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Adam Sharp

Analysis of a digital military based game

The word military is uniformly recognised as having a somewhat symbiotic relationship with conflict,
and conflict is rife within the world of Dark Souls (2011). Dark Souls is a world filled with bleak
outcomes, fire and darkness, set in a medieval fantasy setting, Dark Souls is a third person action
adventure game where death lurks around every corner. The purpose of this paper is to prove the use
of difficulty and death in a video game to create simulation and strengthen narrative using auto
ethnographic research and citation.
In a somewhat narrow but appropriate article Yang (2010) argues over the term of "good" game
design using Aristotle and Plato as reputable constructs of modern Western philosophy. Yang writes
that Aristotle argues that a society works to ensure the prosperity of individual citizens, and at the
time of Aristotle that was a very small slice of society, educated, rich, male land owners. This
minority can only achieve this self-actualization from the help of society. Relating this to games
design the "citizen" Aristotle speaks of would be the hardcore gamer, so using this philosophy a "good
game" would be one catering only to the most hardcore of players, allowing them to excel and feel a
sense of accomplishment at the expense of accessibility to a wider audience. This description aptly
fits Dark Souls, even Dark Souls producer Daisuke Uchiyama in an interview with Sullivan (2012)
says
"We often ask ourselves: why do people continue to play, continue to torture themselves, when
playing this difficult game..."
The developers at From Soft created Dark Souls with difficulty in mind, Sullivan (2012) continues,
relating this construct to that of 8bit games which were designed to be punishing such as Mega Man
(1987), or swallow up all your money like arcade titles Pac Man (1979) or Pong (1972). Dark Souls is
designed in a fashion that rewards the player for defeating a particularly challenging encounter, such
as a towering knight or giant dragon. Uchiyama (2012) says the harder the encounter the more
exhilarating the feeling upon overcoming it. Using Sullivan's framework we can theorise the potential
target audience of the game to be players looking for a sense of accomplishment, which perhaps grew
up with the 8bit generation of games, placing them somewhere in the 22-38 demographic.
Death is used as a mechanic in the game to teach the player as well as punish, it teaches you the
enemy attack patterns, to learn when to dodge, what gear to use, what weapon to equip and when the
invincibility frames of animation are whilst rolling away. Death is the instructions that teach you, like
a reverse simulation, there are no rules given just earned through trial and error. Galloway (2004)
speaks of 2 types of realism revolving around their central structure, being a fantasy world Dark Souls
can't offer realistic representation but its narrative themes are realistic in that heavy armour impedes
stamina regeneration and makes dodging harder, as oppose to light armour which enables fleet
footing. Galloway calls this type of realism realistic narrative, Dark Souls effectively simulates real
world aspects but in a fantasy environment. Simulation is an aspect of realism where Dark Souls
draws its greatest strength, there are no lengthy tutorials, only a brief explanation of the controls, but
stumbling across new mechanics and tricks to cheat the game is part of the appeal. When the player
dies he does leave a tutorial of sorts in his wake, a blood stain which other players online can see and
interact with, when they do theyre treated to a ghostly visage of your character and how he died. The
ghostly bloodstains can teach the player where he can or cannot go, and what to expect around the
next corner. Players can also leave written messages for other players from a pre-set of chosen words,
these messages can be used to entice a player for treasure when really only death awaits them if they
follow your message. In affect the game is recruiting other players to help them to kill you, but the

