‘The Time Is out of Joint’: Interactivity and Player Agency in Videogame Adaptations of Hamlet

Abstract

Although Shakespeare and his plays have been a frequent subject of videogame adaptations in the past, these have often been confined to either theatre-making games (which present the staging of Shakespeare plays using the mechanisms of strategy or simulation videogame genres) of education/trivia games that aim to familiarise players with Shakespeare’s texts. While references to Shakespeare abound in videogames, there have been relatively few attempts to directly adapt one of his plays into the form of an interactive videogame narrative, where the player controls one or more of the principal characters and can affect the outcome of the story. This paper will examine four videogame adaptations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, whose differing approaches to player-agency and interactivity in relation to narrative of the classic play demonstrate the interactive potential of Shakespearean drama. While the player-driven overwriting or rewriting of the classic text may appear irreverent, it is, in each game, dependent on some conception the original play and the past tradition that it represents, which is translated into the contemporary medium of the videogame. This illustrates Jacques Derrida’s contention that the longevity and translatability of Shakespearean texts are due to their ‘spectral’ qualities, in that they allow the past to be re-examined through the lens of the present and vice versa.

The Dark Posthuman

“…23 Ibid.,23. the dark posthuman these same lines end in "variation, expansion, conquest, capture" as a tyranny born of compulsive mapping. 24 These passages open up a means through which to negotiate the ethos of Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy another way. While I agree with King that there certainly is a strong argument for their line of thinking following logic and mode of colonial "acquiescence" that makes "the epistemic revolutions internal to white European humanity possible and seem natural as they dehumanize and kill Indigenous and Black people, " it is possible to interpret their reading of America as veering somewhere significantly beyond the British military ruse of supposed non-engagement, no contact and bodiless conquest.…”

“…23 The legal caveat here was that land seizure was permitted so long as it was "not actually possessed of any Christian Prince, nor inhabited by Christian People. " 24 Beyond that, it was up to Raleigh and his company alone to determine if those lands that "shall seeme good" enough "to haue, horde, occupie and enjoy. " 25 If they seemed that way to them, such property came assuredly "with all prerogatives, commodities, jurisdictions, royalties, privileges, franchises, and preheminences" as could be reasonably guaranteed by the Crown.…”

“…That purpose, according to Kristen Simmons, is to rupture "history and install an eventbased logic, rather than inviting structural interrogation. " 24 The discourse of crisis itself performs a particular function insofar as it "seeks to stabilize an institution, practice, or reality rather than interrogate the historical conditions of possibility for that endangerment to occur. " 25 The implication from Simmons's argument is that crisis itself has become an institutional requirement to justify the ongoing policing and repression of various communities of color.…”

Introduction: The Art of Adaptation in Film and Video Games

“…The authors then evaluate the various approaches in the context of evolving and controversial discussions regarding the declining Finnish forests. Novitz (2020) discusses four video game adaptations of Hamlet that offer players agency through character development, scenario outcomes, and other aspects of Shakespeare's narrative. Novitz argues that such adaptations are not exercises in irreverence toward Shakespeare's hallowed text, but rather that they are crucial to keeping Shakespeare's work alive beyond the bounds of elite culture.…”

“…Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" which include a comic strip, two short films, a video poem, and a photographic montage. While the video game adaptations of Hamlet-discussed by Novitz (2020) in this Special Issue-may feel blasphemous to some, remediations of "Prufrock" can instead be considered a natural outgrowth of Eliot's modernist impulse to experiment. In our current era, as image-based digital media continues to crowd out print culture, Freer suggests that experimental, image-rich remediations of literary works like "Prufrock" can help ailing English departments engage student interest.…”