The Horror genre in gaming, a more effective way to scare yourself?

Books and film are mediums that have had a long and successful relationship with the horror genre, producing household names like Stephen king and creating cult classics such as ‘The ring’( the OG Japanese version not the crap Hollywood knockoffs) and ‘the exorcist’. Yes books and films have been doing a very good job of scaring the bejeezers out of us for years by immersing people diegetically to the point of tuning out everything that is external of the novel or movie , but what about the medium of video games?

It can’t really be said that horror based video games are a particularly new genre, but from what I've noticed we are seeing an increase in popularity. Some of the most popular video games in this category include: 'Slender’, ‘Amnesia’, the ‘Dead Space’ series as well as the ‘Fear’ series. In fact the popularity of horror based video games has risen to the point where some You Tuber’s such as the user ‘pewdiepie’ can actually make a living from recording himself playing horror games and uploading his videos on YouTube. He currently has over four million subscribers who watch his scared and humorous reactions while being intra-diegetically immersed in horror based video games.

Pewdiepie’s reactions to these games are genuine, and despite the fact that he plays games full time, he occasionally finds himself so intra-diegetically immersed into some games that frighten him that he actually has to quit the game and search for pictures of cute kittens on the internet to recover from the shock he receives from some games.

So what sets video games apart from books and movies?

What makes video games unique is how the medium is interactive, which in turn makes it an ideal vessel for the horror genre. When one is frightened from a book they are a reader, when one is frightened from a movie they are a viewer but when someone is frightened by a video game they are a player; A person with an active role of engaging with the medium instead of the passive role of simply receiving information. This plays a big role in how the horror genre is re-imagined in an increasingly digital world. In a way I guess it can be thought of as the experience of visiting ‘Spookers’ but in a virtual space. When you visit Spookers you can decide on which attractions to go to, in whatever order and paths made possible by the creators of the horror based attractions. In a video game, the player chooses where they want to go and in whatever order that the creators of the made possible. In saying that, although the game creators have set out particular routes for the player to complete, the power is still with the player. The player progresses the narration and experiences of the game by simply choosing to continue to play. Also how the player chooses to play the game directly affects the way in which the game will affect the player, requiring a level of performance. In mediums such as books or movies very little is needed beyond basic understanding of language used by the medium, whereas with video games, sufficient understanding of the video games limitations and expectations have to be combined with enough skill to progress if one has the intention to complete the game.

It is this control by the player creates a sense of agency attached to video games that makes it simple to engage with the medium on an intra-diegetically immersed level. As mentioned in the reading, the player and the player character will merge as kind of a hybrid of man and machine. The player acts through the player character through instinct as they are immersed into the constructed reality in-game reality. No more are those searching for means to frighten themselves reduced to reading about or watching an on-screen panicked character. A character, who in the most clichéd of manners will most likely decide to flee upstairs in hopes of escaping a pursuer with murderous intent. With video games, the character, will not head to a dead end……and their own impending doom unless the player controlling them decides to do so. What video games do is merge the character with the person intending to unfold characters story, the narrative is in the players hands, and it is exactly the sense of agency creates the possibilities of intra-diegetic/situational immersion that puts the player in the shoes of the character. This interactive type of immersion that merges the reality of the gamer with the constructed in-game reality does a wonderful thing when combined with the horror genre, it has the potential to frighten people in new, “heart racing”, and “jump out of your seat and scream” ways.