“May you find your worth in the waking world” : dissociative storytelling in the action role-playing game Bloodborne (2015)

Abstract

This Master’s Thesis is a study on the action role-playing game Bloodborne (2015) with the aim of investigating the game’s storytelling that in this study is presented as dissociative. The study is conducted as a close reading of the game, and the objective is to investigate how Bloodborne utilises dissociative storytelling elements and how the theoretical framework of this paper can bring the elements into view. The analytical framework of this study combines Pérez-Latorre, Oliva, and Besalú’s (2017) hybrid approach of social-semiotic theory towards game analysis and Fiske’s (1987) model of horizontal and vertical intertextuality which adds an intertextual dimension to the analysis of a game that both utilises and subverts established textual references. The framework is complemented by Rajewsky’s (2005) conceptualisation of the intermedial gap which in this study is argued to characterise the space generated by the subversion of intertextual references, resulting in the dissociative quality of the storytelling.

Dissecting Bloodborne within the framework of social-semiotic theory of video game design indicates that the elusive quality of the game’s narrative comes from the employment of elements like embedded narratives, environmental and indexical storytelling, and the game rules and the system, as opposed to relying on more overt methods of relaying information to the player. Adding Fiske’s intertextual framework into the examination reveals that reflecting the game against the canvas of textual influences both makes for a more comprehensive reading of the game and underlines the role of the audiences in unpacking the meanings of the text.

The most important finding of the study is that the game not only employs the genre-specific and textual references but also subverts them. In this paper, the subversion is argued to be perceived as a manifestation of Rajewsky’s intermedial gap which provides the story its dissociative quality. This study also argues that the intermedial gap is utilised as a functional storytelling device.