Full Description
Characters are a vital aspect of today's transmedia practices. Combining theories on fictional persons from Japanese and Euro-American practices, this book discusses video game characters embedded in our popular media culture in which they are constantly produced and re-imagined. This book introduces the dynamic game character, a type of game character with a development structure that consists of multiple outcomes in a game. Through their actions and choices, players can influence these game characters' identities and affect their possible destinies. Games subvert the idea that fictional persons must maintain a coherent identity. This book shows that dynamic game characters challenge strategies of top-down control through close readings of the Mass Effect series, Persona 5, Hades, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and more. It is directed to all scholars interested in the topics of transmedia storytelling, video games, characters, and Japanese narratology.
Contents
A brief note Japanese names and words, Chapter 1: Introducing the dynamic game character, Chapter 2: Characters in contemporary media, Chapter 3: How the dynamic game character develops, Chapter 4: Strategies to control a character's transtextual identities, Chapter 5: Parasocial relationships with non-playable characters, Chapter 6: The construction of transmedia game characters, Chapter 7: The future of dynamic game characters, Glossary A brief typology on characters, Complete bibliography, Index .
