An ode to video game statues

Of the myriad objects in games, statues seem to be among the most frivolous. You can talk to or fight with beings of flesh and blood. You can explore buildings. You can climb or cut down trees, maybe even build a house with its timber. With a regular statue, the most exciting thing you can do on a good day is maybe walk around it. Why then are so many games scattered with statues so intricately designed and so prominently displayed that they distract the eye?

It is maybe one of the fundamentals of life that if you really want to draw attention, you splurge on something that has next to no practical value. A fancy sport car is well and good, but a giant jewel or a triumphal arch is better. “No practical value” doesn’t mean, of course, that these things have no use in a broader sense. It is precisely the void of any practical purpose which opens up spaces for meaning. Grand but useless things talk; they convey social and cultural importance.

Statues, then, whether in real life or virtual worlds, are uniquely suited for drawing our eyes and for provoking the question: what does it mean? What is this doing here, in this particular spot? Who put it there, why, and how long ago?