Monomyth and Hero's Image Transformation in Videogames

Section Philosophy

MONOMYTH AND HERO’S IMAGE TRANSFORMATION IN VIDEOGAMES

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ekaterina Galanina' Kesearch Associate Alexander Vetushinskly* 'Tomsk Polytechnic University, Tomsk State University, Russia ^M.V, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

ABSTRACT Tliis paper is devoted to the philosophical research of videogames as a phenomenon of modem culture. The subject for study is myth and mythological structures in videogames. Videogames represent value and meaning related constructions of the modem dpoque. However, they fulfill mythological elements inherent to the archaic consciousness at the same time because the archaic story of the hero’s way consisting of the three basic stages - exodus, initiation, and returning along with the appearance of the hero’s image in videogames monomyth (J. Campbell) that becomes the basic narrative structure. The purpose of writing this paper is studying formation and transformation protagonist’s image and monomyth in videogames on the example of Metal Gear Solid. In this paper we study the representation of monomyth in videogames and the transformation of the hero’s image that is connected with the deeper image work out in modem videogames that leads to a sort of “democratization” of the hero phenomenon. Heroes of the past arc being left behind, videogames arc moving to the post-heroic dpoque that coincides with the transfer from escapism to post-escapism. Keywords: game studies, videogame, myth, monomyth, hero

I.NTRODUCTION Videogames were bom in scientific laboratories in the 1950-ics. 20 years after they were coming from closed scientific and educational institutions starting to bring good income to their creators [1]. Despite the fact that gaming industry has existed for about half a century and is a significant cultural phenomenon, videogames arc understudied compared to cinematography, literature, theatre, etc. What is more, videogames are a powerful influence tool, taking peculiarity of the medium itself and its popularity into account. Studying videogames is of crucial importance for understanding their entity, role and place in modem culture. Videogames continue to be considered by many people to be an escapist phenomenon. A point of view according to which videogames lead us to some false reality, to the fictitious world diverting people from reality remains quite popular. A gamer is talked about as a traitor of the tme reality: he is weak, not brave, he is not able to accept the world as it is, that’s what makes him leave it and join the world of dreams and fantasies, where everything is much more simple than in reality [2]. Using the elements of archaic mythologies by videogames allegedly encourages even greater escapism, because that way videogames bring us back to the childhood of humanity, to primitive culture that has already been overreached by the “mature”

https://doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2018/2.2 547 S"* International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences & Arts SCil.M 20lx

culture. Although, such assertions sound quite assertive being addressed by the media all the time. In fact, videogames haven’t been escapist for quite a long time. Today, videogames don’t only lead us away from reality, but they bring us back to ц proposing the opportunity of better solutions of life problems. Gamergatc. garnificaiion, game-based learning, social problems anxiety - all those characterize the modem stage of videogames industry development, that is called post-escapist for a reason Videogames are ceasing to be merely an entertainment, they touch upon social issues, they become an instrument of critical analysis. Such changes affect videogames contents and their perception by society, heroes’ images, assessing the heroic change as well. The purpo.se of writing this article is studying formation and transformation of a hero’s image and monomyth in videogames on the example of Metal Gear Solid senes. Talking about establishing and developing a hero’s image in videogames we will use Campbell’s work in which he proposed a universal mythological scheme - the monomyth [4]. That model of a hero’s travel is present in all ancient mythologies, folklore, epos, literature, cinematography, etc. even Uxlay. Even though the phenomenon of the heroic it.scif and monomyth is represented in many .spheres of culture, in videogames these phenomena haven’t been studied well enough.

