Since her
first appearance in 1930, Nancy Drew has served as a cultural icon for several
generations of women. For the first time, detective fiction not only featured a
female in a starring role, but one who was intelligent, respected, independent,
and a kickass detective. Nancy’s legacy lives on and was made accessible to a
younger generation in the development of the Nancy Drew computer games by Her
Interactive in 1998. The games each follow a typical detective mystery plot:
the game begins with a crime, allows the player to interview suspects and discover
and collect clues, and ends with a “parlor scene” where the culprit explains
his or her motive and usually attempts an escape, leading to one final dramatic
puzzle or chase scene. The games are unique because the gamer is playing the
role of Nancy Drew. Some scenes are automated by the game, but for the most
part the gamer is independent and solves the mystery entirely on one’s own as the lead detective on the case.
This creates the interesting hybrid: truly interactive detective fiction.
The first Nancy Drew novel, which introduced readers to detective fiction's first strong female sleuth.
Her
Interactive, founded in 1995, was the first US gaming company to target young girls
as a market for interactive computer technology. The company created an
opportunity for girls to participate in an area heavily saturated by violent,
male-minded games. Therefore, it is only fitting that Her Interactive employed
Nancy Drew as their first heroine. The use of such a well-known female icon
appealed both to young girls looking for a role model and their mothers who had
grown up with the books, and created a strong foundation for an empowered
female character in a video game. The mystery element allowed the games to
avoid the bloodbath styles of existing action games and create a complex and
involved storyline.
Collecting clues and receiving menacing messages allow the player to truly feel as if they are the detective solving the crime.
Her
Interactive’s president, Megan Gaiser, stated in an interview: “‘Nancy Drew is
a powerful role model—she’s brilliant, intrepid and successful…our games don’t
use gender stereotypes to appeal to girls. Instead, they rely on the intrigue
of a good mystery, and a smart, gutsy heroine’” (Jong). This formula has led to
extreme success: the Nancy Drew series now encompasses twenty-seven games,
earned the company thirty-five “Best Software” awards, and sold over ten
million copies worldwide. The artistic style of the game and its features have
evolved over time—such as the addition of a cell phone rather than a notepad to
keep a record of Nancy’s clues—but each game revolves around the development of
an intricate and exciting mystery.
Though some of the plotlines echo the original
Nancy Drew novels, most games invent an entirely new mystery and those that are
inspired by the books will never have the same ending or culprit as the
original. This guarantees that the player will always be responsible for
solving the mystery. The games therefore test Charles Rzepka’s theories about
the formula of detective fiction. The gamer is embodying both the detective and
the author of the story so a rivalry obviously cannot exist between them, which
Rzepka calls the “specific appeal of the narrative of detection as a reading
experience” (Rzepka 14). Because the games are interactive, the relationship
between author and reader is essentially nonexistent. The thrill of the games,
however, lies in this deletion: the gamer can be fully immersed in the root of
any detective story, the rivalry between criminal and detective. An interactive
mystery game, especially with such a strong and relatable heroine, allows the
player a deeper connection with the story and truly invokes the “game” element
that makes detective fiction so popular.
Players interview suspects and select Nancy's lines to steer the conversation, enhancing the autonomous and interactive aspect of solving the mystery.
The Nancy
Drew games are unique because they have impacted two separate and varied areas:
feminism and detective fiction. The character of Nancy Drew has inspired
generations of powerful women, from Hillary Clinton to Oprah Winfrey to first
female Supreme Court Judge Sandra Day O’Conner. She represented the idea that
women could be successful in a man’s world through determination and spunk
(Woolston). Through Her Interactive’s games, Nancy can inspire a whole new
generation of women. As far as developing the genre of detective fiction, the
games go a step further from the novels and create the possibility of
interactive detection for the reader or player. This enhances the player’s
experience and adds a new and exciting element of autonomy to the “game” of
detective fiction. Gaiser refers to this element as “interactive literature” in
a 2006 interview: “‘The games we create tell a cultural story and this medium,
like all mediums, will impact our generation and future generations’” (Jacobs).
Works Cited:
Jacobs, Jay S. "Megan Gaiser: The Case
of the Pioneering Game Company." PopEntertainment,
2006.
Jong, Philip. "Megan Gaiser, Carolyn
Bickford, Sheri Hargus: Her Interactive.” Adventure Classic Gaming.
(2000).
Rzepka,
Charles J. Detective Fiction. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005.
Woolston,
Jennifer. "Nancy Drew's Body: The Case Of The Autonomous Female
Sleuth." Studies In The Novel 42.1/2
(2010): 173-184.
