Are Video Games Getting Weirder?
The influence of weird fiction is seen in many 90s-era horror/survival games such as Alone in the Dark (1992), Doom (1993), Resident Evil (1996), Diablo (1997) and Silent Hill (1999). Devil May Cry (2001) also centered around an Eldritch Knight. The Resident Evil and Silent Hill franchises spawned films, and dominated the landscape for the next decade, with newer titles like Geist (2005) having a hard time competing. After the release of the visually stunning but critically panned Silent Hill movie sequel, Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) something interesting happened. The video game franchise petered out, and a new generation of weird video games like Outlast (2013), was spawned. Videogames like Call of Cthulhu (2018), Darkwood (2017), Sundered: Eldritch Edition (2017) and The Shore (2021) are directly inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft, but they are not the only titles inspired by the weird. Also of note is the presence of the weird in dark fantasy games. Final Fantasy XIII-2 (2011) and XIII-3 (2013) took a turn for the weird when godlike antagonist Caius Ballad broke time itself. Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) made the Gods of Thedas flesh in a plotline where zombie-hybrid god wannabe Corypheus is willing to destroy spacetime in order to break into the City of the Gods. The trend will continue in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf (2023) when Elven trickster god Solas tries to destroy the wall between reality as we know it and the veil.
Moderator Sumiko Saulson, Panelists Sarah Walker, D B Spitzer, David Heath
Sumiko Saulson is an award-winning author of Afrosurrealistmulticultural sci-fi and horror. Author of the LOHR Reader’sChoice Award-winning collection Within Me Without Me (Dooky Zines), and the
novel Happiness and Other Diseases (Mocha Memoirs Press). Winner of the Carry the Light Award (2016) BCC Voice "Reframing the Other" contest (2017), Mixy Award (2017), Afrosurrealist Writer Award (2018),), Ladies of Horror Reader’s Choice Award (2021), and the HWA Richard Laymon President’s Award (2021). They write a column called "Writing While Black" for a national Black Newspaper, the San Francisco BayView.
Sarah Walker is an artist, anthropologist, and writer of horror who lives in the Pacific Northwest. Her work, both artistic and written, has been published by multiple publishers and publications like Audient Void, Lovecraft Ezine Press, Vastarien, Planet X Publications, Lovecraft Lunatic Asylum, Oxygenman Books, Antimony and Old Lace, Ladies and Gentlemen of Fantasy, Eighth Tower Publishing, Alien Sun Press, and more. Her first novella is set to be published this spring by Nictitating Press and she has stories coming out soon in 2022 including a short novella written as a tribute to the late great Lucio Fulci. Her illustrated Folk Horror anthology, A Walk in A Darker Wood, which is a collaboration of Folk Horror with the editing expertise of Gordon White, Phil Breach and Duane Pesice came out last winter and is available on Amazon. She is hard at work on the next anthology, a selection of Urban Legend themed Horror set to be published January 2022.
DB Spitzer is a Podcaster and Portland native. Co host, editor and producer of 'People's Guide to the Cthulhu Mythos'. Spitzer's podcast focuses on small press weird fiction and information about the Cthulhu Mythos including writers and creatures.
David has published a blog for seven years called Dave’s Corner of the Universe. Where he covers, comics, Lovecraft and pulp culture. He has been a frequent guest on several podcast including The People’s Guide to the Cthulhu Mythos and Monster Kid Radio. He lives with his extended family in Estacada Oregon on a goat farm.