from our preconceptions so completely headphones off of my head and ran horror game genre: Tom Rhodes explains that the sights and sounds stay with us screaming away from the PC. why he loves horror games in spite of (or for years. perhaps because of) the fact that he Moments like these remind me of why can’t quite bring himself to play them; What were you doing when Kennedy was Doom did that to me. Doom reached out we game, and shine like a beacon, casting Cole Stryker takes a look at a rare horror assassinated? When Neil Armstrong set of my stuttering 486DX2, grabbed me by all misguided criticism of games as lacking gem, Black Dahlia; Jon Schnaars dissects foot on the lunar surface? When the the head and threw me into the muck, in art or relevance into shadow. Games the role of genre conventions in the shuttle exploded? Where were you screaming. move us and make us feel. Games present enjoyment of entertainment (giving us a “when the world stopped turning?” familiar things in new and unusual ways. compelling look at Resident Evil 4 in the I played games with my headphones on Games make us think. process); and Shannon Drake explores Most of us have been asked all of these back then, and somebody, somewhere the most immersive games around, questions and more. Some of us even must have known that. I remember the And pee (a little). Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), in which have answers. Me? I wasn’t even an moment clearly: I had entered a room, the line between the game world and the zygote for the first two events on that and it was quiet - too quiet. I saw When I consider the debate over games real world fade away completely - by list, but the latter two are so ingrained something shiny up on a ledge, and vs. art, I recall a similar controversy design. Enjoy. upon my psyche, affected me so deeply, snaked my way across a slender over the genre of film now known as that I’ll take the sights, sounds and walkway to reach it. It looked to be a “horror.” Makers of horror films have smells of those two days with me to the health power up, and I was in desperate believed for decades that they were at grave. There are events - moments - need. It was torturous work climbing all the forefront of a revolutionary new art that touch us deeply, tear us out of that way, but I knew that if I didn’t go form, and the world of film criticism is ourselves and force us to face that which for it, the next encounter might be my just now catching on. Any list of “top we had previously thought impossible. last. Then, in the quiet, when my mind films” containing the work of Kubrik, for Planes striking buildings - on purpose - was focused on the task of not slipping example, (And in case you’re wondering yeah, that fits. from that tiny ledge into the lava below, - that’s just about all of them.) must by when the pulsing red cross of the power- definition recognize the art of horror. I In response to “Women at the Games, being entertainment, rarely up was only inches away, it hit me. A write this note today with profound Pinnacle” from The Escapist Lounge: capture our attention in quite the same screaming, hissing Imp leapt from confidence that the very best videogame I was one of those women designers that way. After all, we play them to escape around the corner and attacked. The experiences will someday become Ken and Roberta hired to create the shock and awe of daily life, not to tearing sound as the Imp’s sharp claws similarly accepted. adventure games. I did Conquests of replace it. Occasionally, however, there tore through my flesh still echoes in Camelot and Conquests of the Longbow are moments - events - in gaming that mind to this day; as does the feeling of a This week in “It Came from The for them. Sierra was great fun in those transcend. Moments which remove us little pee coming out as I tore my Escapist” we explore the artistry of the days, with a wide-open creative environment the likes of which no longer so on. He was perhaps 12. The other franchise, but I’m not convinced she not a sex symbol? How do we convince exist. I was hired along with my late character was his younger sister, would have been so popular had she not gamers that it’s possible to play a game husband, Australian artist/illustrator tomboy-ish, perhaps 10. appeared first in a groundbreaking and with a girl in it without ogling her Peter Ledger, who did the art for the excellent game. Extremely sexualized polygons? Camelot game. The feedback from THQ was that no women had appeared in games before player ever wants to play a character Tomb Raider, but their success as a - Francis I also write for TV, animation and younger than themselves. This was genre in itself began because of Tomb comics, so I enjoyed the challenge of “Unchangeable Conventional Wisdom” Raider’s popularity, which I believe was In response to “The Truth About bringing storytelling techniques into requiring no proof. So we kept making greatly influenced by the quality of the Little Girls” from The Escapist games. Since then, I’ve continued to do the characters older and older until they game, not just the size of Lara’s boobs. Lounge: It seems that North Americans writing and design for other games, were well-advanced into their teens, but Is it possible that a truly excellent game don’t want little girls featuring in their including console and MMOG, but I would THQ ultimately killed the project anyway. featuring a young girl as its protagonist media. Make a list of all movies intended dearly the opportunity to create another could launch the character-type into the for adult consumption with a little girl as adventure game. Is anybody listening?!!! I’ve always distrusted conventional mainstream? I don’t know, but I think one of the leads; 90% of them are wisdom, having seen it proved wrong so it’s your best bet. horror movies, because there’s - Christy Marx often over the years. After all, who something so darn creepy about little remembers that prior to Tomb Raider it Given the assumption that female girls. But why? Are little girls so strange In response to “The Truth About was conventional wisdom that male characters in games are sex symbols and inexplicable that the only way we Little Girls” from The Escapist gamers wouldn’t want to play any female (which is the case in the industry today), can see them is through the lens of Lounge: This discussion brings me back PC, not no way, no how? I think if the I imagine developers are disinclined to horror? This is certainly not so in Japan, to a project we were pitching to THQ, characters are right for the setting and feature a young female protagonist for which seems to have a cultural youth- back when I worked for GameFX, a THQ- the story, and the gameplay is solid, the fear of being called Humberts fetish. Anime contains a plethora of owned studio. The game was a audience will follow. themselves … and I think the same holds young female protagonists, and the platformer for the PS3 (which at the time true for gamers … I think it is the majority of girls in video games are was still a year or so from launching). - Steve Meretzky Humbert Barrier that is the greatest probably found in Japanese RPG’s There were two main characters and you challenge to young girls running could control one or the other at your To the editor: [In] regards to Bonnie alongside Link, Duke, Lara and Mario. Contrast that to games like the GTA discretion, a la Banjo and Kazooie. One Ruberg’s piece, “The Truth about Little The question becomes, how do we series, bestsellers in North America. character was a budding mad scientist, Girls,” there’s no denying that Lara surmount the Humbert Barrier? How do What can I say, we prefer our women inventing time machines, inter- Croft’s ample breasts are a major driving we convince developers that it’s possible [as] hookers. dimensional portals, rocket shoes, and force behind Tomb Raider’s success as a to feature a female protagonist that is - David - Andrew hence the use of “grrrl” and group photos with cute matching guild shirts. In response to “The Truth About In response to “Asexuality Actually” We should just be proud to be normal Little Girls” from The Escapist from The Escapist Lounge: This is an women (or men) who play games Lounge: Bonnie, time and time again absolutely brilliant piece, and I believe because it’s something we all love to do. you insist in shoving your views on sex the general philosophy behind it extends and game protagonists down our well to other topics of bias and I am not at all surprised that the throats. Stop trying to fit a round world stereotypes in our culture. I think our percentage of women games is at 38% into your square view and whining about entire culture self-obsesses over such (almost every woman I know games to how poor the representation of women stereotypes that we actually end up some degree, and there are plenty more (and girls) is in our games. We get it reinforcing them, rather than beating who would if they had the