is part of the infection.

There is evidence within the text to support the theory that each of the Twelve are in control of their own segment of the viral population.  The virals, whilst having similar attributes to zombies in the way they behave mentally, have the reactions of the traditional vampire and are also prone to the same weaknesses.  This is highlighted when the ‘outcasts’ (the characters from the First Colony who left the colony with Amy) are shown Todd Browning’s Dracula adaptation, as detailed earlier, and Peter thinks to himself that the film ‘almost seemed to be a kind of instruction manual.’ (Cronin, 2010, p658)   Here, the recognition of Dracula as being of the same genus as the virals is foregrounding the relationship between the two breeds of vampire, whilst still allowing the reader to appreciate the differences between them and illustrating ‘the loss of human identity’ (Botting, 2010ed, p157) that Fred Botting argues is included in the ‘strangely mutated life forms’ (Botting, 2010ed, p156) of gothic science fiction; that is, the virals are clearly lacking in the human-like characteristics that Dracula embodies, despite their genealogical similarities.

Virals, the hybridisation of vampire and zombie are, it can be argued, the super soldier that the US army was attempting to create at the beginning of the novel, individuals able to function as a mindless machine and follow orders issued from higher up the chain of command and ironically, the US do succeed in creating a soldier that can win wars.  These soldiers, however, whilst technically a success for the US, cannot be controlled by the US army; they are the army of the Twelve.  The reader is informed, through the thoughts of Babcock, that ‘They [the Many] were his to command,’ (Cronin, 2010, p568) and that he is connected to them, able to ‘stretch out his mind’ (Cronin, 2010, p569) and issue orders that will be carried out.  Here, as mentioned earlier, the virals mirror radicalized extremists, those who will carry out an order from their superiors, regardless of what that order is.   However, as well as making a link with extremists, Cronin also explicitly connects the virals with the US army; they are the result of the US experiments to create a perfect soldier and they follow the orders of their superiors without question, just as the body of the army is trained to do.  It can be deduced that Cronin is drawing parallels between the behaviour of two seemingly opposing cultures and that the US attitude towards other cultures is similar to those regarded as being extreme and a threat to US freedoms, although their status as a dominant world power means that their mistakes can have huge ramifications on the rest of the world as already detailed through their primary involvement in the global economic crisis of 2008.

Zero and the Twelve

            Nina Auerbach observes in Our Vampires, Ourselves, that that ‘Vampires go where power is…with the birth of film, they migrated to America in time for the American Century.’ (Auerbach, 1995, p6)  The setting of The Passage as being in America, both pre and post apocalypse intimates the contemporary importance of America as a world power, but more than this, it also highlights the danger of this country having such as position, both in contemporary society and the context of the novel.  It is the might of the American army that can create beings which could win wars, but, it is also this same world power that brings about the downfall of its own, if not global, civilization through its creation of the mutated virus and its subsequent escape into society.  The virals, once loose in the world, have a distinct power structure, with ‘The Zero’ (one of the people from the original Bolivian expedition at the beginning of the novel) as the leader and the Twelve (those death row convicts used in the experimentation process) his direct disciples and this power base is important within the context of the setting and the events of the novel.  Whilst the narrative is not overtly religious, the use of the number twelve signals a fundamental significance within the text that can be connected with religion; Jesus Christ had twelve apostles, there were twelve principal Gods of the Pantheon in Ancient Greek myth, in Shi’a Islamic religion there are twelve legitimate successors to the Prophet Muhammad and the Norse God Odin had twelve sons, all powerful mythological and religious traditions which deal with deities from a variety of cultures.  There can be little doubt that Cronin is suggesting a link between Zero and the Twelve and religion, both historical and contemporary, reflecting on how parts of the global population view religion in the post 9/11 world ‘that glorious and terrible day’ (Cronin, 2010, p84) which changed the world.  Within contemporary society, it is clear that religious tolerance has diminished with UK newspaper The Times reporting in 2007 that ‘the War on Terror has radicalised Muslims around the world to unprecedented levels of anti-American feeling’ (Gledhill, 2007) and similarly there are alleged instances of religious intolerance within the US, (Sherman, 2010) even though the US instigated ‘War on Terror’ resulting from the 9/11 atrocities do not, officially, have a religious focus.  Richards, one of the novel’s characters involved in Project Noah encapsulates a level of feeling displayed in certain parts of contemporary society as

‘the war – the real war, the one that had been going on for a thousand years and would go on for a thousand more – the war between Us and Them, between the Haves and the Have-Nots, between my gods and your gods.’  (Cronin, 2010, p84)

Once created, Zero and the Twelve are representative of a variety of religions, as demonstrated above, and in the novel this is a malevolent presence; these man made deities and their followers in the form of the virals are responsible for the death and destruction of much of society.  Equally, as already discussed, the virals are a mindless army who obey the orders of their ‘superiors,’ regardless of the personal cost. 

