Shakespeare in Digital Games and Virtual Worlds

Abstract

<jats:p>Shakespeare’s plays have long flirted with using various artistic and medial forms other than theatre, such as cinema, music, visual arts, television, comics, animation and, lately, digital games and virtual worlds. Especially in the 20th and 21st century, a fascination with Shakespeare both as a historical and theatrical figure and as a playwright has become evident in screen based media (cinema, television and video), ranging from “faithful,” almost documented performances of his plays to free style adaptations or vague film references. Digital games and virtual worlds carry on this tradition of the transmedial journey of Shakespeare’s plays to screen based media but top it up with new forms of interaction and performativity. For the first time in the history of mankind everyone can enjoy firsthand from his armchair and for free the experience of taking part in a play by the Bard by entering a virtual world as if it was a stage and by assuming roles through avatars. The article attempts first to introduce the reader to the deeper needs that gave rise to animation, a fundamental aspect of digital gaming and virtual worlds. It then tries to illuminate the various facets of digital performance and gaming, especially in relation to Shakespeare-themed and inspired digital games and virtual worlds, by putting forward some axes of classification. Finally, it both suggests some ideas that may be of use in rendering the Shakespeare gaming experience more “complete” and “theatrical” and ends by acknowledging the immense potential for the exploration of theatricality and performativity in digital games and virtual worlds.</jats:p>

The Art of Adaptation in Film and Video Games

“…Bloom maintains that there are three broad types of Shakespeare game: 'theatre-making' games, which use simulation or strategic gameplay conventions to explore the experience of creating and/or staging an Elizabethan Arts 2020, 9, 122 drama; 'scholar-making' games, which centre on trivia and tests in order to improve the players' knowledge of Shakespeare's works; and 'drama-making' games, where the player takes on the role of one of Shakespeare's characters or is able to interact with them, either within the established narrative of one of his plays or in some other context (Bloom 2015, p. 115). In addition, Eleni Timplalexi adds (as components of the drama-making category defined by Bloom) digital performances of Shakespeare's plays that take place within video game engines and environments and existing videogames that are officially or unofficially modified to add Shakespearean content (Timplalexi 2018).These types of games can potentially be understood as paratetextual adaptations as defined by Sherry (2012), in that they do not directly transpose the narratives of the plays into a new media format, but focus on more peripheral or secondary elements. Theatre-making and scholar-making games typically aim to educate the player, directing them back to the past.…”

“…However, drama-making games often tend to focus on a narrow or singular aspect of a play that can be easily translated into interactivity through the kind of 'procedural adaptation' identified by Wiese (Wiese 2009). For example, the feuds and rivalries between Montagues and Capulets from Romeo and Juliet are represented in the Sims 2 (Maxis Redwood Shores 2004) neighbourhood 'Veronaville', and the martial and strategic elements of the war against the French in Henry V are turned into a campaign for the strategy game Empire Earth (Stainless Steel Studios 2001) (Timplalexi 2018). The MMORPG Arden 1: the World of William Shakespeare (Castronova 2007) allows players to interact with Shakespearean characters outside the context of their plays (Best 2011) and the experimental art game Deus Ex Machina (Automata UK 1984) delivers gameplay and narrative that is based on a single soliloquy, engaging thematically with its source, Twelfth Night, rather than through a direct adaptation of its plot (Cornfield et al 2018).…”