Beyond Scenes of Explicit Violence and Gore
,A Capcom Classic.
Why the horror genre is important to the evolving medium of video games.
Public Enemy No.1
A trope more popular than zombie outbreaks, is the media’s negative response to video games, especially those which contain themes of violence or horror.
Headlines citing video games as the cause for harrowing acts of violence and disruptive behaviour are as common as ammo pickups before a boss fight. However, psychologists the world over, have a very different perspective, and continue to fight the good fight, for the medium that lurks in the shadows.
A study by the American Psychological Association stated, ‘Video games are often used by lawmakers and others as a red herring to distract from other potential causes of [violence]’. Furthermore, an article by the BBC, ‘Can Video Games be Good for You?’ explores how video games can be beneficial, especially in developing empathy and improving concentration.
Video games have always been integral in pushing the boundaries and potential of technology. Now, as the medium bleeds into film and TV (HBO’s The Last of Us, anyone?), video games have a new potential. A potential to mature the medium of storytelling with relatable content, whilst exploring complex themes.
My stance is that horror games have the gnarly backbone to bear the weight of such potential.
Beneath the Surface
What is it about Horror games that you love so much? Maybe you don’t know… Maybe it’s not ‘love’? But something possessed us to play Amnesia: The Dark Descent in the pitch black with our headphones cranked up. Something compelled us to experience Resident Evil VII in Virtual Reality or to bash our way through Silent Hill 2 using only a steel pipe.
But what is it about the horror genre that makes it so special (beyond its ability to keep us awake at night)?
Horror games can deal with complex, often uncomfortable themes in a mature manner.
Angela Orosco.
Whilst the fog incarcerating the first Silent Hill was a means of outwitting draw distance limitations, that of Silent Hill 2 is a metaphor for the macabre. Every individual that the town consumes, including the protagonist James, is processing or suppressing their own personal trauma. Themes ranging from guilt, abuse and manslaughter manifest through the creatures encountered and machinations gnarled into the title’s narrative.
A 2020 article by writer Samantha Schorsch, ‘Silent Hill 2 Has the Best Depiction of an Abuse Survivor in Games’, explores the precision and care taken in depicting the titles’ complex characters, such as Angela, a survivor of physical and sexual abuse.
Angela's uncomfortable, stilted delivery when she speaks to James for the first time telegraphs her neurosis. She also exhibits well-used vocal tics that are common among abuse survivors and sufferers of illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder. When approached, she recoils instinctively and apologises immediately. “I’m sorry,” is a constant refrain from her throughout the game, and in the real world, it’s a tell to recognize someone who’s suffered heavy abuse in some form’.
Many themes explored in horror are rooted in ‘fears of humanity’, making them relatable.
Horror games often explore a difficult theme at their core, not commonly seen outside the genre. These strands, including loss, grief and depression, can often make the content relatable, depending on the participant’s life experiences
2003 was the year that Silent Hill 3 broke the series’ - male thirty-something seeking solace for their female supporting-role - mold. Yes, the series welcomed Heather Mason, the wise cracking, automatic weapon wielding teenage protagonist that I never knew I needed. A teenager myself at the time, I was blown away by the notion that I could now experience the Horrors of Silent Hill through a female lens. Heather’s debut triggered an innate relatability factor in me which endorsed my Silent Hill experience before the game was even released. In a 2003 interview with publication Computer and Video Games, Hiroyuki Owaku, writer of Silent Hill 3, gave insight into the design decisions behind Heather Mason. He expressed that the focus of Silent Hill 3 was to elicit a more impassioned representation of fear. The team explored a number of protagonist attributes to serve this vision, including variations on age and gender. Ultimately, a young woman was chosen as the game's lead, aiming to give a more vulnerable and emotional edge to the experience. At first, I admit that I did fall victim to a vulnerability which I hadn’t felt when controlling a male protagonist. However, as the game progressed, I continued to feel more and more empowered by Heather’s presence. Whether this was because Heather displayed the same sarcastic nature and carefree attitude as my younger self or that she was pretty handy when using heavy firearms, I couldn’t say.
Heather Mason.
Conversely, Dr Natalie Coyle, researcher in Mental Health and author of the Psychology and Video Games series, related to Silent Hill 3 for different reasons. At the age of fifteen, Natalie spent the summer in the gynecology ward of a hospital while they investigated, diagnosed, and removed an ovarian tumor. Being the youngest person in the ward, she didn’t have her own private room and was surrounded by women of all ages experiencing various stages of reproductive trauma.
