Finding Ludonarrative Harmony in the Limited Agency of Ophelia in Elsinore

Abstract

Elsinore is the first video game adaptation of Hamlet to solve the Gordian Knot of adapting Hamlet — a play about a constantly delaying revenger — into a medium dependent on user agency. Elsinore does so by casting players in the role of the historically disempowered Ophelia and upending the assumed primacy of Shakespeare’s play text. This project analyzes Elsinore through two overlapping ontological systems in which Elsinore coexists. Firstly, Elsinore participates in both Shakespeare adaptation study’s rich tradition of artistic remediations of Ophelia’s ‘absence’ and video game scholarship’s effort to understand how games balance the often-opposing forces of ludology and narrative. Secondly, Elsinore reflects shifting economic and thematic trends within the video game industry as developers and consumers are increasingly aware of the need for greater gender diversity within video games. This essay catalogs and analyzes the rise of independently funded video games, often referred to as ‘indie games’, in conjunction with the rise of online harassment such as 2013’s ‘gamergate’ controversy. Juxtaposing these intersecting ontological systems, this chapter argues that Elsinore participates in the rich tradition of artistic reclamations of Ophelia’s agency while also exemplifying the progress the maturing medium of video games has made as an art form in terms of gender representation and the growing ability for games to maintain ludonarrative harmony.