BIRTH OF Л HERO IN VIDEOGAMES In first videogames, both commercial and purely scientific (c.g. Tennis for Two, Топц) there was no hero as such. In those games, a player manipulated geometrical objects. First attempts to use the heroic appeared in videogames along with anthropomorphic characters. In order to make the elements on the screen look like possible heroes the> needed to be given human features - affection, will, thinking and decision making. One of the first games in which a player controlled a human was Adventure released in 1979 on Atari 2600. In that game you played for a knight that came to a castle to tight a dragon. But it lacked heroic narrative and the structure that would tell about coming through .series of trials. What is more, the hero himself was a small square. The situation changed in Superman for Atari 2600 relea.scd in 1979. Unlike Adventure it hud a character that кюкеО like a person. The climax of that movement on Atari 2600 was the game Pitfall! released in 1982. That was one of the first platformers in histors' ob\ iousl\ created under the influence of Indiana Jones. Although Indiana Jones was definitel) a hero it is hard to tell the same about the protagonist of Pitfall!. There is no specific stiir\ development in the game. That is why it is almost impossible to tell whether Harr) is a hero from the very beginning or he becomes one after the adventure. It is easier to sa> that 1 larry is not yet a hero. Heroes appeared in videogames thanks to the Japanese developers. The Atari gener.ition is not yet a heroic epoque, but the generation of NES - is totally heroic. If .Atari made the heroic possible by creating anthropomorphic characters, it was Nintendo that created real heroes. If Mario from Donkey Kong (1981 arcade machine), for instance, was not a full-fledged hero for the conflict of the game was unclear, Mario from Super Mario Bros. (NES videogame, 1985) was already a real hero who went for an adventure full of danger to rescue a kidnapped princess.

548 Section Philosophy

Super Mario Bros, was followed by a whole series of heroic games - The Legend o f Zelda, Contra, Castlevania, Ghost'n’Gohlins, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Mega Man. They have anthropomorphic characters, however, from then on we don’t just look after them, we get to know their story. I.c., the main innovation of the.se videogames was minimal narrative telling of a character’s quest full of threats and dangers that only a hero can tackle. Of course, such narrative was not created by Nintendo, it is the legacy of manga, really popular in Japan. Unlike Atari the Nintendo console was able not ju.st to work with visuals, but also give them small portions of tc.xt (like in silent movies). It should be noted that the characters themselves came to video games not from literature, but from cinema. First and foremost, this is due to the fact that video games, like cinema, have visual media. But apart from this, a .special role here was played by that particular place that Western culture occupied in the Japane.se imagination. The fact is that in the game industry, the Japanese came trying to copy Western products: Sega and Taito came into the industry with clones of the Pong slot machines: Nintendo did this with the clone of the home Pong console; Namco entered the gaming industry having acquired the Atari plant in Tokyo after the unsuccessful exit of the American company to the Japanese market [1]. Although, the situation changed after the relea.se of Space Invaders by Taito and Pac-Man by Namco that became the most successful games of their time, the content of Japanese console games remained .secondary to the Western primarily American popular culture for a long time. For example, let’s consider the video game Contra. On the title screen, we see two characters of the videogame that are a reference to the cult heroes of .Лтепсап films. One of them is copied from Schwarzenegger, the other - from Stallone. To be more precise, one is copied from the Terminator, the other is from Rambo. The videogame makes them its characters. From the very beginning, a player understands that he is not playing ordinary soldiers but real heroes nothing can .stand to. Moreover, if you plunge into the content of the game levels your knowledge of this adventure becomes even more unexpected, as Terminator and Rambo went on a hunt against the endless enemy armies in order to defeat the xenomorphs from "Alien” by Ridley Scott! Such a mixture of Western popular media franchises is almo.st a classic situation for Japanese video games of the mid-19X0-ics. A similar situation took place in Snatcher by liideo Kojima. The protagoni.st was a clear reference to the character of Harrison Ford in “Blade Runner”, and another character of the videogame - a reference to Sting from the “Dune”. In another videogame of the Japanese game designer Policenauts we encounter a similar phenomenon: the main characters of the videogame arc the characters of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the movie “Lethal Weapon”. In legendary Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, the faces of all the characters that can be contacted by the walkie-talkie are clearly traced. So. the protagonist is Mel Gibson, the main antagonist is Sean Connery, the auxiliary characters arc Tom Beringer, Dolph Lungren, and Bob Hoskins. In addition, the face of the scientist who created the Metal Gear was copied from Albert Einstein. Such exploitation of the well-known and popular images made it possible to introduce a dimension of the heroic no one would doubt. No additional words, narratives and explanations were needed here. You play by an extraordinary character who only shows that he is not like everyone else. This is how video games became a haven for a whole

