Characters and Player Placement in Nancy Drew: The Crystal Skull

In following last week’s discussion on gender gaming and the relationship between the player and the avatar, I decided to analyze the most recent installment in Nancy Drew PC game serious: The Legend of the Crystal Skill. The company (Her Interactive) that developed the game, so perfectly fits the “entrepreneurial female” run company described in the Jenkins and Cassel article (and its leaders are quoted several times in the articles) that I was very curious to see an implementation of the a “girl game” at the hands of females developers.

From the website: “The games appeal to girls' natural curiosity and problem-solving skills by placing them in the role of Nancy Drew, where they encounter puzzles, brainteasers and a cast of characters straight out of the classic detective series.”

Gameplay Quick-Overview:

The gameplay is based on the explorative first-person style made famous by Myst in 1993. The player navigates a series of semi-static screens looking for active items and solving mini-games and puzzles to progress through the story with some cut-scenes in-between. Despite the statement above implying that puzzle solving is gendered gameplay, in itself, the gameplay seems “gender neutral” or rather it conformed to a traditional unmarked playing style that was naturalized in the genre.

Gendered Characters?

It is important to note that we never see these characters in-game, their appearance is a left to be manifested by the player. I feel this is done impart to engross the player in the game and in part a safety mechanism against introducing more avenues for possible gender stereotyping.

Nancy Drew: The player assumes the roles of the teen female detective Nancy Drew, (the game tag line is “imagine you as Nancy Drew”). In the game, she travels to New Orleans with the intent of vacationing with her best friend Bess in the Big Easy while making a stop at her boyfriend Ned’s request, to check up on his friend who recently lost his only living relative. On her visit to the house, she is entangled in a mystery involving a legendary skull, suspicious relationships, and secret societies. In a tone similar to Diner Dash, she surrenders her vacation time and want of shopping for work. Though in this narrative it is more excusable, as she is serving her own curiosity instead of obliging others and her detective abilities are a well developed hobby as opposed to an official position. As Nancy Drew, we get the feeling that she is enjoying the experience of the mystery as much as we are.

Her equipment does not screen “girly” either, she carries a phone, a backpack (not a purse), and a notebook that she fills with observations, no lipstick or compact for this girl!

Ned: The relationship with Ned is not heavily touched upon in the game, there is a sentence here and there that implies that there is a long standing relationship between the two, but unless you have prior awareness of the back story, he is not confirmed as her boyfriend. Our interaction with Ned is limited to our ability to call him, but in that there is a disturbing revelation: he is a looming male caretaker that emerges as the player struggles through the trickiest of the puzzles and has not yet given up enough of their dignity to console an online walkthrough. Ned not only listens to the progress of investigation, but with no prior knowledge himself, can provide frightenly knowledgeable hints at how to solve the difficult puzzles in the game, often noting places and items that you have not yet explored or communicated their existence to him. Not only is a disturbing break from the narrative, it also is negating a bit to the independent character of Nancy Drew to have a boyfriend who has the answer to the entire puzzle and is just letting her play along.

Bess: Bess is Nancy’s best friend who accompanies her to New Orleans for the means of shopping and fun. She is regularly forced to deviate from her vacation by Nancy to do some snooping of her own in her convenient location in a hotel in New Orleans, and she justifies this break by thinking that she might be sooner reunited with Nancy for some more shopping and fun. She is flirtatious with suspects, careless with evidence, and is only armed with her compact, but she preservers along and does her job well to the end. Whereas Nancy is the anti-stereotype, Bess is a stereotype that embraced her feminine qualities without letting them prevent her from engaging in same activities as Nancy. What is comforting about her microcosm in the New Orleans hotel is the realism of the narrative. There is no omnisent Ned, the only guidance she has is from Nancy, the experienced detective, and the guidance always shows a refreshing tone of natural uncertainty. Her intercourse with her friend coupled with the player’s engagement as both characters at different times provides a false yet comforting sense of female camaraderie that creates a safe yet adventurous world for the female gamer.

Conclusion

While the gameplay doesn’t break any new grounds, I think that this game compared to the other gendered games we played, makes best strides towards creating a comfortable environment for female gamers without gendering the gameplay narrative and or reinforcing stereotypes.