Video games aren’t always held in the best of attitudes when it comes to the media. Every time someone does something stupid or horrendous, such as murdering people, and people find out they used to play games like World of Warcraft or Call of Duty, they make great and unfounded assumptions.
If you had clicked the link, then you would know that I am referring to the very tragic and horrific 77 killings in Norway carried out by Anders Breivik.
Now in my own opinion, it is simply silly to believe that you can use a game like Call of Duty to find out how to operate a gun, get used to the weight and recoil and train in accuracy. But I don’t want to dwell on that as I know that a lot of fellow Gamers agree with me, instead I want to talk about how video games have been a positive force in my life.
I was once playing the role playing game, the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, exploring my world happily and innocently, content that this was the best £20 I had spent so far. I played through one quest where I had to go to a mysterious village that was unkind to strangers, and try to find a girl who had disappeared there. It was a challenging one, and the village had a particularly interesting character to it, so I opened up the elder scrolls wiki and read about it.
The trivia section that concerns the village and the related quest to it says this:
“This quest is a homage to the H.P.Lovecraft short story ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’, featuring a very similar plot”
The only reason I read, nay, even heard about an author such as H.P. Lovecraft was thanks to the makers of the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.
Hackdirt - credit: The elder scrolls wiki
What I had just witnessed and experienced was how Art (in this case, literature) inspired game developers, and how they incorporated this inspiration into the game. In turn, I was pointed to an amazing and inspiring author who I read (and hope to actually review later!). Such are the potential of games.
Aren’t artists always inspired by works of art and experiences themselves? I like to believe that, at least in this particular part of the game, there was a work of art in itself. The formation of Lovecraft’s story, a shadow over innsmouth, into the world of the Elder Scrolls in a very smart way.
Imagine what can be done if game developers really do take inspiration from other forms of art, be it dance, literature, painting and drawing, and incorporating it into their own work. Imagine if they give credit, giving us a fresh new perspective and encouraging us to look at the art itself.
It is just food for thought and a defence of gaming.
Also on this note, please comment with other examples of where you found Games that were inspired by a particular work of art!
interesting..but where is the food i was hoping to see hmm ?
Are. You. High?
You had me at both gaming and Lovecraft.
It’s so easy for a lot of people to point their fingers and paint gaming as this awful, damaging habit that turns you into a drooling idiot. Whenever somebody close to me –usually coworkers– makes a comment of that sort, I try to go out of my way enough to let them know video gaming may indeed foster passive tendencies and attitudes, but that it also does positive things like letting you practice critical thinking (What quest do I do first? What gun should I use in this level? How will this choice affect the game later?), reading and even management.
I also learned about Lovecraft from gaming, but in my case it was a much older game by the name of Alone in the Dark, the original survival horror adventure from the early 90s.
Yeah someone told me that Alone in the Dark reminded them of that.
Asides from this, Gaming has also helped me greatly in my writing. It has enhanced my imagination, and if my character is supposed to be “evil” I know how to act and what quests to do and which to avoid. I am also playing a puzzle game called “Puzzle Quest 2″ which combines Bejeweled match 3 game play with adventure and role playing, it has been awesome thus far!
Just like with writing stories, I think that a game can be made to convey inspirational messages and core beliefs, like George Orwell’s 1984 as an example.
I’ve always been interested by the influence of the western arts on the Final Fantasy series of games, Wagnerian opera on Final Fantasy VI and Shakespearean drama on Final Fantasy IX, for example. Final Fantasy XII (which I mention in my most recent blog post) seems to draw on Star Wars in various ways and certainly tackles questions of empire in a similar manner to that series.
I am not too familiar with the final fantasy series since it wasn’t really my kind of game (turn based RPG), but I am thinking of giving these a shot, especially since I am getting into Puzzle Quest 2!
Thank you for the comment!
Ahh, Lovecraft. I’ve got to admit…I’m not a fan. His prose is medicore at best, and his plots…well, maybe it is just that I dislike the whole “Eldritch Abomination”, but they are just boring for me.