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messages can be helpful as well, warning the player of upcoming ambushes. Even the homepage of
the Dark Souls website is called preparetodie.com a further indication of the developer's intention of
creating a death driven experience.
Dark Souls features a very implicit narrative making the player rely on item descriptions and character
dialogue to piece together the narrative. Don't expect a single character to offer reams of exposition on
the world of Dark Souls, instead they assume a shared understanding, or lack thereof, of the world
they inhabit. Only by reading every item description and exhausting every dialogue option may a
player piece together not only the narrative of the world but of those inhabiting it, making the story
abstract.
Death is the main theme of the narrative a well, or rather undeath. Undeath has spread across the land
and the undead are corralled off into an asylum far from civilisation, much like how during WWII
Nazis ostracized the Jewish people to concentration camps, undead are sent to an asylum for all
eternity. The game feels like a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, the catastrophe being that the dead are
rising again, however unlike traditional zombie archetype undead, the undead in Dark Souls can still
function much in the same way as everyone else. The protagonist of the game is himself undead but
by consuming humanity its possible to reverse the process and become human again, if the player is
killed as human he then loses any souls he has accrued and returns to being undead. So if the player
can interact with the surviving humans despite being undead, what makes him different from the rest,
the fact he is the chosen one? This type of segregation is described in an article by Woodley (2011)
as a fear of the other something common in America and much of civilised society today; he claims
there has never been a society who has not participated in the excesses caused by this fear.
Magic is present in the form of holy faith miracles, sorceries and pyromancies. It seems unusual not to
combine pyromancies and sorceries together however its likely used to emphasise the importance of
fire in the world. Examples of the fear of the other is once again shown in the rivalries between
clerics believing sorcerers to be using the devils magic, and the sorcerers snubbing the intangible
faith of the clerics miracles. The fact that the surviving peoples cant even band together to fight a
perceived common enemy is an example of conflict within conflict.
Being undead causes the characters in game to crave humanity, if they don't absorb some they can
enrage and become hollow, having no control over their actions attacking anything with humanity.
Freuds Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1922) outlines his belief in a "death drive" whereby the body
seeks to return to an inorganic state, sometimes expressed outwardly as aggression. The death drive is
prevalent in the undead outwardly as the rabid nature of the hollow state, and internally as they decay,
perhaps fighting only to hope to be defeated to finally rest in peace. This theory would fit one of the
two endings in which the age of fire is over and the age of dark begins, as it is alluded that all
humanity would die and the world reborn anew, meaning the undead would finally die the purpose
of the dead drive. The alternative to ending the age of fire is to instead walk into the flame and kindle
it using your own humanity and body to be burned for all time. Nobody explains the eternal pain
befalling you by kindling the fire, which is why it's hard to determine which of the possible endings
the good or bad ending is. This could be the developers social commentary on the human condition.
Alasdair Macintyre wrote about the human condition as a means for us to search for purpose in life
and a meaning, which is ironic as much time has no doubt been spent trying to find meaning in the
endings or indeed narrative in Dark Souls.
Covenants and magic exist in the game and through these we perceive a clearer picture of where
characters are aligned to, for example the clerics and teachers of miracles are members of The Way of

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White. The Way of White seeks to learn the means to kindle bonfires to sustain the power of the gods
and worship the Great Lord Gwyn. Petrus of Thorolund is a member of The Way of White and whilst
accompanying a party of his fellows and a priestess of The Way of White in the catacombs, Petrus
flees in fear and leaves the priestess for dead. The player rescues the priestess who seemingly holds
no grudge toward Petrus but Petrus reveals he has sin within him, and unless killed by the player will
kill the priestess to cover his tracks. Petrus is wolf in sheeps clothing despite being a member a
covenant which most closely resembles a religion. Rash actions and abandoning faith are commonly
shown within dire circumstances in post-apocalyptic media. The climax of J.R.R.Tolkiens the Lord of
the Rings trilogy, in which Frodo finds he is unable to part with the ring when he could finally destroy
it, is another example of the way the mind becomes unstable in extreme conditions. At the least Dark
Souls asks an interesting question of should you kill Petrus to save the priestess, although the option is
never exposed to you in such clear cut terms, most players would simply wonder where she went
without the realisation of his crime.

Fig1: Showing the giant deity Gwendolyn.