https://d0i.0rg/l 0.5593/sgcmsocial2018/2.2 549 S'** International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences & Arts SGLM 20ls f galaxy of new heroes ereated on the basis of Schwarzenegger, Van Damme. IJrucc l.cc and other famous actors. Such heroes will remain in video games for a long time. Even American game developers will continue to work with them. For example, such popular video games from Id SoAwarc, like Wolfenstein 3D or Doom present the heroes who arc ready to go to the end not experiencing any emotions except anger. These heroes are completely reduced to their external representation (big mu.scics, ultramu.scularity) and completely deprived of the inner world (feelings, emotions, fear, anxiety).

MONOMVTH IN VIDEOGA.MES As we have already mentioned, the first condition for the appearance of a hero in videogames was the creation of anthropomorphic characters (this condition was met m the early l9S0-ics). The second step was the creation of a heroic narrative (the condition was met by the mid-1980-ics). The heroic narrative was originally built on the basis of universal mythological structures. As a rule, such narrative was ba.scd on the idea of eliminating the chaos that arose randomly and returning to the original order. There arc two main scenarios: 1) something invaded our world / country / city / village (if we refer to 1980, they arc extraterrestrial invaders, daemons) and now this should be banished; 2) something was stolen from our world (usually a princess) and now it is time to go on a trip to get the stolen back. Thus, the universal mythological structure of the narrati\e known as monomyth also came to videogames by the mid-l980-ics. Tlie central block of monomyth has three basic clcmcnts-stages: exodus, initiation, return. The hero goes on a trip from the everyday world to a different world, where he encounters fantastic powers and triumphs over them, then he returns endowed w ith the ability to bring benefits to fellow tribesmen [4]. The hero's journey is a stable >et of elements that reflects deep processes in human psychic, it refers to the collectse unconscious. This explains why such stories from ancient times to our days have had universal influential power. The structure of monomyth is common for various kinds of narratives. However, in first videogames even that wasn’t there. If we consider video games of the 1980-ies. players did not know why the heroes began their Journey. It became clear only towards the end of a game. Such stage of monomyth as exixlus. as a rule, was dropped out. however, the pre-history of characters could be spelled out in special documents that came with a game. Only with the appearance of small cut scenes (such as in Ninja Gaiilcn, 1988) the .stage of exodus got its legitimate place in videogames. In our opinion, the structure of monomyth and the very image of the hero came m videogames from cinematography. It was the movies that videogame de\eloper' oriented on in terms of telling stories. In its entirety, monomyth was realized only in the mid-l990-ics thanks to the PlayStation generation. It was when such games as \U uti Gear Solid. Resident Evil. Final Fantasy VII. Tomb Raider, Silent I HU, etc. were released. Full-fledged narratives were not inferior in quality and elaboration to the be't film models. A key role here was played by 3D graphics, realistic sound and light, .r well as perfectly designed cut scenes. If the central block of monomyth was embodied in videogames by the end of the 1980- ies. then in the mid-I990-ies it was possible to meet a more complete set of all the

550 Section Philosophy nionomyth components. Voglcr wrote in "The Writer’s Journey”: The Mythic Structure for Writers sets the following monomyth elements: the ordinary world; the call to adventure; refusal of the call; meeting the mentor; crossing the threshold; tests, allies, enemies; approaching the cave: the ordeal; the reward; the road buck; resurrection; returning with the elixir [5]. All these mythological structures can be found in literature and cinema, for example, in the Hollywood products, which videogame developers t'orresponded to.