time) - and I already! them down, and John’s points in this expect it will keep rising. article and the facts he presents seem to I understand you view the world through support that. - Grumpator a lens that magnifies sex and sexuality, but please try to look around it, or, if you - GammaLeak can’t, stop repeating the same mantra in every article you write for the Escapist. In response to “Asexuality Actually” from The Escapist Lounge: Great - Itamar article! I’m a woman, I game, and have been for many years. I enjoy selections To the editor: [To consider] the topic in from lots of different genres. Women, a different way: Why has it taken women like men, have individual tastes - I know so long to realize that gaming is fun? It’s both men and women who think GTA is the current player base. Just like the sick, but still enjoy plenty of other games. geek in the chat forum might actually be a mature nice guy without socialization I don’t think gender should be used to problems; its almost impossible to tell as stereotype tastes in gaming, or they are surrounded by wankers. This stereotype who plays. Many women makes separating the diamonds from the gamers overreact to prove they can filth very difficult. game and still be sexy or feminine - Genre, as a tool for cinematic analysis, generic horror conventions — in essence, didn’t really come into its own until the creating the quintessential survival/ 1960s. Drawing on their literary horror gaming experience by mirroring predecessors, critics during this period what’s made horror movies so were able to develop and deploy the key successful. It is by examining these tenets of genre theory in their efforts to generic elements that we can come to a analyze the Studio Era films of the ‘30s better understanding of how and why and ‘40s. These tools continue to shape RE4 took such a monumental step in our own filmic interactions today, and defining a genre and redefining what while few have turned their critical eye genre in gaming can be. toward questions of genre and gaming, there is no better place to start than the Genre is about economy. By sharing a survival/horror genre. mutual language, creators and consumers agree to communicate things While many of survival/horror’s that would only waste valuable conventions can be traced back to early exposition time. This concept makes home consoles and arcade cabinets, genre an even more powerful tool in most consider Capcom’s Sweet Home to gaming because, unlike films, which are be the first true survival/horror game. passively viewed, the space of the Atari’s Alone in the Dark, which debuted interaction is the space of the story. three years later, brought the genre to Designers, therefore, must rely more the U.S. Since Alone, little has changed. heavily on our shared assumptions when integrating plot into the gameplay. In 2005, however, Capcom released Resident Evil 4. Both a critical and In genre-based films, we identify with commercial smash hit, RE4 lays claim to onscreen characters that act against survival/horror by incorporating the set common sense or social norms with an pieces and themes that define the genre, expectation of future actions that either but goes beyond rehashing what has reward or punish that behavior. When worked in the past. Game designers our expectations are met, we receive drew more liberally from the canon of genre pleasure. Think about how many times you’ve sat hooker on the ground, is our reward for and watched a slasher film with someone breaking free of our social constraints in only to hear them complain, “Why is she an exercise in fantasy. going into the woods all by herself?!” In reality, we know why the character In film, the ability to provide genre insists on wandering off alone. In fact, pleasure can be the difference between we expect her to wander off alone, and it continued box-office success and failure. is through these expectations and their Today, the horror genre remains a draw accompanying fulfillment — when the for a number of reasons; chief among to a slasher massacre or monster run unsuspecting scream queen gets hacked these is the theme of the return of the amok, we are asked to take up the to pieces — that we derive pleasure from repressed. Horror incorporates many of controller in active participation with the watching genre-based films. the hidden desires and drives that nightmare — to not only watch the hero permeate our unconscious mind. The vanquish the manifestation of our In much the same way, games are death drive, the expression of infantile repressed anxieties, but to vanquish developed to match consumers’ narcissism and the breakdown of “family them ourselves. expectations. In fact, one might argue values” all have their part to play here. that virtually every narrative game is built Horror turns a mirror on our innermost When Capcom created RE4, one of the around the idea of affording the gamer as fears and anxieties, and by exposing our first and most important decisions they much genre pleasure as possible. own frailties, allows us a respite to carry made was to move the setting to Europe. on with our daily lives. This opened a great many doors for Take Grand Theft Auto. We all know that them, including the ability to create the rampant violence in GTA contradicts Horror films represent, as critic Robin atmospheres that would be wholly virtually every moral statute of our Wood wrote in his essay, “Return of the unbelievable if the game were set in the society. Nevertheless, when we take Repressed”: “at once the personal modern day United States. control of the character, spraying bullets dreams of their makers and the and performing sordid tasks, we get collective dreams of their audiences — In the game’s opening, the scenery satisfaction from our actions. This is the fusion made possible by the shared provides a clue as to where and when we because, in the game’s diegesis, our structures of a common ideology.” This are traveling. Knotted, barren trees fill actions are not just warranted, they’re comment rings even truer when we the scene as we look through the front expected. Genre pleasure, that warm approach the question of horror in windshield of a police SUV jostling down feeling you get when you see a dead games. Instead of being mere spectators an unpaved road. This type of rural

piece again plays to the difference these settings, generic conventions between the urban environment of the culled from decades of horror films and previous survival/horror games and the written into our culture continuously exploited rural landscape. Inside the shape and reshape our gaming house, Leon asks a lone man if he has experience. In the Village, Leon wooded area is a popular setting in seen Ashley, the President’s daughter, encounters Los Ganados, “the cattle.” We horror films (thinkThe Hills Have Eyes). who we have been sent to find. The man learn that Los Ganados are possessed by Rural and sparsely populated land yells something in Spanish, then picks Las Plagas, a parasite unleashed by a Sr. produces the sustenance that drives up an ax and frantically attacks Leon. Salazar, under orders by a man called urban and suburban life. Because of this Lord Saddler. Critics of zombie horror disparity, horror cinema has been the Firing at this crazed attacker, we’re have long drawn the connection between vehicle through which the subjugated granted our first instance of genre Marx’s proletarian bodies, exploited by get their revenge by terrorizing the pleasure. Unlike reality, we can dispatch the bourgeoisie, and the possessed civilized that wander too far into the our problems here with a gun. bodies of the undead, dedicated to a woods. A version of this theme plays out Approaching the body, we are able to lifetime of consumption. in the first part of the game. “Check” it. The game tells us, almost humorously, “He’s not a zombie.” While it Once inside the Castle, a whole new slew As the car slows and one of the may seem like an aside, this information of horror conventions confront the policemen exits to relieve himself, we sets the entire plot in motion. gamer. The castle’s main hall conjures are treated to another easily memories of Tod Browning’s Dracula. recognizable convention of horror Continued exploration reveals a slew of The Gothic architecture works in cinema. From a first-person perspective, human skulls rotting underneath the conjunction with images of the unholy the camera crawls through the bushes, stairs. Leon can only remark to himself Los Illuminados cult (to which Salazar alerting us to the presence of unseen that he hopes Ashley is safe. At this and Saddler belong) to play on various actors. Because we recognize this effect point, our escorts are thrown to their generic motifs. from virtually every slasher film since death as a group of decidedly un- Psycho, it serves to further heighten our zombie-like beings besiege Leon. The We learn that Las Plagas were released generic expectations. action takes off and