STARS IN VIDEO GAMES: FROM UNATTAINABLE IDEALS TO LOVECRAFTIAN TYRANTS

ЗВЕЗДЕ :  књижевна, језичка, уметничка и културна астропоетика 2024, (603-614)

AUTHOR(S) / АУТОР(И): Janko M. LAZAREVIĆ

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DOI: 10.46793/Zvezde24.603L

ABSTRACT / САЖЕТАК:

All classic forms of art and culture are rich in astral symbology. Of course, mankind has marvelled at the light of the stars since ages past, and their presence has survived and bled over into literature, painting, film, etc. – but also video games. Simply as a medium, the study of video games is unique as it is a study of interactive experiences – as innate in video games as they are foreign to other arts. This is a field which is already understudied and underexplored, so honing in on a specific aspect (in this case, stars and their symbolic, narrative, and other values) can be rewarding due to the novelty of it, but challenging because so much of the relevant literature must be sourced from outside of the domain of video games. We have attempted to take concrete examples from a number of relevant titles, then abstract the parts which have to do with stars, and bridge them towards other fields of study which might offer greater insight into how to interpret the celestial. Generally speaking, we’ve mostly relied on literature related to symbolic readings in mythology, history, and art, but also scientific sources (where appropriate) so as to find extrapolations of what stars mean both through the lens of human subjectivity and scientific objectivity. Narrative was the most abundant source of astral symbology. This is understandable through one of the most common critiques of video games as a medium – the story can often be seen as a part independent from the interactive aspect of games. With that in mind, one can understand how stories themselves could provide a fair few more examples than, let’s say, something more specific like ludonarrative or gameplay. However, we’ve also attempted to give examples of stars as core elements of gameplay, stars as part of a visual language of user experience, and stars as relative to common video game tropes. Our hope is to lean on the literary, but develop the definitions into video game-specific understandings

KEYWORDS / КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ:

stars, video games, symbology, astral, ideals

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LUDOGRAPHY

[G1] Legacy of Kain, series, Crystal Dynamics

[G2] Paisible Soirée au Fil d’Étoiles, troleoleo

[G3] Mass Effect, series, Bioware

[G4] No Man’s Sky, Hello Games

[G5] Super Mario, series, Nintendo

[G6] Guitar Hero, series, Harmonix

[G7] Half-Life, series, Valve

[G8] Darkest Dungeon, series, Red Hook

[G9] Elden Ring, From Software

VIDEOGRAPHY

[V1] Paisible Soirée au fil d’Étoiles – Gameplay

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljWLUA_pq-w)

[V2] The Lore of Elden Ring’s Cosmic Sorcerers

(https://youtu.be/cqYefPrvEhI?si=IBgM-ubnwBL–1hI)

[V3] An Elden Ring Movie – Age of the Stars

(https://youtu.be/cbWXHMVWYkQ?si=YvaR0FOadM886qWJ)

[V4] Darkest Dungeon – Shambler hunting team

(https://youtu.be/XVYIxxZuTYc?si=7WmdA1aiv3NNEQ8q&t=45)