Tragic time and choice in videogames

pp. 65-86

in: Rebecca Bushnell, Tragic time in drama, film, and videogames, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Abstract

This chapter argues that while engaging the player as spectator, actor, and author, videogames both draw on and revert back to the essential tensions inherent in the tragic experience of time. Through a discussion of serious narrative games such as The Wolf Among Us, Heavy Rain, Mass Effect, and The Stanley Parable, the chapter describes how games thrive through creating an environment of choice in which the player is constantly offered options of speech and action, and in this, a form of authorship to create both plot and character. While they may evoke the harrowing sensation familiar from tragedy of having to act in a crisis, yet they can also offer the player the chance to undo that decision by reversing time, revisiting the past in a new present, and then moving forward having learned what the future will bring. This replay may feel like asserting freedom from the "tyranny" of the story because one can repeat and remain in a present time when all things seem possible and under the player's control. However, one cannot forget that the player is operating within the context of the program, limited by the choices offered and the game's intent. The chapter ends by considering the role of cheating and modding in the disruption of game plotting.