scholarly journals The Role of the Player in Video-Game Fictions

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Graham Suduiko
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Positive Analysis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Central Data

What is the relationship between the player and the avatar of a video game? In this article, I aim to show that Jon Robson and Aaron Meskin’s apparently promising, Waltonian analysis of that relationship—namely, that it consists in the player imagining herself as the avatar—fails to accommodate and explain four central data about video-game storytelling that any such analysis ought to accommodate and explain. These data are, briefly: (1) Many of an avatar’s actions are inexplicable if we appeal only to the avatar’s beliefs, desires, and knowledge. (2) Video games may have many different kinds and numbers of avatars. (3) Video-game narratives often proceed by the player exploring multiple disjunctive, mutually exclusive possibilities. (4) Video-game narratives sometimes centrally depend on epistemic differences between the player and avatar.After evaluating Robson and Meskin’s view, I offer my own positive analysis of player interactivity that provides a motivated and unified explanation of these four data: the player of a video game plays the role of a metaphysically foundational fictional entity that actualizes possible fictional events. I call this entity ‘the fictional player’.Keywords: avatars, narrative, video games, storytelling, fiction, narrative explanation, ontology, fictional grounding, art, aesthetics, possible worlds, Walton.

scholarly journals Exploring the Mediating Effect of Psychological Engagement on the Relationship between Child-to-Parent Violence and Violent Video Games

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 2845
Author(s):  
Ana Ruiz-Fernández ◽  
Miriam Junco-Guerrero ◽  
David Cantón-Cortés
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Structural Equation Models ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Violent Video Games ◽  
Psychological Engagement ◽  
The Relationship

Research into the effects of violent video games on levels of aggression has raised concerns that they may pose a significant social risk, especially among younger people. The objective of this study was to analyze, through structural equation models, the mediating role of psychological engagement in the relationship between the consumption of violent video games and child-to-parent violence (CPV) against the mother and the father. The sample consisted of 916 students from the third and fourth grades of compulsory secondary education, first and second grades of high school, and first cycle of vocational training (483 males and 433 females), of whom a total of 628 were video game players, aged between 13 and 19. The exposure to video games was assessed through an author-elaborated questionnaire, engagement was evaluated with the game engagement questionnaire, and CPV was assessed through the child-to-parent aggression questionnaire. The structural equation models indicated that exposure to violent video games was related to lower rates of CPV against both parents. Conversely, the flow (a sense of being in control, being one with activity, and experiencing distortions in the perception of time) dimension of engagement positively correlated with the level of CPV against the mother, whereas the flow and absorption (total engagement in the current experience) dimensions correlated with CPV against the father. In conclusion, the results confirm the role of violent video game consumption, reducing CPV rates against both parents, a role that is offset to the extent that these violent games provoke engagement in the user.

scholarly journals The expressive power of the Possible Worlds Theory in video games: when narratives become interactive and fictional spaces

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 289-302
Author(s):  
Antonio José Planells de la Maza
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Game Design ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Expressive Power ◽  
Game Studies ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Philosophical Concept ◽  
Interactive Nature ◽  
The Relationship

The philosophical concept of possible worlds (Lenzen, 2004; Lewis, 1986) has been used in literary studies and narratology (Dolezel, 1998; Eco, 1979) to define the way in which we conceive different narrative possibilities inside the fictional world. In Game Studies, some authors have used this concept to explore the relationship between game design and game experience (Kücklich, 2003; Maietti, 2004; Ryan, 2006), while Jesper Juul (2005) has studied the fictional world evoked by the connection between rules and fiction. In this paper we propose a new approach to video games as ludofictional worlds - a set of possible worlds which generates a game space based on the relationship between fiction and game rules. In accordance with the concepts of minimal departure (Ryan, 1991) and indexical term (Lewis, 1986), the position of the player character determines his/her actual world and the next possible or necessary world. Lastly, we use this model to analyse the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and show that the possible worlds perspective provides a useful, flexible and modular framework for describing the internal connections between ludofictional worlds and the interactive nature of playable game spaces.

scholarly journals The Animation of Gamers and the Gamers as Animators in Sierra On-Line’s Adventure Games

Animation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 83-95
Author(s):  
Raz Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
Free Play ◽  
Digital Gaming ◽  
Adventure Game ◽  
Adventure Games ◽  
Software Publisher ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Relationship