rarely subsides for from underground. This, coupled with the remainder of the game. scenes of Leon battling giant bug-like Once out of the car, Leon, the main creatures in the sewer, emphasizes the character (now controlled by the player), RE4 is a game cut into three parts: theme of a rotten foundation, or bad approaches a rundown house. This set Village, Castle and Island. In each of land, below the Castle — a common part of many horror staples, including The film, this practice has been commonplace Black Cat and, more recently, Poltergeist. since the 1960s, but as RE4 demonstrates, genre has its part to play The Island setting is straight in videogames, as well. By utilizing the technological horror. It is here that economy of shared genre conventions, Saddler’s experimentation with Las Capcom was able to create the highest Plagas is revealed, as Leon must achievement in survival/horror. dispatch the seemingly invincible Regenerators. The dangers of technology Films from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari are addressed in many horror films (see and Nosferatu to Devil’s Rejects and any Cronenberg film), which manifest as Hostel allow audiences to face their Leon passes through laboratory areas fears, but games demand more. In RE4, with half-finished experiments and we become Leon as we move into an esoteric, threatening devices. unknown world filled with unspeakable evils. The powers that drive Lord Saddler Perhaps the most important change lurk in all of us, somewhere below the made in the game mechanics of RE4 was surface waiting to be awoken like Las fixing the camera behind Leon, providing Plagas. Wielding a Punisher or Riot Gun, a tight third-person shot through which all we can do is battle back, allowing the player could experience the action. ourselves a glimpse of the repressed, but Through this move, Leon has become no more. We might buy the game for the every protagonist from every horror film fright, but we don’t receive our true ever made. He is the lone survivor; genre pleasure until the sun rises on a steadily trudging into the dark when all new, peaceful day and evil has been laid our instincts tell us it’s a bad idea. And to rest once again. as the player, it is actually us proceeding into the dark, receiving (when we’re not Jon Schnaars is a freelance writer with getting beheaded) our genre pleasure. interests in genre and representation in gaming. He blogs full-time about issues Genre is a tool that both informs and in psychology and mental health for drives our understanding of a text. In Treatment Online. I love survival/horror - the creepy B-movie wily and rare breed: the horror fan coolness of Resident Evil, the disturbing without the bal- err, constitution to mellifluous nature ofSilent Hill and even actually go into the games that so the cyber-terror of System Shock. All of fascinate them. In my case, I get very them are decked in a richness all their connected to characters in games, own, while maintaining a whisper, and especially the ones I control; so when I occasional shout, of the unspeakable actually try to enter one of these frightful darkness that lives within us. worlds, I freak out. Even with the lights on, in broad daylight and with people no Yet, even as I revel in their unnerving more than 20 feet away, I simply can’t sensibilities, I am a neophyte to them. roam those foggy sidewalks or dank You see, I’m a Survival/Horror Poser tunnels without being forced to set down (SHP). I have immersed myself in the the controller. Could you imagine what plots, timelines and characters of the would happen if I turned up the surround games all while having never picked up a sound in the dead of night with all the controller to play any of them. I know all lights off? I don’t really know, but I have about James Sunderland’s terrible a feeling a Tom-shaped hole would secret, how the T-Virus escaped into mysteriously appear in the side of the Raccoon City and why that “bathtub house come the next morning. scene” is so shocking. But even as I know these things, I have never And this is the real issue for us SHPs. We experienced them. are just too involved in the games to separate from them. Horror movies have Oh, sure, I once thought I was alone, but little to no effect on me, and I breeze I’m convinced I’m not. There are others through Stephen King novels like they out there, perhaps even reading this very were nothing, but put me into a game article, now secure in the knowledge that world where my actions can affect the they, too, are not all by themselves. outcome, and everything goes straight to hell. One could say that this is some For the many of you scratching your deep-seated childhood issue about heads, I don’t blame you. The SHP is a monsters in the closet or what have you, but I know the real reason: survival. The Resident Evil 2 was a game I first got the conquered one of the titans of the genre very name of the genre defines those opportunity to play when it was ported to I so avoided. Sure, Silent Hill was out of who are excluded from it. the N64, utilizing “revolutionary” my reach, and F.E.A.R. would probably compression technology to fit the audio and remain just an acronym, but, that day, I Think about it: Once our destinies video onto the cartridge (i.e., crappy sound was victorious! become interlinked, albeit tenuously, and artifact-laden video). Having heard so with that of the main character, we grow much about it, I simply had to play. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go connected with them. I am not sitting on see if I can get my nephew to check the couch pushing a stick and watching a Readers who recall my fondness for under my bed. It’s dark under there … three-dimensional character run through playing as characters with breasts will dynamically-generated fog; no, I am that know that I selected the lovely Claire character. I feel my legs pumping, the Redfield to guide me through the hellish Tom Rhodes is a writer and filmmaker chill of the dark, earthbound clouds post-apocalyptic streets of Raccoon City. currently living in Ohio. He can be hitting my face as I run through them, reached through [email protected]. the sounds of the unknown all around Unfortunately, I can’t tell you exactly how me. What person in their right mind it went from beginning to end, because it would put themselves in that situation? took me three months to finish, what with Are you friggin nuts? all the stops and starts I took. I do remember the moment when a Licker “Sorry, honey, I know you’re dead, so jumped through a one-way mirror in the there’s really no way you could have police station; I just about ruined the written me a letter. We loved each other fabric I was sitting on. I cursed out all the and had companionship, but who needs game developers and the entire disturbed that, anyway? The only companions I unholy horde at Capcom. need right now are Mr. Valium and Mrs. Prozac, and what a fine trio we make.” I did make it, though, and that’s something for which I am proud. As that I did fully immerse myself in one game, last, blocky cinematic exploded onto the however; I even got all the way through screen, I had a real feeling of it (and I was so proud of myself). accomplishment. I, an avid SHP, had The mid-‘90s endured a glut of Myst-like known to be obsessed with uncovering point-and-click adventure games, and ancient religious artifacts and icons not many received fewer accolades than believed to hold supernatural power. Take-Two’s maligned Black Dahlia. The During the war, Himmler dabbled in film-noir whodunit’s big selling point was occult mysticism in his effort to achieve not its unique storyline or compelling global hegemony. In the game, Elizabeth gameplay, but a brief cameo appearance Short was murdered by Himmler’s by Dennis Hopper. underlings as a human sacrifice to ancient Teutonic gods. Like Wolfenstein The game was lambasted by reviewers, before it, Black Dahlia utilized the who said gameplay took a backseat to scariest combo in the history of bad storytelling rife with wooden acting humankind: Nazis and demons. and cheesy dialogue. Additionally, Black Dahlia’s cinematic And yet, there was something magical restraint sets it apart from other schlock- about Black Dahlia that kept me awake horror games populating shelves. The night after night. The game employed a lack of high-octane action makes for Hitchcockian use of “slow-burn simmering tension and growing fear. As suspense.” You spend most of your time Alfred Hitchcock would say, “There is no investigating crime scenes, sleuthing for terror in the bang, only in the clues and interrogating suspects. No anticipation of it.” blood, no gore, no classic “zombie dog jumping through a window” moments. Zombie dogs won’t keep us awake at The game’s scare technique is similar to night. The precious few Black Dahlias, the classic Rosemary’s Baby. And therein however, will keep our minds racing and lie Black Dahlia’s charm. our palms sweating.

