It's a Monster's World

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
The paper argues that Vampyr (Dontnod Entertainment, 2018), a horror RPG set in early twentieth-century London, casts the player as a doctor-turned-vampire, and its central tension is between what the game mechanically rewards and what its story asks the player to feel, a case of ludonarrative dissonance.
02
The author frames Vampyr as a 'technology of subjectivity,' drawing on Halberstam's theory of monstrous bodies to analyse how the game directs players to act monstrously.
03
Avoiding killing is possible but makes the game markedly harder, while the most efficient way to gain experience is to drain named civilians with personal bonds to the protagonist, often after healing them and exploiting private information about their lives.
04
London is divided into districts with health ratings: maintaining ecological balance through care is rewarded, while neglect brings chaos, roaming monsters, and the disappearance of non-player characters along with their questlines.
05
The paper argues Vampyr deliberately makes morally ambiguous options the only available choices, inverting the hero archetype and asking players to set aside the violence-as-default logic common in digital games.
06
Rather than treating the resulting detachment, or 'emersion,' as a design failure, the author considers it the core of the play experience, arguing that embracing the incongruity of the monstrous protagonist is what the game requires of its player.

Summary

This paper examines Vampyr, a 2018 horror role-playing game by Dontnod Entertainment set in early twentieth-century London, through the lens of ludonarrative dissonance and the construction of monstrosity in play. Its central argument is that Vampyr places the player in the position of a monster, a doctor-turned-vampire whose dual identity as healer and predator creates a persistent tension between what the game mechanically rewards and what its story asks the player to feel. The author positions this tension as a site for analysing the game as a "technology of subjectivity," drawing on Halberstam's theory of monstrous bodies, and asks how the game directs players to act monstrously and what aspects of monstrosity its design draws upon.

The analysis focuses on specific mechanics that complicate conventional role-playing norms. Although the player can avoid killing, doing so makes the game markedly harder, while the most efficient means of gaining experience is draining named civilians who have personal bonds with the protagonist, often after first healing them and exploiting private information about their lives. The game further divides London into districts with health ratings, rewarding the protagonist for maintaining ecological balance through care while punishing neglect with chaos, roaming monsters, and the disappearance of non-player characters along with their questlines.

The paper's broader claim is that Vampyr deliberately makes morally ambiguous options the only available choices, inverting the hero archetype and asking players to set aside the violence-as-default logic common in digital games. Rather than treating the resulting sense of detachment, or "emersion," as a design failure, the author frames it as the core of the play experience, arguing that embracing the incongruity of the monstrous protagonist is what the game requires of its player.