Produced throughout the 1980s using the company’s Adventure Game Interpreter engine, the digital adventure games created by American software publisher Sierra On-Line played an important and largely overlooked role in the development of animation as an integral part of the digital gaming experience. While the little historical and theoretical discussion of the company’s games of the era focuses on their genre, it ignores these games’ contribution to the relationship between the animated avatars and the gamers that control them – a relationship that, as argued in this article, in essence turns gamers into animators. If we consider Chris Pallant’s (2019) argument in ‘Video games and animation’ that animation is essential to the sense of immersion within a digital game, then the great freedom provided to the gamers in animating their avatars within Sierra On-Line’s adventure games paved the way to the same sense of immersion in digital. And, if we refer to Gonzalo Frasca’s (1999) divide of digital games to narrative-led or free-play (ludus versus paidea) in ‘Ludology meets narratology: Similitude and differences between (video) games and narrative’, then the company’s adventure games served as an important early example of balance between the two elements through the gamers’ ability to animate their avatars. Furthermore, Sierra On-Line’s adventure games have tapped into the traditional tension between the animator and the character it animated, as observed by Scott Bukatman in ‘The poetics of Slumberland: Animated spirits and the animated spirit (2012), when he challenged the traditional divide between animators, the characters they animate and the audience. All these contributions, as this articles aims to demonstrate, continue to influence the role of animation in digital games to this very day.

Waltzing on Rooftops and Cobblestones

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-55
Author(s):  
Ailbhe Warde-Brown
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real World ◽  
World History ◽  
Interaction Model ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Open World ◽  
Integrated Approaches ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between music, sound, space, and time plays a crucial role in attempts to define the concept of “immersion” in video games. Isabella van Elferen’s ALI (affect-literacy-interaction) model for video game musical immersion offers one of the most integrated approaches to reading connections between sonic cues and the “magic circle” of gameplay. There are challenges, however, in systematically applying this primarily event-focused model to particular aspects of the “open-world” genre. Most notable is the dampening of narrative and ludic restrictions afforded by more intricately layered textual elements, alongside open-ended in-game environments that allow for instances of more nonlinear, exploratory gameplay. This article addresses these challenges through synthesizing the ALI model with more spatially focused elements of Gordon Calleja’s player involvement model, exploring sonic immersion in greater depth via the notion of spatiotemporal involvement. This presents a theoretical framework that broadens analysis beyond a simple focus on the immediate narrative or ludic sequence. Ubisoft’s open-world action-adventure franchise Assassin’s Creed is a particularly useful case study for the application of this concept. This is primarily because of its characteristic focus on blending elements of the historical game and the open-world game through its use of real-world history and geography. Together, the series’s various diegetic and nondiegetic sonic elements invite variable degrees of participation in “historical experiences of virtual space.” The outcome of this research intends to put such intermingled expressions of space, place, and time at the forefront of a ludomusicological approach to immersion in the open-world genre.

scholarly journals Choices and Consequences: The Role of Players in The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 350-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Genovesi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Comic Books ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Interactive Approach ◽  
Transmedia Storytelling ◽  
The Walking Dead ◽  
Walking Dead

Abstract One of the most important features in a transmedia structure, as Max Giovagnoli argues in his book Transmedia: Storytelling e Comunicazione [Transmedia: Storytelling and Communication], is the development of the user’s decision-making power, defined by the author as “choice excitement.” In this, every choice of the user should have a consequence in the fictional universe of a specific franchise. Consequently, a narrative universe that wants to emphasize choice excitement and the active role of people can focus on video games, where the interactive approach is prominent. This essay will discuss a specific video game, based on the famous franchise of The Walking Dead. This brand, which appears in comic books, novels, TV series, Web episodes and video games, is analysable not only as an exemplary case of transmedia storytelling, where every ramification of the franchise published in different media is both autonomous and synergistic with the others, but also by focusing on the choice excitement of users in the first season of the video game The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series.