Loosely based on the real-life butchering When not pointing and clicking, Cole of aspiring Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Stryker writes about music that no one Short, Black Dahlia connects her murder likes at www.screamingmeemies. to a more sinister story. Adolph Hitler’s wordpress.com. loveable sidekick, Heinrich Himmler, was Breaking the fourth wall — stepping worlds like electronic or tabletop games; through the barrier between what is however, they also migrate easily into “game” and what is reality — is still real-space. Your puzzle-solving group largely a gimmick. A handful of games can be infiltrated by a mole from a rival push it to the point of Eternal Darkness group. The killer offs your favorite (a jewel from the GameCube’s Island of character and mentions you by name in Misfit Toys, famous for playing tricks on the recording of the event he makes. you, the player, in the living world) and Everything becomes part of the game in actually toy with you, but it’s usually an ARG. Designers hide messages in more of a snickering, “aren’t we hip” posters, in websites and work in the real acknowledgement that you’re actually world as much as they work in their playing a game. The potential is there, fictional one. though, for so much more. Games can do what other forms of entertainment ARGs began as marketing tools and can’t. Pennywise cannot actually leap out experiments by existing game of It and hide in the storm drain, growling, companies. The Beast and Majestic are “They all float down here,” as you stroll by. among the scions of the family line. Watch Psycho a thousand times, and you Majestic died an ignoble death, tossed probably won’t get stabbed. Games, on the pyre of post-9/11 paranoia, but though, can do more. In gaming, the for a brief moment, game characters killer can reach through the barrier called players in the night, characters between worlds, call you by name, and had IM screen names and there was a brush up against your real life. whole conspiracy to get caught up trying to follow. The Beast was a marketing tool Electronic games may play with the for the movie A.I., and gave birth to a fourth wall, but another genre of games community of eager puzzle-solvers, and their designers take a childlike joy in using everything from codes hidden in infiltrating the real world, pushing their movie posters to puzzles based on lute game events into players’ lives, and notation to unravel the riddle at the getting into their players’ heads. game’s center. Later came the famous Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) build marketing push, I Love Bees, but ARGs are growing up, moving away from somewhere on Earth, and there is a perhaps, mere trickery, as cunning, experiments and marketing gimmicks reward offered for its return, to the tune clever souls (i.e. not me, the PR rep told and becoming a full-fledged genre in of 200,000 real-world dollars. me) will notice the card has a candle on their own right. it. Rubbing your hand on the card, the As it says on the site, “Perplex City friction causing the surface to heat up, Perplex City is an ARG from Mind Candy doesn’t stop when you turn off your will make the letters of the poem fade Design, but it is also a world unto itself, computer. It’s all around you. It’s alive.” away to reveal a series of letters hidden a full-fledged city with a newspaper, At the game’s core, players unravel in the note itself. design agency, publisher, subway mysteries and solve puzzles, which they system, bank, rail system, record label acquire from events on Earth, various On the back of the card is a brief guide and even a high-class ice cream shop. websites or from Perplex City’s puzzle to the game: Collect cards, which range An active community of bloggers (and cards. Puzzle cards come in foil packs from Common (and Easy) to Rare (and characters in the narrative) provides and range in difficulty from simple Difficult), solve the puzzles and win news of the world. “And what world riddles and decoding exercises to Perplex points, which get you fortune would be complete without a vast fiendishly difficult puzzles nigh and glory on the leaderboard, which conspiracy at its heart? unsolvable by mortal men. brings you closer to that huge cash prize.

