Abstract
This paper is the result of an attempt to carry out a close reading ofthe videogames series God of War (GOW). The purpose of thisstudy was to scrutinise the structure of the plot in such as way asto better understand how game developers use this medium todeliver stories. The tool used to undertake this task was JosephCampbell’s monomyth (Hero’s journey) as adapted by ChristopherVogler in his ‘Writer’s Journey’. The analysis was mostlyconcerned with the type of narrative components and structurespresent in the game/s. The researcher position in this study is thesame one used by Carr (2002); that is from the perspective of an‘academic fan’. Ultimately this work’s ontology was inductivelydeveloped from data collected from different sources; including fieldnotes of personal gaming sessions and documents associated withthe game such as game manuals, reviews, articles and otherrelated content.
Highlights
At this stage of the discussion it is only fair to provide some form of justification for choosing to attempt a narratorial analysis of a video game
When called discourse analysis the emphasis is on uncovering how conventions...make certain ways of representing or thinking to appear as self evident and natural, even if they carry certain power relations within them. (Mayra 2008, p.157). Because of their episodic nature most video games tell their stories in bits and pieces, with every level disclosing a new piece of information to the player
It can be assumed that the developers were truthful in their assertions that the God of War (GOW) trilogy was always meant to be structured in such a way
Summary
The primary aim of this paper is to better understand the nature of narrative in games. According to Aarseth (2007) as quoted in Mayra (2009); a humanist game scholar sees the player as a ‘necessary but uncontrollable part of the process of creating ludic meaning a function that is created by gameplay as well as co creator of it’, whilst the social scientist views the player as a ‘historical, situated and flesh and blood’ entity At this stage of the discussion it is only fair to provide some form of justification for choosing to attempt a narratorial analysis of a video game. Such an assertion will be put to test by comparing the narrative structure found in these games with Campbell’s monomyth (hero’s journey) Before proceeding with this discussion it is important to point out a critical but painful truth about videogame studies: analysing a videogame from a fictional perspective is not always a good idea, mainly because there are games which have no story or whose plot is as thick as an A4 paper. The trilogy has sold more than 11.5 million units as of today
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