Northrop Frye and the Story Structure of the Single-Player Shooter

Abstract

SINCE THEIR APPEARANCE IN THE EARLY 1990s, shooters have become some of most popular video games available: science-fictional shooter Halo: Combat Evolved from Bungie Studios, for example, was killer application for Xbox console, and has sold about five million copies since its release in 2001. As their name suggests, these games are about shooting enemies and are often categorized according player's point of view: in a first-person shooter, player views game world from a character's subjective viewpoint; in a third-person shooter, by contrast, player's view is objective and character is visible onscreen. But a much more fundamental distinction can be made between single-player and multiplayer shooters. In a single-player shooter, player's opponents are computer-controlled. In a multiplayer shooter, player's opponents are controlled by other players. Nor do differences end there. Most multiplayer shooters are gameplay-driven: play sessions consist of one or more matches, in which players compete with each other (either individually or as teams) win game, either by scoring points or capturing objectives. Most single-player shooters, by contrast, are story-driven: play sessions consist of one or more levels, in which player is told story so far and then must overcome a series of obstacles find out what happens next. Each level is part of a campaign, and player wins game by completing last level, concluding campaign, and finding out how story ends. Indeed, in case of one popular and critically-acclaimed shooter, Max Payne (Remedy Entertainment, 2001), story is told using three different media and three different narrative modes: graphic-novel panels, in-game movies, and voice-over narration. As a result, players will spend as much time watching and listening story of Max Payne as they do playing game. question be considered here is this: if single-player shooters like Halo and Max Payne tell stories, then what stories do they tell? What is story structure of single-player shooter? Scholars working in field of game studies do not seem have paid much attention this question. Jonas Carlquist, for example, has compared story structure of single-player shooter Joseph Campbell's theory of hero's with disappointing results: computer games borrow parts from hero's journey, he concluded, but they very seldom use all stages (30). Paul Budra, by contrast, has used work of literary critic Richard Slotkin argue that single-player shooters all share a master narrative: particularly American myth of regeneration through violence. The games force player become gunslinger, he argues, to purify through violence, reveal truth by stepping outside bounds of genteel propriety (11). Beyond this master narrative, however, Budra's discernment begins falter: No generalizations can be made about kind of narrative that these games reveal, he says (10). Indeed, one of most prominent figures in field, Espen Aarseth, has written as if stories told by video games do not even warrant serious consideration. While many adventure games are clearly attempts at telling stories, cleverly disguised as games, Aarseth says, the limited results they achieve (poor nonexistent characterization, extremely derivative action plots, and, wisely, no attempts at metaphysical themes) should tell us that stories are hostage game environment, even if they are perceived as dominant factor (267). Guided by work of literary critic Northrop Frye and using evidence from a dozen sixth-generation (6G) single-player shooters, this article will show that these games have told (and continue tell) a type of story which they are particularly well-suited as a medium. Single-player shooters are mostly romances--adventure stories in which hero is superior in degree other men and his environment. …