The Receda Cube was formerly the main The description doesn’t quite do them Solving certain riddles brought me to attraction at the Perplex City Museum justice, as these are not the “1,000 aspiring supervillain and Ad Hoc and is itself a mystery. The Cube is a Super Word Puzzles” books your Polymath Andrea Philips. Andrea was one metallic cube that holds strange powers grandmother got from the supermarket. of the Cloudmakers — the largest and over those who get near it. It is The game’s designers use the cards most active community back in the days beautiful, it is mysterious and it is themselves to toy with you. One of The Beast - and now, she works for missing. The Cube was stolen in very example I have on my desk is a card Mind Candy. When I ask her to explain theatrical fashion by a group of with “The Road Not Taken” on it and a her title, she says, “This means I do a conspirators, possibly backed by a little note that “This is one of Violet’s little bit of whatever it takes to keep the religious cult, and is now missing, much favourite[sic] poems. It’s been hanging game rolling,” be it designing and writing to the dismay of Perplex City residents. around her room as long as I can puzzles, or live event coordination. Where the game breaks the bounds of remember … What is the name of the “fictional world” is in the placement of poet?” The card is named Cold Fission, “Entertainment as a whole seems to be the missing artifact: The Cube is hidden so all signs point to Cold. This is, heading toward a more immersive, participatory experience,” she tells me become influences on the plot. Rather when I ask for a bit of background. “It’s than rooting for a favorite character, they happened in little drips at a time, but it’s can actually work to help them (or been getting a lot steadier. The creative hinder them, as happened in one teams want to give their audience a way particular case). to really affect their experience. So, you have an AOL email address for Homer “I think of what we do as ‘massively itself being in the real world, they also use Simpson,” she says, “Or you have a multiplayer participatory storytelling,’” the media, be it through USA Today , website for some secret society’s cover She tells me how the Mind Candy team coded messages in other publications or business on Alias. Or Veronica Mars’ tries to infiltrate their players’ lives and the “Lost: The Cube” stickers you may journal on her website. I consider all of blur the lines between reality and fantasy. have seen here and there. these pretty ARG-y in nature, even if “Our latest toy is SMS. We’ve been using they haven’t moved to the full-blown that to great advantage to get out Not only do they like infiltrating lives, participatory experience, because they’re breaking news and alert players that real- they like getting dark and scary, all moving toward deeper levels of time events are happening. We’ve also especially if they can use the player’s immersion. Videogames are getting at done the creepy phone call bit: Everyone actions to make the story take a turn for the same thing from another angle, by in a crowded bar gets their phone ringing the macabre. Andrea told me about one de-linear-izing a lot. You don’t really get at the same time, with the same vaguely of their earlier episodes. “Early on in the the feeling that in something like Halo threatening message. Fun stuff.” game, a character named Monica was you’re really affecting the storyline, but killed because of the players’ actions,” meaningful branching seems to be an They’ve even taunted their players with she said. “And a few months later, when up-and-coming design goal. a real, live black helicopter. “[We did] the they were trying to track down a bad infamous live event in London that ended guy, they came across the recording of “With something like Perplex City, we try with a mole from a secret society the murder the killer had made for to pull together the cinema/TV running off and escaping in a shiny black himself.” That was upsetting enough, but immersion bit with that meaningful helicopter,” she says. “A real shiny black when they found the MP3, it was choices bit.” They take it a step further helicopter.” downright horrifying. than the character blogs by letting player interaction with the “fictional” characters On a lighter note, Perplex City is the reason “The MP3 had tags in it,” she continued, have a real effect on the storyline, so not 127 people formed a spontaneous conga “Comments: ‘Do you ever have the only can players follow the world and get line in Trafalgar Square , all in the name of feeling that someone’s watching you? to know the characters, they can also puzzle-solving glory. Aside from the Cube When the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, when you know if you turn round you’ll see them, but you don’t turn round? Are you having that feeling right now?’ The album is listed as: ‘My Greatest Hits.’ The composers are listed as: ‘James, Oliver, Chris, Tim, Rob, Jamie, Guy, Ryan, Matthew, Mat, Paul, Lee, Becky, Josiah, Dee’ — all Perplex and designers, as well. And sometimes, recently been killed, presumably because City Players who were at Clapham getting into the head of their favorite he’d found out a little too much about Common [the event with the helicopter] psychotic killer is a little scary. She these bad guys. And I was writing Sylvia, … The players got the recording by continued, “It’s funny, you try to write this woman who had lost her husband. hacking a music label’s intranet, and it things in character, and then you’re just So I kind of put myself in her place, and became clear right about then that the appalled at the things that come out of all of this unrestrained grief just kind of file had been left there pretty much on you.” It makes you question yourself, like poured out. It’s the kind of thing that purpose for them. And that this guy, ‘V,’ asking, “‘Does this mean, deep down can be both in character and kind of was several jumps ahead of them.” A inside, I’m a psychotic killer/weepy embarrassing all at once. And I found pause for dramatic effect. “How’s that annoying emo/oh so blonde?’ I’ve had a myself really … blue … all the time that I for horror?” I allow that it’s pretty much couple of experiences by now where I’ve was writing on her. Once you get yourself perfect and then ask what it’s like to been writing the same character for a bit that down to do the work, it’s hard to plan something like that. too long and took on some of those snap right back up again, I suppose.” attributes in real life.” “Actually, it all comes down to getting We moved on, then, discussing other into the head of your favorite psychotic I pressed for an example, picturing an ways they’d really like to completely killer and figuring out whathe would ARG designer stalking around like a immerse their players. Her favorite idea? have done. Part of it was that we really, method actor, in character all the time Kidnapping. She really wants to kidnap really loved Monica. We were devastated and very creepy. “Well,” she paused one of you. “I really do! And I don’t think when she died, and we wanted the before continuing. “I think I’m allowed to I’m the only one! In a perfect world, recording out there partly so we could do say this. In that Monica arc, the reason we’d be able to infiltrate your whole something with that character one more she died is because the players set up a world. And the guy you buy your coffee time.” It’s not just the players who come meeting between her and another from every morning would slip you a