Hybrid ludomythologies: Mythanalysis, tradition, and contemporaneity in Death Stranding

The project we present here analyses myths, mythemes, and mythical structures in games from a double perspective: as an update of a transcendent cultural heritage and as a mythical fabric shaped by ludic rituals and common affordances. The recurrent nature of myths establishes, through transcendent and immanent structures, old and new, a cultural space where our societies negotiate their fears, aspirations, and concerns. The main hypothesis of the project is that myths, both from a transcendent perspective (myths in the present) and from an immanent one (myths of the present), have in games a space for ideological and narrative development that helps in understanding contemporary society. We aim to show not only the validity of myths even in the most contemporary forms of culture, but also the constant creation of new mythical structures to make meaning from the world. To do so, our project uses mythanalysis as its main methodological tool, placing our view of games firmly in the Humanities. In this presentation, we firstly present and unpack the application of myth-analysis in games and secondly explore the possibility of what we call “hybrid myths”, or games that combine myths in the present and myths of the present. We do so by studying Death Stranding (Kojima Productions, 2019] from both perspectives and analysing how both sides are connected in the game.