Vampires in Interactive Media: Playing Dead (21st Century Horror)

The figure of the vampire is amongst the most ubiquitous in popular culture, with little sign of it slowing down in film, television or books. However, one overlooked element of the vampire’s cultural impact is how the vampire is implemented into interactive texts―such as video games and board games. This book will show that not only is there a plethora of interactive texts that utilise the tropes of the vampire as an enemy for the player to face but also ones that create a vampiric avatar for the players to utilise. This book will show how no other gothic or horror-orientated figure can surpass the vampire for cultural weight and utility within the interactive space, nor can any of these figures be reconstructed so readily the ways games do with the vampire.