TRANSFORMATION OF THE HERO IMAGE IN VIDEOGA.MES To study monomyth and transformation of the hero image in videogames we chose the Melal Gear Solid series for several reasons: firstly, it is an example of a heroic work; secondly, the games that precede the Metal Gear Solid franchise send us back to the birth of the heroes (Melal Gear was released in 1987, Melal Gear 2: Solid Snake - in 1990); thirdly, the game series covers 17 years in the gaming industry, and if we count 28 years with regard to predecessor games, then, all this makes the series unique for investigating changes in the image of the hero, the very concept of heroic, as well as the hero's journey. So. the first Melal Gear Solid was relca.sed in 1998. The protagonist of the videogame - Solid Snake was also the hero in 1987 and 1990. Consider how the videogame uses the monomyth .structure. In the opening video it becomes clear that after the events of the previous games Snake resigned and settled in Alaska (the ordinary world). However, at some point the soldiers burst in and take him by force (the call to adventure). Snake refused to help the military (refusal of the call), but the colonel he had previously served with persuaded him to help (meeting the mentor). As a result, he went to the island of Shadow Moses (cro.ssing the threshold) and faced a whole series of difilculties (te.sts, allies, enemies). Several times he found himself in a very disadvantageous position, then learned that he him.self was infected with a deadly virus that he infected all the enemies with (approaching the cave). Despite this, he withstood all the trial.s, defeated the most dangerous weapon Metal Gear Rex (the ordeal) and saved the daughter of Colonel Meryl (the reward). As a result, he and Meryl got out of the complex (the road back). However, the enemy was still alive, but at the exit from the complex he died from the virus. Snake’s virus for some reason spared (resurrection). All ended with the fact that Snake and Meryl drove away, and the world threat was prevented (returning with the elixir). Thus, Metal Gear Solid has the structure of monomyth in the basis of its narrative, the ancient scheme of the hero's journey myth. This structure in many ways helps developers .show that we have a real hero. Note that if earlier his heroism was clear without unnecessary words and explanations (Snake is Mel Gibson, Van Damme and Kurt Russell in one person), now for this purpose a special rationale is introduced: Snake is an artificially created clone of the greatest soldier of all time, the Big Boss, he killed in the game of 1990. The image of the hero here is based on the idea of the early 1990-ics that the hero should be special, not like everyone else. I.e., the hero cannot be anyone, but only the one who is destined from the very beginning. In 2001 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons o f Liberty was released, it underwent significant changes. Snake remained a hero, but now the player controls him only a small part of the game time, and all the rest of the time he manages a specially introduced new https://doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2018/2.2 551 5"' Inicmalional Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences & Arts S(il.M 20|x

character, who initially docs not carry anything heroic in himself. Thus, the developers move the focus from the story of the hero to the story of his becoming. However, due to the contra.st between the two characters, a player is able to feel how heroic Solid Snake is. And if before the 2000-s the protagonist in a videogame could only be a real hero, which was clearly represented with his appearance and history then later the heroic becomes something unattainable. A player can only watch the hero from the outside, not embodying himself with one. I.e., there are still heroes, it's not us anymore, though In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater of 2004 the image of the hero is changed c\cn more. The main hero is no longer Solid Snake. It is some nameless protagonist. Now the main character is Big Boss him.sclf, the clone of whom Snake was. His image is no longer the image of a .soulles.s. mu.scular, single-player hero from the past. Players sec an ordinary person who experiences a variety of emotions and feelings, including affection and fear. If Snake was created artificially, in his case, as Sartre would say. ihc entity precedes existence, then in the case of Big Boss it is existence that precedes essence. The new character was not bom a hero, he became such in many ways forced under the inlluence of circumstances. Thus, the hero is no longer something transcendent and inaccessible, but an ordinary person of flesh and blood with the same passions and weaknesses as all the rest. A hero is the one who despite all the weaknesses is ready to take responsibility and change something in this world. But now they are ordinary people, and now they are real heroes. In 200X Meta! Gear Solid 4: Guns o f the Patriots was released. The protagonist is Solid Snake again. However, some kind of wrong Snake is what we see on the screen, he is quite different from what we knew of him before. Considering that he was a clone, he starts to grow old quickly, and at the age of 30 he looks like he is 60. In this sense, ihe videogame turns into a rather depressing story about how the greatest hero departs. The fourth part of Metal Gear Solid is a farewell to Solid Snake, which is a metaphor of farewell to the era of heroes in general. Henceforth, they no longer have a place in Ihe gaming industry. There are no longer those who are able to save us. Now everyone should be responsible for one.self and one’s world. The Terminator and Rambo are getting old and the same fate awaits the heroes of classic videogames. Although Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (2011) and Metal Gear Solid i llif Phantom Pain (2015) once again returned players to the times of Big Boss, the emphasis has shifted to managing the base and a private military company. Now it becomes clear that the hero himself is only the "tip of the iceberg". In rcalitv. everything functions only bccau.se many professional people participate in it. Militars operations arc turning into recruiting new soldiers, training them, obtaining new data, creating new types of weapons, and so on. The metaphysics of the heroic (there is a savior, he is not like everyone else and it is only him who is able to save everyone) ь replaced by the understanding that the hero is just a symbol. This is clearb demonstrated by Metal Gear Solid У: The Phantom Pain, in which it becomes clear that the hero of the whole game was Just an ordinary soldier and not the Big Boss. We believe that the change that we saw throughout the Metal Gear Solid series pervade' the entire gaming industry. Heroes leave and we enter the po.st-heroic era, fhi> transition, in our opinion, coincides with the transition from cscapi.sm to post-eseapi>n'- bccau.se modem heroes arc not mountains of male muscles, they arc old men (who do not pretend to be young), children (who do not behave older than others), women (who

