Dark Souls: Spatial-architectural features of the dystopian in a multivalent gamespace

Abstract

Works of art portraying dystopian societies have historically been studied as being analogous to the critique of utopian socialist ideologies - typically viewed as speculative paradigms that are loosely connected by a shared satire or parody of utopian ideals. However, in increasingly precarious times, it has become ever more popular for dystopian artworks (in the broadest sense) to extend beyond this initial framework of 'anti-utopian ideology' to include more nuanced and expansive generic conventions that are markedly distinct from other, corresponding types of speculative or anti-utopian fiction. Thus, the dystopian has developed into a self-standing genre that encompasses speculative futures of humanity in relation to a particular set of social and environmental conditions that are enacted within designated spatial boundaries. Dystopian characteristics seem intrinsically bound in the various storyworlds and imaginative realms that their narratives employ - gradually becoming standardised with pervasive motifs that demonstrate narrative spaces embodying prominent themes of desolation, human suffering, and misery. Beyond this, the tendency for authors and artists to foreground spatial matters by using more interactive media - such as video games - shows a need for more comprehensive bodies of practice regarding the analysis and interpretation of narrative spaces in dystopian works. Mainly, regarding how notions of spatial experience and a storyworld may be utilised to enhance one's understanding of dystopian narratives and their themes. Indeed, I argue that there are prominent spatial-architectural features that work to subtly guide one's comprehension of the dystopian concepts portrayed in an artwork. These emerge as figurative expressions in narrative spaces, using literary devices - such as metaphors, metonymy, allegory, and leitmotifs - to facilitate the conception of a cognitive domain characterised by dystopian tropes. Such features thus allow one to develop a more complete understanding of theunderlying metaphorical meanings communicated by various multivalent spatial-architectural forms and narrativised spaces they comprise. In this sense, multivalence refers to the notion that spatial-architectural forms can express many different kinds of functional and metaphorical meanings, depending on who is interpreting their design and use. To explore these metaphorical meanings and how they relate to dystopian qualities, this study presents an analysis and interpretation of dystopian tropes in the gamespace of Dark Souls - a dark fantasy action-adventure role-playing game set in the desolate kingdom of Lordran. Further interpretations explore the gameworld that emerges from exploring this gamespace, seeking to refine existing terminology regarding the structural qualities of narrative space and its macro- and microstructures. The dystopian has thus become a genre of fictional domains that explores the consequences of corruptible human nature through a character's surroundings and setting. Dark Souls, in particular, offers insight into emotionally evocative content and engaging dystopian themes by confronting players with spaces that invite them into a desolate realm of heartbreak and hardship. Distinct areas that are most emblematic of qualities surrounding misery, dehumanisation, and suffering are thus the focus of investigation in interpreting how spatial-architectural features convey dystopian tropes.