scholarly journals Portrayals of gender and identity in the soundtrack of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cerys Elizabeth Eckersley
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Male Characters ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Fantasy Novels ◽  
Complex Construction ◽  
Game Environment ◽  
Central Characters ◽  
Crucial Part ◽  
Playing Video Game

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red, 2019) is an award-winning role-playing video game (RPG); the third instalment of The Witcher game series inspired by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy novels. Centring upon the protagonist Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher 3 has been praised for developing a complex, authentic, and immersive game environment that combines magic and fantasy elements within a broadly medieval setting. A central aspect of the game’s success is its soundtrack – the fusion of music, sound, and voice – which further contributes to building the game’s overall narrative and the complex construction of its central characters. This paper explores how The Witcher 3’s soundtrack constructs identity, focusing in particular on its use of neo-medievalist signifiers and its contrasting representations of masculinity and femininity. Neo-medievalist sounds are a central concept in building the game’s identity; these sounds draw on folkloristic elements surrounding the choice of instrumentation and the recurrence of folk music throughout the game’s narrative, thus increasing the player’s immersion within The Witcher 3’s world. Regarding gender, female vocalisations are used within the soundtrack to add depth and emotion to male characters – particularly Geralt of Rivia, who due to his mutations lacks in conventional emotional capabilities. Despite the inclusion and emphasis of female voices on the soundtrack, the placement of women in influential roles is limited through other musical scoring techniques, which effectively reduces the agency of these characters, thus suggesting an imbalanced treatment towards gender. Through exploring these aspects, I argue that the soundtrack is a crucial part of how gender and identity are constructed throughout The Witcher 3, further exploring how these elements affect the player’s overall in-game immersion.

Is the News Cycle “Real”?

2020 ◽  
pp. 270-286
Author(s):  
Emory S. Daniel, Jr. ◽  
Gregory P. Perreault ◽  
Michael G Blight
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Polling Systems ◽  
Setting Process ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Playing Video Game

This chapter features a game from the Shin Megami Tensei series called Persona 5. This chapter examines how the case of role playing video game Persona 5 depicts agenda setting through the use of an in-game audience-oriented polling systems and comment system in order to understand to a greater degree the ways in which games contribute to our understanding of media processes and explores the idea of fandom as integral to the agenda setting process. The case chapter addressed in this manuscript represents a unique narrative featuring a daily life simulator, a turn-based Japanese role-playing game (JRPG), and complex in-game media vehicles to drive the story.

The Emergence of Bujold Studies

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Regina Yung Lee ◽  
Una McCormack
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Fan Fiction ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Fantasy Novels ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Cover Art ◽  
Science Fiction Studies ◽  
Scholarly Attention

This introductory essay provides the context for the present volume, establishing Lois McMaster Bujold as a multiple award-winning writer of science fiction and fantasy worthy of scholarly attention; providing an overview of extant scholarship; and identifying the twin aims of the book, to extend scholarship on Bujold’s fantasy novels, and to account for the wealth of cultural production inspired by Bujold’s corpus (e.g. fan fiction, fan discussion or meta, and the GURPS: Vorkosigan role-playing game in depth). The essay concludes by identifying gaps that might be fruitfully explored in ‘Bujold Studies’: perspectives from Indigenous science fiction studies on The Sharing Knife series; critical engagement with wider scholarship on race in sf; analysis of artworks inspired by Bujold’s writing, both ‘official’ cover art and fan art; and comparative analysis of her reception beyond Anglophone countries, particularly the immense fannish engagement from Eastern Europe.

Harmonic Chains

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
T. J. Laws-Nicola ◽  
Brent Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
Complex System ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Joint Attacks ◽  
Playing Video Game

Omega Quintet (Idea Factory International, 2014), a role-playing video game released for the Sony PlayStation 4, centers around the concept of weaponizing musical entities and apparatuses to combat threats in a dystopian universe. Omega Quintet weaponizes music literally, supernaturally, and economically, both inside and outside of the game narrative. In this article, we interpret these types of weaponization as an extended allegory for consumption. On one level, the surface narrative denotes sound as a murder tool, on another level the player enables violent consumption of these tools, and yet another level reveals the weaponization of agency within a gendered labor market. The story of Omega Quintet is set in a dystopian Japan overrun by monsters known as the BEEP. Protagonist Takt and his childhood friend, Otoha, join an organization that develops special idols known as Verse Maidens to fight the BEEP. Surviving members of humanity provide the fan base for the Verse Maidens. The Verse Maidens depend on fan support to fuel their powers. Battles in Omega Quintet feature an assortment of musical weaponization. Examples include Sound Weapons as the main conduit for physical attacks, Verse Maidens’ unique songs to play during extended attack sequences known as Live Mode, and special joint attacks known as Harmonic Chains. The battles take the commodification of idols to such an extreme that they are simultaneously consumed and used as weapons. Presented as a duality of fragility and strength, beauty and brutality, art and war, the Verse Maidens are consumed in a complex system of cultural and narrative implications.

