A month has passed already – time flies, it seems, at least in “real” life – since I had the honor of giving a presentation to our very own Videospielkulturverein e.V. here in München. My topic was the so called “hero’s journey”, a comprehensive abstraction of the structure of mythological narratives, which was defined by famed comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell (among others) and popularized with the success of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” movies. This structure has since become a failsafe dramatic blueprint for modern American cinema, and as such, also an influence on video game designers looking for ways to tell a story through their medium. Such is the case with 3D Realms’ first person alien shooter saga “Prey“, or at least that was what I was trying to show with my presentation.
All in all, I am happy with the way it went down, but I have to admit that it was not a good idea to demonstratively play the game while trying to elaborate on its mythological structure at the same time. Focus on the playing of it all tends to keep you away from the level of abstraction needed to properly analyse the game. Or so I have found, as my remarks became increasingly descriptive. Next time, I definitely need a demo player to help me out!
Anyhow, thanks to Tobias Wildner’s dedicated work, pictures of the event are now online. What’s more, the whole talk will be available for download – soon. So stay tuned for updates on that. Meanwhile, everybody thank Tobi very much!
Tags: Hero's journey, Joseph Campbell, Myth, Narrative, Presentation, Prey, Star Wars, Tobias Wildner, Videospielkultur
June 2, 2008 at 8:29 am
I was like, uhm, kinda … there and it was, uhm, sorta, ya know, like so techy and new to me in a, uhm, kinda innovative way. Well done, my friend! Enjoyed your talk very much!
June 2, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Hi,
This is interesting. I have seen the connection myself and there’s some work done in game studies but there is a lot of scope for development. Have you looked at Vogler as well?
Lastly, is your paper available to the public?
All best.
Yours gamingly …
June 2, 2008 at 9:35 pm
sorry to butt in again…
this playing-while-presenting problem isn’t new to me either. i’ve started using members of the audience (carefully chosen
)
June 3, 2008 at 9:18 am
Hi Souvik,
welcome to the board! (I feel like I have been waiting for an opportunity to say something like that all the time)
In terms of dramatization, I guess the hero’s journey has really become standard practice. Vogler’s writer’s guide (it’s even called “writer’s journey”, right?) speaks volumes about this development. It would be a useful reference, of course. For instance, the game design crowd present at the event knew all about the hero’s journey and I did not really tell them anything new. The part on the violent nature of mythological narratives was more interesting to them, but, as is ever so often the case:), it suffered from time constraints. However, I chose Wessely because he combines mythological approaches to analyze films and games in his work. In fact, I referred to him practically verbatim…
Which is probably due to the fact that I did not write a paper for the presentation, but instead to a certain degree made it up going along. Therefore, it will not be made public in written form. But – as I mentioned already, I am looking forward to the video, which will soon be available via Videospielkultur. Your German is excellent anyway, so there you go…soon!
Re: Playing-while-presenting – Rudolf was the only one present who had played “Prey” before, and he had to leave early. So there was only me left. I had no choice. I had to move quickly. (I am getting dramatic.) Will do better next time!
Keep “butting” in!