Creepypasta
This leads me into Creepypasta. What
the hell is Creepypasta, I hear you ask. Creepypasta is a wiki site created for
the intention of collecting and distributing ghost stories, more specifically,
internet horror stories. These stories have often been passed on forums and
other sites with the intention to scare, frighten, un-nerve and disturb those
who read. Creepypasta comes in many different media formats such as images,
video, writing and, most importantly for me, games!
Creepypasta and
Pre-Existing Content
The 2 types of Creepypasta video games
I want to talk about. The first type are the games that are made, created or re
designed versions of pre existing games and stories that are already made. The
best way to describe this it to show you. I will start off discussing a well
known popular game most people will be familiar with; Sonic.
Creepypasta: Sonic and
Sonic.exe
Everyone remembers playing, or is aware
of, Sonic the Hedgehog; That small, super fast, blue hedgehog who collected
rings. Well, prepare to have everything you knew and loved about Sonic ruined,
as it was for me, when I tell you more about this particular Creepypasta.
Sonic.exe is a Creepypasta horror
story. It is a re-imagined version of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game
whereby a boy is sent a strange version of the game from his friend who states
that odd things started happening to him after he played and that the disc needed to be
destroyed and not played. The story documents the boys encounter with the game
as he refuses to destroy it, describing every aspect of the game to the
audience. The story can be found on
Creepypasta HERE. It isn’t
particularly *that* scary although the prospect is disturbing. It is pretty
creepy though.
So, this leads us onto Sonic.exe the video game. After publishing the story, it got a fair amount of attention and resulted in a fan making their own playable version of the game with the same title. A play through can be seen below (skip to roughly 1 minute)
So, this leads us onto Sonic.exe the video game. After publishing the story, it got a fair amount of attention and resulted in a fan making their own playable version of the game with the same title. A play through can be seen below (skip to roughly 1 minute)
Sonic.exe,
Pre-Existing Content and my Project
Alright, so now you know about the
Creepypasta story and the game created about it, but how do they link to my
topic? Well I stated that this is an example of how a video game is being used
to communicate and express a story using pre existing content. The pre existing
content are, of course, the original Sonic game and the Creepypasta horror
story.
Creepypasta and New/Orignal
Content
The second type of Creepypasta video
game I want to talk about is Slender , or more specifically, Slender the Eight
Pages. The reason I am going to talk about this game is because it originates
from an internet horror story that, as far as I am aware, isn’t themed or based
on anything else. It is original in its own right and therefore differentiates
from Sonic.exe because Sonic was already a “thing” before the Sonic.exe story
and game were created.
What is Slender Man?
According to Wikipedia, Slender Man is
“a fictional character that originated as an internet meme created by Victor
Surge on the Something Awful Forums in 2009. It is depicted as resembling a
thin, unnaturally tall man with a blank face and featureless face, and wearing
a black suit. The Slender Man is commonly said to stalk, abduct, or traumatize
people, particularly children”.
The images below are ones that have
been created to back up the story in an attempt to try and convince the
audience into believing in Slender.
So, how terrifying is that? A scary
entity that has no face and stalks children D: To ensure I don’t stray off
subject, I want to talk about how video games have been used to communicate,
document and re create the dark story and urban legend of Slender Man. The
Creepypasta site has many stories relating to Slender Man which are used to
scare and disturb the audience. Of course there is absolutely no evidence such
a creature exists but people go out of their way to try and convince people
that the stories are true and through play; video games are just another way of
doing so.
Slender The Eight
Pages
Right, so now that we know what slender
man is I can begin to talk about the game. Slender: The Eight Pages is a free
downloadable first person survival horror game. It is entirely influenced by
and based upon the urban legend/internet horror sensation “Slender Man”.
The game has little next to no
narrative other than what players and the audience already understand about
Slender Man which is why it makes this an interesting game to study for
project.
Whilst Slender: The Eight Pages isn’t
trying to communicate something realistic, such as Papo & Yo, it is still trying
to document and express the stories behind the game. The angle I want to spin
this from is that Slender: The Eight Pages got famous among players who didn’t
even really know what Slender Man is, they played off the basis and hear say
that the game was terrifying and therefore they wanted to witness this
themselves.
The only real goal in the game is to
find and discover the 8 pages. The pages seem to be related to the Slender Man
in varying forms of drawings and words to disturb the player. Every time a
piece of paper is found the Slender Man gets closer to catching the player. It
is suggested that you play as a young girl who has hoped over a fence to get
home however you end up lost in the wood with Slender Man stalking you.
Whilst this may not be the most
academic relation between my essay subject and content I still feel that its
relevant. Slender: The Eight Pages went on to spark many different variations
of the game, all being known for they basic gameplay mechanics and terrifying
atmospheres but what some people fail to comprehend is the dark sinister story
behind the games. An odd entity that stalks children to kill them is indeed
scary and this is communicated well through the medium of a video game; it puts
players in that situation.
Slender: The Eight Pages might not be trying to communicate a realistic theme but it certainly tells a dark alternative story other than “wow this game is scary”
Slender: The Eight Pages might not be trying to communicate a realistic theme but it certainly tells a dark alternative story other than “wow this game is scary”
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