552 Section Philosophy arc not just a sexualized fantasy of male players), as well as sexual and ethnic niinorities.

CONCLUSION Thus, in this article we showed that for the heroic phenomenon to appear in videogames it was necessary to meet two conditions: firstly, the presence of anthropomorphic characters that appeared by the beginning of the 1980-ies: secondly, the creation of a heroic narrative, which was done in the mid-1980-ies. When these two conditions were met, the central block of monomyth began to function, which was more fully realized only by the mid-1990-ics. Then the technology reached the level of cinematographic visualization in telling and showing stories. At the same time, a classic .story for monomyth about the hero's becoming is created. In our opinion, the hero and the structure of the hero's Journey came to video games thanks to the cinema. In the course of time, the image of the hero changed toward democratization. In this sense, the modem era of videogames can be called not only post-e.scapist, but also post-heroic.

FUNDING The research is carried out as a part of the scientific project MK-1560.2018.6 “Video games in the context of post-non-classical culture: myth, real, virtual” supported by The Ministry of Education and Science of The Russian Federation, grant of the Presidential Program for Young Scientists.

REFERENCES [1] Donovan T. Replay: The History of Video Games. Yellow Ant. 2010, 516 p. [2] Sokolov E. A Traitor’s Luck: Debates on Video Games? Logos. 2015, 1(103). pp. 157-179. [3] The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture, Seven Stories Press. 2015,256 p. [4j Campbell J. The hero with a thousand faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990,439 p. [5] Vogler C. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Michael Wiese Productions. 1998, 326 p.

LUDOGRAPHY William Higinbotham (1958) Tennis fo r Two. Atari (1972) Pong. Atari. Atari (1979) Adventure. Atari. Atari (1979) Superman. Atari. Activision (1982) Pitfall! Activision.

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Nintendo (1981) Donkey Kong. Nintendo. Nintendo (1985) Super Mario Bros. Nintendo. Capcom (1985) Ghost'n'Cohlins. Capeom. Nintendo (1986) The Legend o f Zeida. Nintendo. Konami (1986) Castlevania. Konami. Konami (1987) Contra. Konami. Enix (1986) Dragon Quest. Enix. Square (1987) Final Fantasy. Square. Capcom (1987) Mega Man. Capcom. Taito (1978) Space Invaders. Taito. Namco (1980) Pac-Man. Namco. Konami (1988) Snatcher. Konami. Konami (1994) Policenauts. Konami. Konami (1990) Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Konami. Id Software (1992) Wolfenstein 3D. Apogee Software. Id Software (1993) Doom. GT Interactive. Teemo (1988) Ninja Gaiden. Teemo. Core Design (1996) Tomb Raider. Eidos Interactive. Capcom (1996) Resident Evil. Capcom. Square (1997) Final Fantasy VII. Square. Konami (1998) Metal Gear Solid. Konami. Konami (1999) Silent Hill. Konami. Konami (1987) Metal Gear. Konami. Konami (2001) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons o f Liberty. Konami. Konami (2004) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Konami. Kojima Productions (2008) Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns o f the Patriots. Konami. Kojima Productions (2010) Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Konami. Kojima Productions (2015) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Konami.

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