“Now They’re Playing with Power!”: Nintendo’s Classics and Franchise Legacy Management

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Matthew Thomas Payne
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Software And Hardware

Matthew Thomas Payne’s chapter considers the role of franchise management through video games. He uses the case study of Nintendo’s NES and SNES micro-consoles. His essay posits that franchises can refer to both software and hardware, as the built-in games on Nintendo’s mini-consoles function as a form of franchise management and corporate canonizing by privileging certain video game texts over others.

scholarly journals Violent Video Games and Attitudes Towards Victims of Crime

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lavinia McLean ◽  
Mark D. Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Young People ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Violent Video Games ◽  
Violent Video Game ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Victims Of Crime ◽  
The Relationship

Previous research has indicated that playing violent video games may be associated with an increase in acceptance of violence and positive attitudes towards perpetrators of crime. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between playing violent video games and attitudes towards victims of crime. A total of 206 young people (aged 12-24 years) completed measures of attitudes towards victims and violent video game exposure. The results suggest that exposure to violent video games is associated with less concern being reported for victims of crime. Young people who play more violent video games reported less concern for general victims and for culpable victims, and these effects cannot be explained by gender or age differences. The results are discussed in relation to relevant research in the area, along with recommendations for future research.

scholarly journals Embodying the Police: The Effects of Enclothed Cognition on Shooting Decisions

2019 ◽  
Vol 123 (6) ◽  
pp. 2353-2371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saaid A. Mendoza ◽  
Elizabeth J. Parks-Stamm
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Past Research ◽  
False Alarms ◽  
Reaction Time Measure ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
Approach Orientation ◽  
Game Simulation ◽  
Shooting Decisions ◽  
The Relationship

The theory of enclothed cognition proposes that wearing physical articles of clothing can trigger psychological processes and behavioral tendencies connected to their symbolic meaning. Furthermore, past research has found that increases in power are associated with greater approach orientation and action tendencies. In this study, we integrate these two literatures to examine how embodying the role of a police officer through wearing a uniform would affect responses on a reaction-time measure known as the Shooter Task. This first-person video game simulation requires participants to shoot or not shoot targets holding guns or objects. The task typically elicits a stereotypical pattern of responses, such that unarmed Black versus White targets are more likely to be mistakenly shot and armed Black versus White targets are more likely to be correctly shot. Based on the relationship between power and action, we hypothesized that participants who were randomly assigned to wear a police uniform would show more shooting errors, particularly false alarms, than control participants. Consistent with our hypotheses, participants in uniform were more likely to shoot unarmed targets, regardless of their race. Moreover, this pattern was partially moderated by attitudes about the police and their abuse of power. Specifically, uniformed participants who justified police use of power were more likely to shoot innocent targets than those who were wary of it. We discuss implications for police perceptions and the theory of enclothed cognition more broadly.

Feeling for an Audience

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-102
Author(s):  
Bonnie Ruberg ◽  
Amanda L. L. Cullen
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Emotional Labor ◽  
Streaming Video ◽  
Live Streaming ◽  
Instructional Videos ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Do So

Abstract The practice of live streaming video games is becoming increasingly popular worldwide (Taylor 2018). Live streaming represents more than entertainment; it is expanding the practice of turning play into work. Though it is commonly misconstrued as “just playing video games,” live streaming requires a great deal of behind-the-scenes labor, especially for women, who often face additional challenges as professionals within video game culture (AnyKey 2015). In this article, we shed light on one important aspect of the gendered work of video game live streaming: emotional labor. To do so, we present observations and insights drawn from our analysis of instructional videos created by women live streamers and posted to YouTube. These videos focus on “tips and tricks” for how aspiring streamers can become successful on Twitch. Building from these videos, we articulate the various forms that emotional labor takes for video game live streamers and the gendered implications of this labor. Within these videos, we identify key recurring topics, such as how streamers work to cultivate feelings in viewers, perform feelings, manage their own feelings, and use feelings to build personal brands and communities for their streams. Drawing from existing work on video games and labor, we move this scholarly conversation in important new directions by highlighting the role of emotional labor as a key facet of video game live streaming and insisting on the importance of attending to how the intersection of play and work is tied to identity.

Dancing with Myself

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek A. Burrill ◽  
Melissa Blanco Borelli
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
The Body ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter acts as a video game battle or interaction between the two authors. It discusses how dance video games construct corporeality. It provides an overview of Microsoft Xbox 360Dance Central’srelationship to choreography, choreographers, and dance analysis. It also theorizes how bodies and corporeality function in a virtual world. Finally, the chapter considers how avatar bodies provide new ways of thinking about the relationship between technology and the body.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document