For those who haven’t played, Silent Hill 3 is known for being a coming-of-age story with reproductive themes at its core and Natalie deeply related to playing as Heather Mason, stating ‘I was playing a simulation of that Lost Summer that I was actively in control of’.
Actively in control of.
Video games, above other media, have an element of control which demands proximity and urgency from the participant.
In a study by Teresa Lynch, Professor at Ohio State University‘, ‘Assessing the Relevance of Formidability on Fear in Playful Simulations of Predation’ she expresses, “Even though players might be well aware that the situation on screen isn’t real, that doesn’t mean that the human body is going to respond as if it were. For video games, because we’re actually acting in these virtual worlds, it feels much more realistic in some ways, and even if the content itself might be more pixelated or it might not be as realistic looking, we don’t necessarily have, we’re not necessarily processing that content in a way that makes it feel like it’s not real, it feels genuine to us in that immediate sense.”.
As video games demand active participation whilst exploring difficult themes such as loss, grief or trauma, it’s argued that video games can more effectively and maturely approach such subject matter over other media.
Horror game psychology can be used cross-genre, helping to drive innovation.
It’s 2016.
We’re on Brighton beach, UK (It’s probably raining).
We’re attending Develop conference.
Hideo Kojima delivered the 2016 Develop Keynote, and on inviting questions from the audience, was asked, ‘Why did you choose to pivot from creating games such as Metal Gear Solid to a horror game (PT)’? Kojima’s response was thought provoking, as he alluded to the notion that Metal Gear Solid could be likened to a horror game, as it depicts the realities of War.
Kojima’s outlook on horror is supported by another of Teresa’s works, ‘Nothing to Fear’, in which the video game reported to elicit the highest number of fear responses was the Resident Evil series. Ok so, that isn ‘t surprising (have you seen the size of that shark?). What may come as a surprise however, is that the Call of Duty series came second.
Call of Duty: Warzone
Teresa explains, ‘Existential horror, such as war, goes beyond the immediate fear of being hunted and deals with the dread of long term implications. Existential fear elicits a completely different fear response to that of conventional horror’. Furthermore, non-horror genres such as first person shooters often employ horror tropes. For example, ‘simulated formidability’, the idea that elements such as player skill, collectables and avatar appearance, correlate to chances of survival.
Think Bloodborne, which asks the player to determine their starting statistics, or formidability, by selecting a class. Maybe you choose Military Veteran or a Noble Scion? Or how about the doom-strickenly named, Waste of Skin? "You are nothing. Talentless. You shouldn't have been born." Wow. How do you feel about those chances or survival now?
Use of horror tropes cross-genre was explored further by Keith Stuart, author and journalist, in his 2020 article, ‘Why Call of Duty: Warzone is an all-time great horror game’. Keith explains how depictions of war can tap into horror movie tropes, pop-culture has instilled in us, “Deserted towns, blasted airports and ruined TV studios of George A Romero’s zombie apocalypse”. But more than this, this exploration of a war-torn world, hooks directly into our views of exploration and confrontation and more indirectly, with environmental storytelling, our mind filling in those psychological blanks “You’ll blunder into a house and find an unmade bed, a calendar with dates marked, a mobile spinning above a baby’s cot. They suggest a very recent catastrophe: something that made these people drop everything and run, and could still be there.”
Beyond first person shooters, there are other non-horror titles which employ ‘horror etiquette’. Gone Home, a first person exploration game, takes place in a seemingly abandoned family home. Whilst key horror ingredients such as darkened rooms, eerie silences and suspenseful narrative seep through, the true horror is the story of a queer teenager with a family that doesn’t understand her.
The Future‘s Blight
As we see themes explored in this post extend beyond horror, with titles such as ‘What Remains of Edith Finch’ and ‘That Dragon Cancer’, a new era of video games are unleashed, ‘Games Beyond Entertainment’. Such content has the potential to drive the industry forward not only in story-telling, but in establishing video games as a mature, relatable medium, creating content which encompasses diverse life experiences, and explores difficult topics with reverence.
For every zombie head shot or served limb, there’s potential for horror to deliver powerful messages and educate the otherwise oblivious, allow many to feel seen through relatable content and become a safe space for those experiencing trauma.
Right, I’ve said my piece.
Shall we all go back to enjoying being scared senseless in towns shrouded in fog and mining ships stranded on distant moons? Yeah? OK!
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