to love the characters; it’s the writers character, Sylvia. Sylvia’s husband had coded note. And then as soon as you call the phone number it leads to, the power As to Andrea herself, she aspires to a would go out in your house and you’d higher calling: supervillainy. “[It’s] a get kidnapped. These things, they aren’t pretty good gig. You hardly ever have to so very practical, but wouldn’t that be go to prison! And it comes with limitless one killer gaming experience?” She admits wads of cash!” Her supervillain that might limit the appeal to some extent, touchstone? “I might have to go with Lex saying, “I think the group of people who Luthor. Except not look like him. All that like to follow along with a story and boss money and brains, social acceptability, the characters around a little on email is and the diabolical scheming to boot. And much broader than the group who would Superman never really stops much more enjoy being actually kidnapped.” than the plan du jour. There’s nothing like a permanent setback.” She confesses she phone call from one of the game’s They follow a code of ethics, and the wants a “Supervillain Megabomb.” characters, screaming about government rules for puppet masters are fairly Superheroes, be on your guard. agents after him, as happened in Majestic. simple: Don’t get anyone arrested or injured, don’t break up any families and The line between gaming and the real What gives ARGs their power, especially don’t break the integrity of the story. world continues to blur every day, and the power to scare, is the reality they Just about everything else is fair game. ARGs are taking the lead in pushing the create. Suddenly, there really are hidden She gives an example that raised my boundaries to the breaking point. It’s messages in the posters you see and the eyebrows, saying, “There was a game easy to see the appeal of gaming-made- websites you visit. A theft in the virtual run for Audi, Art of the Heist. And I’m real. Playing a game of Assassins keeps world is hidden in the real world. The not clear on the specifics, but they you on edge for days, even weeks, as killer knows your name. There really is a actually ‘killed’ a player at one point in your friends get cut down around you. conspiracy working against you and vast their game. I keep meaning to ask them Then, one day, Phil from Accounting pulls treasure to be gained for defeating how, exactly, they dealt with that.” The the Maverick he’s been hiding and your them. After all, it’s not paranoia if they Art of the Heist was actually an attempt whole body goes electric as, for a few really are out to get you. at an ARG-thriller, “part Bourne Identity adrenaline-charged seconds, you live in meets The Da Vinci Code” per their a John Woo flick. Or the killer from your Shannon Drake likes commas and marketing materials, and managed to “web game” reaches out and calls you by standing out in the rain. rack up 125,000 followers during its run. name. Or you get a frantic late night EDITORIAL PRODUCTION BUSINESS Executive Editor Producer Publisher Julianne Greer Jonathan Hayter Alexander Macris

Content Editor Layout Artist Associate Publishers Joseph Blancato Jessica Fielhauer Jerry Godwin Russ Pitts Gregory Lincoln Lead Web Developer Contributing Editor Whitney Butts Director of Advertising JR Sutich Susan Briglia Web Developer Research Manager Erik Jacobson Chairman of Themis Group Nova Barlow Thomas S. Kurz IT Director Contributors Jason Smith Dan Dormer Shannon Drake Hitchhiker Tom Rhodes Jon Schnaars Cole Stryker Michael Zenke

Volume 1, Issue 51, © 2006. The Escapist is published weekly by Themis Group, Inc. Produced in the United States of America. To contact the editors please email [email protected]. For a free subscription to The Escapist in PDF format please view www.escapistmagazine.com “That’s the old passage to Ravenholm. The klaxons sound and I’m running away We don’t go there anymore,” she says. again, but it’s different this time. I’m not Why, then, does she let her sorrowful simply escaping faceless oppression, the gaze linger just a little bit too long while long arm of the unjust law and gunships foreboding music plays in the background, formed from bits of other alien species. I’m hmm? She’s lying, and Valve made her running into unknown danger, and Alyx’s do it. I blame everything that came after face tells me it’s not going to be pretty. that moment squarely on them. “I” am not included in the “we,” so it’s clear that In Ravenholm, things are, well, I will have to go where few others dare. atmospheric. Music reminiscent of a What’s new, though: This is Half-Life 2 dozen 1970s horror movies blasts from and I’m the Free Man; exempt from the the speakers in an unusually overt rules that govern health, time and inter- manner. These aren’t the familiar 160 dimensional travel. Common sense fits beats-per-minute that helped fuel the into that list well enough. initial escape from City 17; it’s unfamiliar and disconcerting, only matched in its Having spent the past few hours being alien manner by the animal roars that chased through a city, down canals on echo through the dusk after the light has my speedy Gentle Ben/Easy Rider long since faded. motorcycle-type construction and across a wealth of generic industrial estates, I A shape in the distance moves, was pretty much ready for some R&R seemingly adopting the aimless upon reaching Black Mesa East. Yet, the lumbering of a zombie. Approaching it, show must go on, and the construction cautiously, it’s unclear exactly what it is team behind the world I inhabit is until I’m far too close: An ex-inhabitant’s meticulous in their design. I get just lower body swings from the tree by its enough time to absorb events, regain spinal chord. It serves a dual purpose: control of my nerves and play catch with To let me know that this place is different the best computer robot friend of all from the others I’ve visited and to time, and then it all goes to pieces again. distract me from the zombie that’s silently lurching to life a few feet away, up and get you out of there just in the Poison Zombies, looking all too much like in the shadows. nick of time. His crazy mutterings taunt humans that have been eaten by spiders you at first, but he’s just looking after for my liking, are harder to put down I think I actually wee’d myself a little bit. his flock. He’s the captain of this ship and throw Poison Headcrabs at me for called Ravenholm, and he’ll be staying fun. Zombie Skeletons clamber up With a grimace and a slightly nervous with her until the end. drainpipes with a clangclangclangclang feeling in my stomach, though, I manage leaping at my outstretched shotgun with to defeat him and move on, the familiar Realizing that they’ve given me a little ridiculous speed. It’s just not fair, is it? area of saw-blades letting me know that too much security via the mad priest, it’s time to use the mighty grav-gun! Valve taps into my innate fears. They It’s an entire chapter of a game that just “Aha,” say I, “have at you and take some take the familiar, push it through a oozes quality horror; every turn leads to of this!” My new found courage lasts for blender and bring it out of the other side the unexpected and every battle for at least a few minutes until the town tougher, faster, stronger and smarter. survival is desperate, leaving me shaken opens up for me, a mad priest seemingly They take the established conventions of and humbled. I’m left with no choice but saves my life and a pair of zombies smash their way through a boarded up doorway and look in my direction.

