Project: Video Game

     In the video games Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty Blackops II: Zombies, and Pirates: Tides of fortune, apocalyptic images and archetypes appear to be woven through the narratives. This imagery and it's meaning may be hard at first for an average gamer to interpret. In order to gain a better understanding of the game's message through archetypes and images, the player must ask themselves "what is the game trying to do and trying tell us?". Through a deeper examination, I discovered the archetype of the apocalypse relevant in all three games. As mentioned earlier in narrative 2, William Wishard defines the apocalypse as "the revelation of new truth." and that "this process operates in four phases: revelation, judgment, destruction, and a new birth." (Wishard). I was able to see this process of the phases in an apocalypse directly through my gameplay.

 

     Within the fighting game Mortal Kombat, the narrative starts out as a vision of one of the main characters, Raiden. It is also notable to mention that Raiden has bright blue eyes which could be a hint of immortality. He sees a series of images in where Shao Khan, the ruler of the antagonist Outerworld has defeated every single opponent fighting in the tournament. Raiden, along with most of the other fighters, are inhabitants of the Earthrealm which is constantly being threatened by Shao Khan and his Outerworld. If the Outerworld wins the tournament, it will consume the protagonist Earthrealm and all of its people and turn it into a chaotic, evil place. This vision that Raiden had was a foreshadowing of a possible apocalypse that could happen if the Earthrealm lost the tournament. This dream is a warning of the possible "revelation of a new truth" we see in an apocalyptic setting. The truth of the Outerworld potentially taking over is revealed. After this revelation, it is up to the gamer to be tested (judged) by the fights to see if they have what it takes to ward off the Outerworld and keep the earthrealm. A player must beat the ruler Shao Khan himself to save earthrealm from destruction and possible new birth (expansion) of the Outerworld.

 

     The Apocalyptic archetype is seen the most clearly through the shooting game Call of Duty Blackops II: Zombies. Through the game, the player only experiences the final two phases of an archetypal apocalypse including destruction and new birth. "The farm looks completely altered and damaged from the effects of the apocalypse that manifested itself there." Occurring from the apocalypse, a new offspring of an infinite number of zombies was created and the player is constantly fighting this evil force as they keep breaking into the map seeking more and more flesh. Along with the redundancy, the Zombies also have extremely bright blue eyes just like "Raiden" from Mortal Kombat. This feature of the zombie, along with the zombie's tenacious attacking, shows an immortal aspect of the zombies. Like I mentioned earlier, The zombie will stop at nothing until it gets his hands on you. This story shows the zombies in a redundant light which agrees upon Freud's idea of the "return of the repressed". According to Freud, "it is the insistent return of the repressed that can explain numerous phenomena that are normally overlooked" (Felluga). In this case, the insistent return of the repressed can explain the phenomena of the Apocalypse.

 

     In the adventure based game Pirates: Tides of Fortune, the apocalyptic archetype was a little harder to find. However, once I found it, I made a connection. Within the beginning of the narrative, my ship gets destroyed and I get captured by Cap'n Bonnie. First, It is automatically revealed to me of my capture and I have no choice but to let my ship go down. in the nautical sense, it can be said that a captain's ship is basically their whole life. A captain puts so much of his heart, soul, and time into his ship. Many ships are referred to as "she" and have woman-like names to further show the respect a captain has for his ship just as the respect he would have for a woman. When Cap'n Bonnie destroys my ship and captures me, In a sense she kills me as well. Like a captain would, my captain's soul goes down with the ship to the dark depths of the sea. When Cap'n Bonnie has me locked away, she offers me a deal to join her as a partner and as a pirate. This can be related to the "new birth" phase of an Apocalypse as I am offered another chance on the high seas along with a new partner, a new crew, and a new soul.

 

     Because these games show immortal characters and some immortal characteristics, the player attains the idea of an actual apocalypse. These themes that show up in the game can give the gamer ideas about an apocalypse in general and can lead the gamer to look at the possibility of a current day apocalypse entailing the fall of society. Within the Holy Bible (Gen. 5.32-10.1), the parable of Noah's ark is told. Within this parable, God only reveals to Noah to collect animals by two and that a flood is coming due to the judgments God has made about the sinful people inhabiting the world. After the destruction of the world by a giant flood, the earth is newly born from it's old life of sin and the animals give birth to new offspring. This story, like the video games I played, contains distinct phases in which are involved in the archetype of an Apocalypse. These video games, along with this parable, can be said to give the player a look into what an apocalypse might look like. This gives the audience a foreshadowing of a possible end to the world as we know it. This could be a warning to our corrupted society to reform and stop leading sinful lives. Some would say that an Apocalpyse is impossible, but the deeper meaning behind these games and parable show that our society thinks about the possibility of an Apocalypse constantly. Based off of the phases in an Apocalypse, we as human beings experience these phases (revelation, judgment, destruction, and a new birth) on a day to day basis. This information tells us that the ideas and concepts of the apocalypse are constantly programed in our culture as humans in a corrupted society.