Abstract:
In this paper, we make a case for the distinct narrative conditions that arise when ‘speedrunning’ the zombie narrative in Valve Corporation’s cooperative first-person shooter games Left 4 Dead (2008) and Left 4 Dead 2 (2009). We will employ concepts from Gilles Deleuze’s Cinema 1 and 2 to frame our discussion of how the player’s narrative body, space, and time – in and out of the zombie apocalyptic gameworld – are impacted by the optimizations and exploits of the Left 4 Dead series’ zombie narrative. While the zombie story pre-programmed for players is largely bypassed, speedrunning through the Left 4 Dead series’ environments is a generative act of rupture that activates narrative tropes of the zombie genre that remain deeply embedded in the games’ virtual spaces and narrative architectures.