Ravenholm’s sheer excellence is easy to understate. There’s no lazy pandering to the obligatory stealth level or any other conventions associated with modern day shooter design. It’s a total shift in the game’s dynamic that is expertly preceded by a period of downtime to let you phase out of combat mode. Then, zombie combat and turn them upside the suspense is built up until your nerves down after a game and a half. Poison are absolutely frayed. Headcrabs, looking and moving all too much like spiders for my liking, emit a Father Gregori offers potential salvation, strange chattering sound from their the town beating you into submission crafty hiding places as they quiver in time and time again only for him to show ecstatic anticipation of eating my face. to learn how to use the gravity gun. The you realize you have to go on alone as playing multiplayer games all alone. It wonder-weapon gives me the edge I Gregori stands against his mutated does give him a sense of belonging, need: health packs and ammo are flung congregation to secure your escape. though, so that’s ok. He hangs out at from one section of the weaving path to www.alwaysblack.com. the next, and I use my new toy to pull On my first play-through, I managed to the power-ups toward me. This is get as far as the first Poison Zombie continually the small difference between before my nerves got the better of me my success and failure. Using the gravity and I had to quit. I spent the next two gun to keep me alive, combined with weeks building up the courage to take on using it navigate an assortment of traps the horrors of Ravenholm again and even and puzzles kept things fresh, the then, the only way I could beat it was in challenges new. a single session that lasted around four hours, leaving me drained and wrecked. It builds to a superb climax, worthy of any horror movie: A last, desperate Few games have managed to raise the stand atop a building while waiting for same levels of fear in me – the System transport to salvation, the clock ticking Shocks and, more recently, Resident Evil as your time between quick-saves ebbs 4 are the only ones that spring to mind. away. Finally, you stand next to Gregori, The problem is I’m never likely to visit but his rantings no longer appear insane. anywhere that looks like the locales in You’ve witnessed the true horror of any of those games. Ravenholm, Ravenholm: A town shelled by the though? It’s ruined the entire Eastern combine, the effects of their payload not European experience for me. I’ll be simply driving the area into submission, sticking to the English beaches, their but warping all that should be familiar cold, dirty sands far more welcoming into a grotesque play. A final sacrifice is than scenery reminiscent of my entirely yet to be made, and with the madman fearful experience. by your side, you battle to escape the horror and leave the wretched place Hitchhiker is a freelance videogames behind. It’s only in the last minutes that journalist who spends too much time “[Games] are, in their superior forms, life. He learned everything he knew simply by-products of excess through self-study, as he was a very intellectuality, which I haven’t the sickly child and was very rarely allowed honour to possess. In their inferior to attend school. His first published work forms they are of course simply was “Dagon,” which went to print in a avenues of escape for persons with too 1923 issue of Weird Tales magazine. poorly proportioned and correlated a Soon afterward, Lovecraft married Sonia perspective to distinguish betwixt the Greene, whom he’d met at a journalists’ frivolous and the relevant ... “ convention. Lovecraft and Greene moved to New York soon after they were wed, - H.P. Lovecraft to James F. Morton, but the relationship was not to last. He February 3, 1932 returned, alone, to Providence and lived with his aunts until they passed away. In the 1920s, a young, poor writer would After the return to Providence, he finally reinvent the horror genre from his home saw some of his more popular stories at 10 Barnes Street in Providence, Rhode see publication. Stories such as “The Island. Misunderstood or ignored in his Case of Charles Dexter Ward” and “At own time, Howard Philips Lovecraft’s the Mountains of Madness” were work has nonetheless echoed across the published in pulp magazines of the day. arts. Literature, movies and even music Just the same, true success eluded him have been shaped and worked by the for much of his life. He died, financially cyclopean terrors and non-Euclidian ruined and wracked with cancer, in March geometry spoken of in his works. of 1937. Stunted and twisted like the “Rats in the Walls,” Lovecraft’s fingerprints join those From these mentally and emotionally of Stoker, Howard and Tolkien in shaping bleak surroundings, it is easy to the face of modern gaming. understand where the unnamed terrors of Lovecraft’s writing originated. His Though we know him today as a master fertile mind and an impressive self- of horror, Lovecraft was almost unknown taught vocabulary led to a unique writing in his own time and lived a fairly quiet style, laden with adjectives. Given As in a mythosian sacrifice, the essence of Alone has been adulterated many times. Despite the game’s grandeur and its cultural icon status, Uwe Boll has publicly defiled its corpse on the silver screen, and a new property is in the works for the PS3.

The transition from thoughtful text- adaptations, it failed to impress the based crawls to action/adventure games world at large. Thankfully, its would be muddied considerably during shortcomings didn’t stop other the ‘90s. Though specifically Lovecraftian developers from trying to get Lovecraft games were few, the hallmarks of “the right. Michael S. Gentry’s Anchorhead dreamer in the deep” were everywhere. perfectly blended both modern and Shub-Niggurath required a good ancient metaphysical horrors; it’s still telefragging in id’s original Quake, and one of my favorite text-based games. the entities from Xen in Half-Life smacked of terrors between the stars. Alone in the With the rise of graphical gaming, Dark has often been credited with being Lovecraft’s writing lent itself to some the grandfather of the Resident Evil still-great modern classics. Alone in the series, and certainly there is a touch of Dark, from I-Motion, is the single most Ithaqua in Nemesis’ transformation. Lovecraft’s somewhat turgid prose, influential horror game of its era. Ed games based on his work were prolific in Carnby and Emily Hartwood traverse Since 2000, two very notable titles have the text adventure era. Infocom’s The Hartwood Manor, encountering the surfaced on mythos-lovers’ radar. Eternal Lurking Horror translated his style into a horrors that old man Hartwood has Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem filed the virtuality of slimy Norths and tentacle- unleashed. Even in a graphical format, serial numbers off of Lovecraft’s work to laden Souths. The game, which played a Lovecraft’s ability to terrify with a line of create a truly disturbing experience. A lot like Zork, put the player into the role text rises to the fore. The line, “They will compelling story of old gods and their of a student at G.U.E. Tech, trapped by a find my body but will not have my soul,” avatars woven together with time travel blizzard in the campus’ computer center. from Hartwood’s chilling letter still and rune-heavy ancient magics made for While it was one of the first Lovecraft makes me look over my shoulder. one of the most compelling story-driven games in recent memory. The clever use influence on many popular non-horror “Cthulhu still lives, too, I suppose, Michael “Zonk” Zenke is Editor of of meta-game trickery added a layer of titles. As with tabletop gaming, horror again in that chasm of stone which has Slashdot Games, a subsite of the real confusion to the play experience: As literature has shaped many of the minds shielded him since the sun was young. technology community Slashdot.org. He your avatar’s sanity declined, your that make the games we play. Homages His accursed city is sunken once more comments regularly on massive games external perception of the game to Lovecraft have been littered ... He must have been trapped by the at the site MMOG Nation. He lives in environment was compromised. Like the throughout videogames since people sinking whilst within his black abyss, or Madison, WI (the best city in the world) protagonist of “The Shadow Out of started putting code to compiler. The else the world would by now be with his wife Katharine. Time,” prolonged exposure to horror best-selling Xbox 360 title this year, screaming with fright and frenzy. Who begets new illusory horrors meant just Oblivion, even contains its own small nod knows the end? What has risen may for the player. to the master of horror: The quest sink, and what has sunk may rise.” “Shadow over Hackdirt” has the player Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the rescuing young Dar-Ma from the “Deep - The Call of Cthulhu Earth is the most modern mythos- One” worshiping cultists south of Chorrol. themed title on