Decreasing Racial Bias Through A Facilitated Game and Workshop: The Case of Fair Play

2020 ◽  
pp. 104687812098338
Author(s):  
Christine Maidl Pribbenow ◽  
Kyrie Eleison H. Caldwell ◽  
Donald Dejon Dantzler ◽  
Percy Brown ◽  
Molly Carnes
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Research University ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Fair Play ◽  
Black African ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Engineering Mathematics ◽  
Personal Bias ◽  
Playing Video Game

Introduction. Fair Play is an avatar-based role-playing video game in which Jamal Davis, a Black graduate student at a research university, navigates implicit forms of racial bias to reach the win-state of earning his PhD and becoming a professor. Fair Play was designed to educate players on the existence of racial bias in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) fields in an experiential way and to encourage perspective-taking. Research has found that taking the perspective of another can induce empathy, which improves the empathizer’s attitudes towards individuals and groups. Paired with a facilitated workshop, Fair Play was also designed to teach bias concepts to increase participants’ bias literacy. Intervention. Research on workshops to reduce gender bias suggests that it increased awareness of personal bias, the motivation and self-efficacy to practice bias-reducing strategies, and a more welcoming department climate and the hiring of more women faculty three years after the intervention. Capitalizing on these findings, a 3-hour workshop was developed to reduce race-based bias against Black/African Americans in STEMM using Fair Play. Conclusions. The facilitation of the workshops and Fair Play requires particular competencies due to its topic (racial bias) and player’s skepticism about the reality of the bias incidents. Our data suggest that participants who identify as a person of color are more likely to believe that bias exists compared to White players, which can lead to a discussion about how the incidents in the game were designed and scripted. The facilitator also needs to be versed in a number of intentional design choices, such as Jamal not having voiceover and his success. Finally, this paper describes the Facilitator Game, which was developed as a complement to the game and allows a facilitator to jump to bias incidents quickly while debriefing and discussing the game to further participant learning.

Towards a Role-Playing Game Procedural Dungeon Generation Strategy to Help Developing Working Skills

2020 ◽  
pp. 274-296
Author(s):  
Esteban A. Durán-Yañez ◽  
Mario A. Rodríguez-Díaz ◽  
César A. López-Luévano
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
System Thinking ◽  
Procedural Content Generation ◽  
Proposal A ◽  
The Future ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Playing Video Game ◽  
Content Generation

This chapter describes the insights towards a proposal to integrate a procedural content generation strategy in a computer role-playing usable and accessible learning video game for gaining replayability to encourage engagement and motivation in learners. In order to explain the contextual issues of the topic, the chapter includes a discussion on how computer role-playing video games impact the skills considered crucial for the work in the future—abstraction, system thinking, experimentation, and collaboration—emphasizing the importance of usability and accessibility to ensure effectiveness of the proposal. A first approach of a computer role-playing video game is presented to provide an illustrative example. The prototype will serve for future evaluations with people for usability and accessibility.

PENERAPAN FINITE STATE MACHINE UNTUK PENGENDALIAN ANIMASI PADA VIDEO GAME RPG NUSANTARA LEGACY

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Mustofa Mustofa ◽  
Sidiq Sidiq ◽  
Eva Rahmawati
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Finite State Machine ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
State Machine ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Development Life Cycle ◽  
Finite State ◽  
Role Playing Game

Perkembangan dunia yang dinamis mendorong percepatan perkembangan teknologi dan informasi. Dengan dorongan tersebut komputer yang dulunya dibuat hanya untuk membantu pekerjaan manusia sekarang berkembang menjadi sarana hiburan, permainan, komunikasi dan lain sebagainya. Dalam sektor hiburan salah satu industri yang sedang menjadi pusat perhatian adalah industri video game. Begitu banyaknya produk video game asing yang masuk ke dalam negeri ini memberikan tantangan kepada bangsa ini. Tentunya video game asing yang masuk ke negara ini membawa banyak unsur kebudayaan negara lain. Ini semakin membuat kebudayaan nusantara semakin tergeserkan dengan serangan kebudayaan asing melalui berbagai media. Maka dari itu peneliti mencoba untuk menerapkan Finite State Machine dalam merancang sebuah video game RPG (Role-Playing game) yang memperkenalkan kebudayaan. Dalam perancangan video game ini peneliti menggunakan metode GDLC(Game Development Life Cycle) agar penelitian ini berjalan secara sistematis. Dalam suatu perancangan video game tedapat banyak elemen, pada penelitian ini penulis lebih fokus pada pengendalian animasi karakter yang dimainkan pada video game ini. Dari perancangan yang dilakukan, disimpulkan bahwa Finite State Machine dapat digunakan untuk pengendalian animasi yang baik pada video game RPG. Diharapkan video game ini dapat menjadi salah satu media untuk mengenalkan kebudayaan nusantara

scholarly journals Collecting family planning intentions and providing reproductive health information using a tablet-based video game in India

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Elena Bertozzi ◽  
Amelia Bertozzi-Villa ◽  
Praveen Kulkarni ◽  
Aparna Sridhar
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
Accurate Data ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Planning Methods ◽  
Game Environment

Background: In response to a Grand Challenges in Global Health call for action to collect data about family planning intentions and increase the uptake of family planning methods in India, our team designed, developed, and piloted the My Future Family video game in Karnataka Province. The game educates adolescents about human sexuality and reproduction while asking players when they would like to achieve five important family planning milestones.  Participants were also asked to report who influences them the most when making family planning decisions. Methods: Focus groups were conducted and the resulting data used to design the game which was iteratively tested and then piloted in 11 schools in rural and urban areas of southern India. Data was collected throughout gameplay and cross-checked with paper questionnaires.  Results: In August 2018, we successfully piloted the game with 382 adolescents and validated its efficacy both as an educational tool and as an innovative means of accurate data collection.  Conclusion: It has historically been problematic to gather accurate data about adolescents in India on this culturally sensitive topic for a variety of reasons. These include difficulties obtaining consent, developing appropriate survey methods, and framing questions in language that young people can understand. Our game met these challenges by working within a single school system with approval from senior administration, delivering information via a game environment, which freed players from societal constraints, and communicating information via images and audio in addition to text in both English and Kannada (the local language).

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