If the Twelve are the representations of religious deities, then fundamentally, the vampires and virals form a Theocracy, with the vampires functioning as the ruling body; this is something highlighted in Chapter 51of The Passage, when Babcock, one of the Twelve is remembering setting up The Haven (the first population base ruled by the Twelve), relating that he ‘will let [people] live in this way and no other…and those that did not…they were made to die so the others could see and know and refuse no longer.’ (Cronin, 2010, p570)  Whilst Zero, the archetype vampire in this narrative is, at the beginning of the novel, not an evil character, each of the Twelve are convicts from death row and this is important in the consideration of their status as deities and rulers.  Apart from Carter, who has been wrongly convicted of his crime, all of the others are guilty of heinous wrongdoings, from child molestation to matricide and this is something that is carried through into their incarnation as Gods.  When given an omniscient presence in Babcock’s mind, the reader learns that he was abused by his mother until he killed her, and more than this, it made him happy to commit matricide.  Unlike the virals, whose memories and experiences are lost after they are infected, the Twelve are in possession of their pre-infection minds and it is this along with ‘skin [turned] into a pale kind of protein-based exoskeleton so hard it made Kevlar look like pancake batter,’ (Cronin, 2010, p87) telepathic ability and the capacity for flight that is the basis of the new religious order after the apocalypse; not benevolent Gods who allow freedom and happiness, but demons, complete with scales and wings. 

The name of the project which created the vampires, ‘Project Noah’ although ostensibly referring to the longevity of the soldiers the US are aiming to create, (Cronin, 2010, p44) is also heavily resonant with religious connotations and the use of the name Noah is a recognised literary device, with Mirriam-Websters Encyclopaedia of Literature (Mirriam-Webster Inc, 1995, p813) reporting that it has a twofold meaning; it has been used in the same way as the Rainbow, to mark the Covenant with God that ensures humanities protection against natural disasters and also as a ‘symbol of obedience, as a new Adam, as a type of Christ, as a worldly scientist.’  The irony in using this name for the project is evident; the created vampires, whilst being the basis of a new race are in no way obedient to their creator.  Noah, the saviour of the Human Race in The Bible, is in this context the cause of its downfall.  However, the presence of Amy within the text as the culmination of the genetic experimentation makes the name of Project Noah more than just ironic, it is heavily prophetic; Amy is the one person who, seemingly, has the capacity to save the world from the ‘flood’ which has wiped out much of civilization and can be described as the successful culmination of Project Noah. 

Amy Harper Bellafonte

If Zero and the Twelve are a malevolent religious presence in the post-apocalyptic world of The Passage, then Amy is surely to be considered as a messianic manifestation within the text as she is the character who has the capability to override the power of the Twelve and become the saviour of the human race.  In the opening sequence of the novel Amy is the focus of the narrative and the reader is given a biography of her early life and details the events leading up to her inclusion in Project Noah and after her infection and seeming recovery from the virus.  The opening words of the novel describe Amy in heavily biblical terms as ‘the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years’ and foregrounds her importance in the text, despite her absence from the middle portion of it. 

Amy’s link with religion is signalled early in the text, through her relationship with Lacey, a prescient nun who tries to prevent Amy being taken and used in Project Noah after her mother abandons her.  Both Lacey and Amy are signalled as potentially Gothic characters at this early point of the novel; whilst at the zoo with Lacey, Amy intimates an ability to communicate with the animals and they are certainly drawn to her, to the extent that they try to break from their cages to get to where she is, making such a noise that it causes a panic and the zoo has to close.  It is at this point that Lacey’s prescience is made explicit; she has a vision of

The rolling armies and the flames of battle; the graves and the pits and dying cries of a hundred million souls; the spreading darkness, like a black wing stretching over the earth; the last bitter hours of cruelty and sorrow, and terrible, final flights; death’s grand dominion over all, and, at the last, the empty cities, becalmed by a silence of a hundred years. (Cronin, 2010, p105) 

As with the opening of the novel, the wording used is reminiscent of religious language; this is a prophecy that would not be out of place in the Book of Revelations and Lacey, a woman who already knows the power of God, is the prophetess.  It is Lacey’s understanding that, from childhood, God has spoken to her and it is He that has told her of the terrible fate that awaited the world. It is here that a bond between Lacey and Amy is first indicated; part of Laceys vision is ‘her Amy…time-stilled and nameless, wandering the forgotten, lightless world forever, alone and voiceless’ (Cronin, 2010, p105) and as a result of this revelation, Lacey becomes one of Amy’s first companions.  Lacey follows Amy to ‘the Chalet’ which disguises the laboratories used to experiment on the Twelve and aids in her rescue after she is infected; then Lacey waits in isolation for Amy’s re-emergence in the second part of the novel for nearly a Century.

