Computer Role Playing Game in Cyberfantastics: “Labyrinth Of Death” in Two Novels of Sergei Lukyanenko

Abstract

The introductory part of the text points to the characteristics of popular literature. Computer games and literary works have a two-way relationship – some literary works are inspired by computer RPG, and vice versa, RPG can be made after literary works. Games and literature bind together ludic elements and narratives, which are shaped differently in literary texts and the multi-media space of computer role playing games. The paper points to the peculiarities of the cyberpunk novel in the Russian literature of the 1990s (Vladimir Vasilyev, Sergei Lukyanenko, Victor Pelevin, Aleksei Andreyev, Vasily Mahanenko). The multiplayer shooter game “Labyrinth of Death” in the cyberpunk novels of Sergei Lukyanenko Labyrinth of Reflections (1997, Labirint otraženij) and False mirrors (1999, Faljšivye zerkala) is the part of the virtual world Deeptown. The author analyzes the relationship between the non-virtual world, the secondary virtual world’s city Deeptown, and the game “Labyrinth of Death,” the ideas of the diver Leonid (freedom for everyone in the virtual world), the narrative strategy of presenting the scenarios and the Masters of the game, as well as the intermedia aspects of the reception of two analyzed novels by Sergey Lukyanenko.