offer, released just this past spring on PC and last October for Lovecraft has sparked the imaginations Xbox. With yet another nod to Alone in of countless horror enthusiasts since his the Dark, you take on the role of a death. The time you spent dreading the private investigator searching for clues in shadows on the wall after reading “The the quiet little town of Innsmouth. Call of Cthulhu” shouldn’t embarrass Something fishy is going on there, and you. You were affected, changed, by the the protagonist seeks out that which words of a writer who knew that the man was not meant to know. Dark shadows were more than they seemed. Corners, a highly underrated game, gets That night, touched by his words, you the feel of the mythos correct by forcing saw that there were things you didn’t players to run when face to face with know and were shaken. In a way, your otherworldly adversaries; in Lovecraft’s love of gaming today may be because of universe, man was far from the dominant a writer from Providence. After all, the race. It’s easily the most “accurate” fun part of gaming is the mastery of the Lovecraft-inspired game to date. unknown, the conquering of the darkness; the stock and trade of Howard Beyond the directly mythos-touched Philips Lovecraft. games, it’s easy to see Lovecraft’s It saddens me that it will be some time human’s: It’s that one percent difference before I can truly enjoy survival horror in that, indeed, makes all the difference. a portable fashion. What makes survival/horror games Think about it. Just how many bits of different and harder to translate is that handheld horror can you think of? Maybe unlike most genres, horror isn’t defined you remember Resident Evil: Deadly by the gameplay. Instead, it’s the Silence, which came out in February of thematic elements present in a game that this year, and ... that’s it. And while account for its inclusion in the genre. games like Deadly Silence may be considered part of the genre, they just For example, here’s a garden-variety don’t sit right. They mimic the survival/horror game: Put one person up components necessary to create a against an army of hellish beasts; toss in survival/horror title, but their digital plenty of conventional weaponry to tip make-up is completely different. the scale a tad, but limit the amount of ammunition available (You know, so the Unlike the copious amounts action- player must ration their supply and find adventure or puzzle games on offer, baseball bats to kill the undead laying survival/horror games on handheld siege to wherever he is currently devices just aren’t present. trapped); oh, and make each location a claustrophobic nightmare. Deadly Silence suffers because its very existence is mired in the normal console- So, why is this experience so hard to to-handheld porting ideology. You scale replicate on a portable device? Graphics, down what can be transferred over, and for one, haven’t reached a point where then work on what needs to be fixed to what’s going to be on a portable screen make it playable. This usually leaves you is spooky. Additionally, the size of the with watered-down gameplay and a husk viewing area makes a difference. While of the game’s original atmosphere. And zombies might get someone to jump without the setting and mood to set the when they’re on 19- to 62-inch screens, player off balance, survival/horror suffers. two-inch displays don’t make for a It’s like comparing a monkey’s DNA to a particularly yelp-evoking experience. It’s Sure, zombies running through a city, horror titles on a portable scale. We themselves in a position to be scared, chasing you while releasing the know the constraints, the fact that the and developers have to be willing to occasional spine-chilling moan might be graphics aren’t there yet, there isn’t a reach beyond standard convention to a scary thing to you in general, but massive amount of support, but we have scare them. Until that middle ground is you’re not helping things by playing the to stop focusing on the negatives. It’s reached, we’re left with mediocre scares, like going to see a $50 million horror game in broad daylight. Light and day are time to innovate. and paying another buck to go in the flick and then checking out the haunted warm, comforting entities. Darkness and carnival’s haunted house because the house at a local carnival. Is the latter night, however, put us on edge and make Just like Hideo Kojima broke the fourth horror movie we want to see is still years really going to linger in your mind and us more guarded, and thus, flappable. wall in Metal Gear Solid by having away. haunt your dreams for weeks to come? Psycho Mantis toy with us by reading Remember what it was like when you and commenting on our memory card Dan Dormer is a videogame freelancer, A player’s physical situation also were a kid, reading Sir Arthur Conan save files and even making the screen who keeps a poorly updated blog at his becomes a variable when making the Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles go black like the PlayStation was on the personal site. He’s also afraid of seeing jump from console to handheld. When under your covers by flashlight, growing fritz, developers of portable survival/ scary movies. True story. designing a game for a console, there’s ever more fearful with each word you horror need to try new ways to scaring no real thought that needs to go into read, questioning if that noise was just us. Play with our heads a little: Have the where the player will be. He will be the creaking of the bed, or possibly the brightness shift on the unit to recreate plopped on the couch, on his bed or cry of a being not from this world? We the flickering of lights in a horror movie. sitting directly in front of the TV - inside, have just as much of an impact on how Pull photos and music from our memory in a comfortable place. Once things go scary a game is to us, and as such, sticks and insert them into the game; pocket-sized, though, developers can’t should put forth an earnest effort to how weird would it be to see pictures of count on a player’s attention to be make these survival/horror titles as Mom and Dad on the wall when we take focused entirely on the game. down-right scary as possible. Perhaps a closer look? The cerebral, mental “Play Under the Covers” and “Play After scares are where it’s at, and it’s high So much goes into making an Dusk” should be put on the back of time to capitalize. atmosphere present and noticeable in a packing next to “Memory Stick Required” game. If you’re out in the park in the and “Wi-Fi Compatible (Ad Hoc).” There’s really no simple way to create middle of the afternoon, playing the practical, portable survival/horror scares. game while you’re on the phone with Now, developers can’t force us to sit A compromise between gamers and dogs barking and kids loudly tossing under the covers with our Nintendo DS developers has to come about before we around the pigskin, you’re not going to or Sony PSP, but what they can do is can truly enjoy survival/horror in a be able to appreciate the full experience. rework the way they construct survival/ portable variety. Gamers have to put prepared ... and yet, no. Also, the Joe Blancato, Associate Editor Each week we ask a question of our staff and featured writers to learn a little bit original Silent Hill had a background Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines about them and gain some insight into where they are coming from. This week’s sound in the school courtyard that is still (colon colon colon), in the haunted question is: enough to send chills down my spine. house level. Oh, sweet Jesus, did that scare the hell out of me. JR Sutich, Contributing Editor Half-Life. First encounter with a Julianne Greer, Executive Editor Headcrab. 3:00 a.m. My high-pitched, I don’t play a lot of scary games, but little girl scream woke up everyone in there were a couple of scary moments in the house, including my grandmother. Indigo Prophecy. She called me “Nervous Nelly” all of the next day. Jon Schnaars, “Pleasurable Genres” Shannon Drake, “Breaking the I was going to go with AVP, strictly for Fourth Wall” Russ Pitts, Associate Editor the first 15 terrifying minutes of the Getting tapped to write an article at 5:00 I already answered this question. Who human mission, but those were more p.m. on a Friday with no prior notice. writes these things? OK, my second shocks than scares. The most frightened scariest gaming-related moment: I’ve ever been by a game had to be (Editor’s Note: We love you, Shannon!) Venturing out of the house during a playing 7th Guest when I was 11 or 12. weekend-long tequila and Thief: The Michael Zenke, “Dreading the Dark Project binge (to get more tequila) Tom Rhodes, “Afraid of the Dark” Shadows on the Wall” and realizing that I’d just seriously Getting Barbie Horse Adventure from a The one and only session of F.E.A.R. I considered hitting somebody with a distant aunt one Christmas. Absolutely played at night with the lights off. You’d blackjack and stealing their wallet. Of horrifying. think, after Ringu, I’d have been course my lack of a blackjack stopped me.