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with the main level, but not connected between themselves. This is the classic star-organization, found in so many adventure videogames: a central level links all the others. Of course, a lot of layouts are possible (tree layout, net layout). Think about the high number of possibilities when creating the space of a world, even if the screens are very similar or the levels are uniform. And we get this high number by applying only a few, simple structural rules.

So, where is Hyrule? If we think about space as a set of things, then Hyrule isn’t anywhere and can’t be anywhere. If we think about space as a set of requirements for our actions with things, then Hyrule isn’t in a place; instead, Hyrule itself is a place. It’s a place, as virtual as you want to describe it, but real. It’s real because we can act in it based on the constraints of various rules.

Hyrule Regained

“So, Mr. Smith? You can’t be here because you don’t meet any condition in this world.” “I do! I’m Smith, Ninth Dungeon Official-That-Stamps-Deadly-Photocopies! Don’t cheat me!”

“You’re wrong. No character stamps anything here. A character can bite, as tektikes do, or can throw arrows as moblins do, or can use boomerangs like a goriya. But nobody stamps here in Hyrule of The Legend of Zelda.”

“Are you sure?”

“What could a character stamp? Items in this world are swords, keys, shields, rafts, ladders, rupees and things like that … Don’t ask for more, we are in a NES! Where could I find, here, a birth certificate? If you wanted me to give you one as a condition for freeing Zelda, I couldn’t rescue her, and this videogame would be nonsense!”

“I see … Then, go ahead. Zelda is waiting you behind that door.”

“No! A boss battle is required for completing a level. And you should be the final boss!”

“I’m getting tired … Let’s fight, then, if it’s necessary.”

“Are you going to fight with a rubber stamp? Fool! You should be more … Hyrulean.”

“Can I throw fire balls? That’s the dream of my life …”

“Good idea. Anything else?”

“Yes. Now I become invisible, and I’m going to attack you from behind …”

“Of course. Just a little question …”

“Whatever you want …”

“May I call you Ganon?”

“Certainly.”

“Much better,” says Link, drawing his sword.

Level 6

Treasures of the Hyrulopolis

12

Zelda as Art

LUKE CUDDY

Any English scholar will tell a classroom full of students about the genius storytelling of Faulkner, or the expert character development of Dickens. Art Historians will, likewise, impress upon you the beauty of a Monet, a van Gogh, or a da Vinci. But if you’re a gamer sitting in one of these seminars, your thoughts may go back to the four hours of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess you played the day before. And you just might start making the comparison between Faulkner’s The Barnburner and the Zelda storyline, or between van Gogh’s Starry Night and the Zelda backgrounds.

To protect your grade, you should keep your mouth shut; the fact that a student played Zelda for four hours isn’t going to impress most ivy-league professors. But maybe you’re onto something. Before intellectual rotten fruit is pitched at me, realize I’m not advocating that a comparison actually be made between Zelda backgrounds and a Monet, or between The Barnburner and the plot to Twilight Princess. But I am saying that there is a way the Zelda games can be considered art.

Most of us, probably, think of paintings and museums when we think of art. Maybe we think of what might be called new age or contemporary art: red cubes, paintings of nothing, steel bars, metal constructions—objects sometimes scornfully referred to as “the turd in the plaza.” How, if at all, can videogames eke their way into this illustrious category? Bearing in mind that many people already do consider videogames art (as evidenced by their inclusion in the subcategory “interactive art”), I’ll also remember that this is a book of philosophy, and that philosophy, in particular the philosophy of art, has neglected videogames.47

Games and