Guest blogger

Hello, I am the author of the horror video game blog Scary Pixels and I will be writing about the representation of ghosts in video games.

Ghosts have a long history in videogames, one of the most recognizable being Boo from the Mario universe. Even with their perceived popularity, ghosts appear in very few videogames that ghosts make an appearance each have various representations of what ghosts are and how much influence they have on the world around them.

Video game ghosts are usually portrayed as malicious towards the player are humans in general. An example of this would be Silent Hill 4: The Room, in which ghosts are among the main antagonists and drain player health (Perry, 2004). These spirits do not have any influence over the game world and are similar to residual type of haunting.  In the F.E.A.R. game series, ghostly antagonist Alma exhibits almost total control over the game world and because of this she could be considered more of a poltergeist (McNamara, 2005).

Some games allow you to directly control a ghost as the player character, usually using possession as a gameplay mechanic. In the game Geist for the GameCube, for example, players are the spirit of a recently deceased person who must use the power of possession to inhabit inanimate objects, animals, and humans in order to escape a military complex that is trying to weaponize ghosts—a silly plot, but not every video game needs an award-winning story (Casamassina, 2005). Another game to use possession as a gameplay mechanic is Ghost Trick for the Nintendo DS. The player must use time travel and possess objects in order to save people from an untimely death and solve a murder mystery (Hatfield, 2011). Very few games have used ghosts as protagonists compared to those that use the concept as antagonists.

In the modern gaming market it seems most games shy away from using ghosts, although some exist that portray them in a less-than-favorable light.

References

Perry, D. (September 7, 2004). Silent Hill 4: The Room [Game Review]. Retrieved From: http://ps2.ign.com/articles/545/545387p1.html

McNamara, T. (October 12, 2005). F.E.A.R. [Game Review]. Retrieved From: http://pc.ign.com/articles/657/657310p1.html

Casamassina, M. (August 12, 2005). Geist [Game Review].  Retrieved From: http://cube.ign.com/articles/641/641641p1.html

Hatfield, D. (January 11, 2011). Ghost Trick Review [Game Review]. Retrieved From: http://ds.ign.com/articles/114/1143540p1.html