by Betheo
© 2009 Beth Sasagi
There is just something about hospital levels in games that send shivers down the spine.
Many games, from the recently released Wolfenstein, to Max Payne 2, to Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway, to Left4Dead, make us nervous spending time in these ominous dens of sickness, madness and death.
In the gaming world hospitals are often atmospheric places where demons lurk in the basement, or gown wearing zombies charge from every corner, or mad torturing doctors await, or we are confronted by ghosts of our past.
Yet, in real life, people do indeed fear hospitals and the gown clad attendants which run them.
• Hospitals in Games
Why so negative?
But why is it that people see hospitals in such a negative and fearful light?
Hospitals are, traditionally, meant to be places of healing and of relief, where fully qualified medical staffs treat aliments and wounds that patients have been afflicted by.
Coming from my own personal view as a Student Nurse, I have often wondered why gaming developers have so often used hospitals as evil haunting places, and in doing so perhaps even spread the irrational fear that often seems to cling to people about these places.
So for you, the reader, I’m going to dig deep and investigate the reasoning behind the human fear and the gaming fear of ‘the hospital’.
What you see is what you fear.
To start with the basics, it could well be the physical appearance of the hospital that leads to so many dark perceptions in the public imagination. The common hospital in any major city or large town is often a large institution with several floors and buildings throughout, which in itself can be intimidating, but does not explain why so many people associate these places with fear.
Often the interior of hospitals are stark white sterile places with an unpleasant smell of disinfectant permeating the air, along with a professional staff that are, excluding nurses in many cases, strictly business.
This clinical detachment over very personal ailments of either themselves or their loved ones can be an overwhelming feeling for your average person who does not get to see the human side of the Ward staff or the doctors around them, and can, to a point, explain some apprehension towards hospitals..
Another sight that could send people into a fearful daze could be the very thing that they should be the least afraid of, other patients.
I have seen with my own eyes, patients who have stared apprehensively at another patient who may be hooked up to many machines, or wandering the halls pushing their drip on a pole that is attached by tubes to them. It seems unnatural and makes the person seem vulnerable or somehow less human.
It is fair to assume that they are perhaps afraid of ending up like this person, or even having to be in the room if this person takes a turn for the worse. So perhaps it is the fear of sick people that drive some to want to avoid hospitals, as they have sick people in them, and these days are even overcrowded.
If you know the patient so much the worse. You have to see them looking unwell, suffering, vulnerable, afraid, sad. Your fears for them make you anxious too. Bad memories are formed of hospitals as places that represent the emotions that everyone tries to avoid.
DOOOOOOOM!!!!
Let’s face it, if you really need to go to hospital it is often for something more serious than the common cold. So it is rational to assume that many people will associate hospitals with severe illness, and maybe even death in some cases.
Especially in these days of ‘bird’ or ‘swine’ flus, it is not completely insane to imagine that, like in the game Left4Dead, hospitals are going to be the place that people who have been infected will be sent to (I worry about it all the time!). So in a sense, this is provides a good reason for game developers to play on our fears and place gamers in these kinds of places for zombies outbreaks, or at least, make a game level in which things go really, really wrong.
It can often be from personal experience that people associate hospitals with bad feelings and, sadly, death. There is no denying it, everyone knows at least one person who has died in a hospital, or, someone they know has had this happen. Illness, the wasting away of a person sick or dying, reminds us of our own mortality. Although it is a sad fact of life, it is also perhaps one of the biggest reasons why people fear hospitals so much and why they are often portrayed in games in such a hauntingly dark and gloomy light.
Since many have died in hospitals, some who are inclined to believe in ghosts lingering on might find hospitals make them feel distinctly uncomfortable. Games often use this nightmare/ paranormal element to scare the gamer (F.E.A.R. 2 hospital level (link provided) is an example).
Dr. Death and his minions
Yes, I work in the hospital infamous here in Australia for Dr. Death, a man accused of killing over 80 of his patients. Sure, in a Wolfenstein game you’d expect a mad doctor to perform tests on and kill patients, but in the public health system you’d never want your fears of an incompetent or dangerous doctor treating you or your loved ones should you need care to be possible. In the past nurses have also been accused of killing patients, which just adds to the sense of being vulnerable in hospitals and to the usually irrational fears of medical staff and procedures.
These bad press stories add to the fear and feed perfectly into hospital game levels where cure has turned to kill.
Not so independent now, huh?
This is probably the biggest reason hospitals denote places of fear: the complete loss of our own autonomy and the inability to do anything about it whilst under another person’s care. I hate it, I know you hate it, and to be honest, I bet the toughest person you know would hate it.
It is essentially the fear of helplessness: looking weak in front of others, having another person shower you and help you with the most basic of all functions in life, and still knowing exactly what is going on. There are the humiliating probes and painful instruments, and drugs that can make you feel less than yourself. There is the time spent in this alien uncomfortable environment with noises you want to shut out all night and throughout the day where you wait, wait, wait. There is the fear of the test results and what they will mean for you and those who love you.
This is a fear that many share, and is not entirely limited to the hospital scene, but for the most part, is the thing that sets most people off when they think of a hospital.
Let’s face it, sooner or later we all end up in hospital, and the games we play really don’t help with the fearful and negative perception. A game level set in a hospital cleverly uses these predispositions toward fear to create atmosphere and can often be more frightening than a game level using a supposed gory and flaming vision of Hell we don’t relate to (the game Clive Barker’s Jericho anyone?).
However, we nurses want you to remember the necessity and the good of hospitals. The next time you step foot into one of these places, just remember a few things; zombies aren’t real, the staff are actually usually really nice people and, if you are really ill, the hospital is there specifically for you, not for a creepy demon child in the basement, as the Silent Hill movie would have you believe.
What hospital game levels have creeped you out? Comment below.
© 2009 Beth Sasagi
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Great topic!
First, Hospitals are good from a level design angle. They are sprawling, multi level buildings with long corridors and varied rooms.
But digging deeper, the nature of the design is creepy. In real life, hospitals feel safe because they are full of people. But when the hallways are dark and empty they can be nerve-racking.
From a strictly horror standpoint, the thought of surgery leads to the fear of unnecessary surgery. And from there it’s only a quick jump to mutilation and human experimentation. These are primal fears. They are utilized in horror movies as much as they are used in games. For supernaturally-inclined stories, cruel, patient-mutilating “doctors” create narrative opportunities for dark motives, ghosts and demons.
Halloween II takes place in a hospital. And it’s one of the best horror movies ever made. It capitalizes off the eerieness of empty corridors, and the idea that death is so nearby in a place of healing.
Hospitals make people uncomfortable because they are places where people stare consequence in the face. They see the lifelong smoker hooked up to oxygen tanks. They see the unbeatable effects of aging and diseases they’ve never even thought of. They see the chance involved in life and feel less in control. And they feel petty for their small complaints when they see others facing mortality.
Childbirth excluded, Hospitals are places where you only go if something is seriously wrong with yourself or a loved one. Hospitals are places where people occasionally die. Where you can hear and see people’s grief echo down the hallways.
And I agree 100% Betheo, all that boils down to the shattering of our illusion of control. Nice article.