~The Season Of The Witch~

Starting tomorrow, and for the rest of October, I will be turning the Game Pile to talking about videogames which are, in my view, ~witchy~. To qualify as witchy, for this purpose, a game needs:

  • A woman as both the central character and the perspective character.
  • For that woman to be defined by an internal power.
  • For that story to be about using that power.

To be clear, internal power is power where the source of a character’s specialness is from inside themselves. This is usually, in western society, totemic of knowledge, where we value knowledge as a source of magic. I’m willing to accept a game where, for example, you play a cute girl hacker, as a ~tech witch~.

External power is stuff like guns and mecha. Those are cool, but they are sources of power where owning the device is what gives you the power. Witches have power, witches are power. A conventional videogame fantasy (such as Gordon Freeman’s) is one where you can pick up a device and succeed somehow; the fantasy we’re seeking here is one where the power comes from within, ideally symbolic of knowing things.

For consideration, The Brigmore Witches is definitely about witches. I mean, it’s right there in the name. But the perspective character in that story is Daud, who is a dude (hah), and the Brigmore Witches are presented as oppositional forces. While I could argue that Elizabeth makes Bioshock Infinite a witchy game (she has internal power and she uses it), the perspective and driving characters of that story are all dudes.

Partial credit will be allowed based on these points:

  • Themes relating to fire. Witches and fire are heavily linked in history.
  • Customisable characters who can be women. Skyrim may count, kinda thing.
  • Non-shitty treatment of women in the story.
  • Visual themes of cats, brooms, or pointy hats.

My parents raised me to be frightened of what witches could do and make me feel. Let’s see what the month brings!