We often think of video games as a means of entertainment, a place to escape into another world, or a way to pass the time. But what if I told you that the world of gaming and the legal world are more closely related than we care to think? Did you know that a significant portion of a game’s narrative can often be found in the legal drama? The concept of legal quotation is a term used in the world of law, and applies to the act of quoting legal sources in the process of creating or modifying existing legal regulation. This concept of how legal aspects infiltrate the gaming narratives is a surprising revelation that most players will not be aware of, unless they actively try to seek it out.

The subtle approach of legal language helps in crafting the motive behind the character’s actions, and to often make the player question their own motives when playing. The importance of the story-line in legal drama is the same as the story in any other video game: to entertain and to engage the audience. How often do you find that a game has a courtroom scene in it, where you’re actually taking part in the legal process? This is a common occurrence in the widely popular DOS games, especially in the early 90’s games, and takes form as another layer of the gaming experience.

Jagged Alliance 2 is one of the famous DOS games that was quite popular and widely known for its use of legal drama. The game has two protagonists and you would have to strategize to complete each level, and like many other games that have a similar premise, you often have to hire mercenaries to complete the objectives. The game is very story driven, and a lot of the narrative is delivered through conversations with the NPC’s in the game. The game allows you to take different paths with the characters, which helps with replaying the game, as there are multiple endings. Thinking about the idea that all of this happens within a legal context, like the motives behind the main actors of the game, the mercenaries, and their job is to overthrow a corrupt dictator and to take over the country, makes the experience all the more exciting. You can argue that the only thing missing from the game is a legal quotation piece that could have added yet another layer to what is an engaging story.

Working within the legal system is a subject matter that frequently appears in video games. Take for instance the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series, where the protagonist is a defence attorney who has to use his skills to prove the innocence of his clients. There is an ultimate goal at hand which involves winning each case and this requires a lot of strategic planning that must be done in order for the game to proceed. Far from the traditional idea that in order to play video games, you must be aggressive or violent, these play-throughs lean towards the more strategic approach of proving a point.

Spec Ops: The Line is one of the most recent popular video games to include the “legal quotation” theme within its narrative. The game explores the dilemmas of following orders and how the individual rationalizes their actions. The game focuses on the player (in this case, an unnamed soldier) who walks through a city with a team of soldiers and investigates what happened to them after they were sent on a mission.

While the story-line can get murky in between, in an interesting way, what stands out about this game is how it pushes the player to do some horrific things, even though it goes against their morals. The idea of manipulating the story-line to make the player turn to violence, and then to regret their mission, is an interesting perception of how you can explore the human conscious and push the player to really feel the weight of their own decisions, all the while using legal terminology. It’s a harsh and brutal reality that many would like to believe that they would never face, but this is part of what makes it a powerful game.