In the second part of the novel, the results of Amy’s infection become evident and there are a number of ways that it is clear that Amy is the successful result of Project Noah.  Firstly, her lifespan is extended, just as the military planned; there is nearly a Century between Armageddon and the narrative that begins in part five, but Amy appears to have only aged eight years.  Secondly, she is able to control the virals, preventing them from killing Peter Jaxon and thirdly, after the death of Babcock, she is the one who helps the virals to remember themselves and die peacefully.  Again, the religious connotations are recognizable within the text; upon being reunited with Amy, Lacey tells Peter the story of Noah, she explains to him that he, Peter, is Noah and that ‘Amy is the ship.’ (Cronin, 2010, p711)   Here, the meaning of the title of the book becomes clear; steeped in the religious imagery of the transition between life and death, The Passage is Amy herself, the Ark, ‘the ship…she carried their souls inside her…all along, waiting for this day…when they would make their passage.’ (Cronin, 2010, p721) 

It is at this end point of the novel that the correlations between Amy and Zero become apparent; they are both ‘the other, the one above and behind, the Zero.’ (Cronin, 2010, p720)  Both of these characters are potential deities, although this is something Amy rejects; after the discovery of the virus in its injectable form, Amy will not allow Peter to use the vials to inject himself, she destroys the vials saying to him ‘it would have made you like me. And I couldn’t let that happen.’  Unlike Zero, Babcock and the rest of the Twelve, Amy does not want there to be more like her, understanding the loneliness and isolation that both she and Lacey, (who was also injected with the virus) have endured through their long lives. 

If the Twelve are a manifestation of the demon within the novel, complete with scales, wings and eyes ‘the orange of highway cones’ (Cronin, 2010, p69) then Amy is undoubtedly the opposite.  She does not have any of the physical characteristics of Zero or the Twelve; despite being nearly a Century old, she looks like a child, a recognised representation of innocence and purity, clearly contrasting the demonic appearance of Zero and the Twelve.  According to Mark Edmundson in Nightmare on Main Street, angels work by ‘redeeming us from Gothic terrors’ (Edmundson, 1997, p81) and this is certainly one of the functions of Amy within the text.  Whilst not explicitly referred to as an angel, she clearly redeems the virals from the hell that they are living on earth by giving them back their human memories and helping their transition to death and in turn allowing the reader the redemption of knowing that despite the man-made manifestations of evil which exist in the world, there is someone who can save humans from, what is essentially, Hell. 

Conclusion

            Whilst the presence of Gothic can be traced through the narrative from the beginning, with Amy able to communicate with animals prior to her infection, the prescience of Lacey and of course the vampires and virals, it is the relationship between good and evil which resonates with Gothicity throughout the text.  The novel has a clearly religious basis, exploring the role religion plays in a society that is obsessed with power and domination over everything, including nature and Cronin uses the fears of contemporary society, in the form of both government and religion, creating a post-apocalyptic civilization which has lost the ability to be redeemed through the establishment of Zero and the Twelve as a society wide theocracy.  Edmundson says that in contemporary society

Few[…] seem to believe in God’s presence. That is, […] some powerful force for good shaping the day-to-day life in accord with a perceptibly benevolent master plan. (Edmundson, 1997, p67)

and if this is so, then Cronin’s representation of Amy, an angelic child who is able to fulfil the role of redeemer in what is ostensibly a narrative dealing with the end of the world as we know it, is filling the gap that has been left by the ‘withdrawl of God from the day-to-day world’ (Edmundson, 1997, p68)  Through the creation of Zero and the Twelve, Cronin shows a view of religion and governance as being oppressive and dictatorial, its adherents being controlled by a ruling body and dissention punishable by death.  He then provides and antithesis to this malevolent theocracy, in the form of Amy, showing her as a redeemer, an angelic Christ-like figure who is able to save the souls of the damned humans who have become demonic figures on earth.  The presence of Amy, therefore is central to the religious theme of the novel, showing both the reader and the characters a benevolent presence within the narrative and establishing the existence of hope in a world of despair and death; hope for a better life, hope for a future that involves more than just fear of religion and most of all, hope of redemption.

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