Despite pre conceptions that hardcore gamers are mainly men, there is a lot of unusual imagery used
within the game to showcase the more feminine aspects. Dark Souls can be played as a female
character however gender is largely unimportant as the player is usually encased in giant suits of
armour, that being said all of the fire keepers within the game are female. Fire keepers are women
who keep specific fires in Dark Souls kindled, these retreats serve as a welcome reprieve from battle
and restore the players healing flasks, symbolism akin to that of a caring mother. The Fire Keepers are
all in some way disfigured and their soul attracts humanity, the Fire Keepers require humanity to keep
the fires burning, so perhaps humanity is attracted to females with hardships. The motherly

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symbolism continues in one of the God figures in the game being portrayed as a giant buxom woman
(see fig 1) who aids the player. The creative director Hidetaka Miyazaki refers to this female deity as a
giant caring woman that we all lost when we grew up (Giant Bomb 2013), proving a symbolic link
between mothers and female characters within Dark Souls. This kind of relationship is described best
by Sigmund Freud in his 1899 book The Interpretation of Dreams as the Oedipus complex. The
Oedipus complex is the theory that every child unconsciously wishes to sexually possess his mother
and is jealous of his father, seeing him as the main rival of attention between himself and the mother,
or vice versa with girls and their fathers. The fire keepers fall into Jungs Mother archetype, described
in Phenomenology of the Self (1951) Jung saw the mother as the most important archetype describing
them as nurturing and comforting.

Conclusion
A happy ending will not be found in Dark Souls, both endings involve death, which seems apt for
game that revolves around death and struggle. Death is used as the primary means to drive the player
forward and teaches the player to respect the smallest enemy as much as the biggest, doing so allows
the game to be completed at the starting experience level. The only person in game who isnt selfishly
pursuing their own endeavours is the silent protagonist, who follows the ideals of those around him,
which is a mistake as many of the characters hide behind Jungs personas following hidden selffulfilling agendas. This exploitation of the player to achieve other characters goals is linked in the
treatment of the disabled, being forced to guard fires and nurture the player. The undead are exploited
in their own way, being expelled as foreign when the gods themselves create them unknowingly,
showcasing the fear of the other, when ironically it is the other who saves the world. Unlike
modern day military simulators Dark Souls functions akin to a reverse simulator, offering a lot to take
in with little explanation, forcing the player to rely on experimentation and community to succeed.
Death happens in Dark Souls often, but in death simulation and respect are formed; the player begins
dead and ends the game in death, which is symbiotic of the circle of the life in the world.

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References
Dark Souls. From Software. Namco Bandai Games. October 2011. Playstation 3
7Force (2012) Dark Souls Design Works Translation [Online] Available from:
http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/7force/blog/dark-souls-design-works-translation-creatingthe-w/97235/ [Accessed 11/4/2013]
Fig 1. Gwendolyn (2011) Image [Online] Available from: http://www.giantbomb.com/darksouls/3030-32697/forums/dark-souls-design-works-translation-npcs-and-monst-571026/
[Accessed 12/4/13]
Sullivan, Lucas (2012) Dark Souls Interview - Secret items and design philosophies for the
PC's Prepare to Die Edition [Online] Available from: http://www.gamesradar.com/darksouls-interview-secret-items-and-design-philosophies-pcs-prepare-die-edition/ [Accessed
11/4/13]
Yang, Robert (2010) Philosophy of Game Design - Part two [Online] Available from:
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Britannica (No date) Encyclopaedia Britannica [Online] Available
from:http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/425451/Oedipus-complex [Accessed
11/4/13]
Galloway, Alexander (2004) Social Realism in gaming [Online] Available from:
http://www.gamestudies.org/0401/galloway/ [Accessed 11/04/13]
Jung, Karl (1953) The archetypes and the collective unconscious. Second Ed. Available from
http://www.butler-bowdon.com/carl-jung-archetypes-collective-unconcious [Accessed
11/4/13]
Berry, William (2011) How recognizing your death drive may save you [Online] Available
from: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-second-noble-truth/201110/howrecognizing-your-death-drive-may-save-you [Accessed 11/4/13]
Woodley, Randy (2011) Racism and the Fear of the Other [Online] Available from:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/emergentvillage/2011/12/racism-and-the-fear-of-the-other-byrandy-woodley/ [Accessed 11/4/13]
Macintyre, Alasdair (2001) Dependent Rational Animals: Why Human Beings Need the
Virtues
J.R.Tolkiens (30/08/2012). The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. 2nd ed. Harper Collins.

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