2023
Blom, Joleen
Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling: The Dynamic Game Character Book
Amsterdam University Press, 2023, ISBN: 9789048553495.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Close reading, Dynamic game character, Japanese narratology, Transmedia storytelling, Video game characters
@book{Blom2023,
title = {Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling: The Dynamic Game Character},
author = {Joleen Blom },
url = {https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048553495
},
doi = {10.1515/9789048553495},
isbn = {9789048553495},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-10-30},
urldate = {2023-10-30},
volume = {9},
publisher = {Amsterdam University Press},
series = {Games and Play},
abstract = {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.},
keywords = {Close reading, Dynamic game character, Japanese narratology, Transmedia storytelling, Video game characters},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {book}
}
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.
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.
2021
Blom, Joleen
Characters in Fire Emblem Three Houses: A Ludo Mix Perspective Journal Article
In: Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association, vol. 5, iss. 2, pp. 101 - 130, 2021, ISSN: 2328-9422.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Dynamic game character, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Kyara, Kyarakutā
@article{Blom2021,
title = {Characters in Fire Emblem Three Houses: A Ludo Mix Perspective},
author = {Joleen Blom},
url = {https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202104142962},
doi = {10.26503/todigra.v5i2.117},
issn = {2328-9422},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-04-09},
journal = {Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association},
volume = {5},
issue = {2},
pages = {101 - 130},
abstract = {The article focuses on how dynamic game characters create friction in a ludo mix strategy consisting of primarily ludic media, disturbing the narrative coherency that trans- or cross-media strategies strive for. In particular, dynamic game characters, with a development structure that the player influences, cause narrative inconsistencies with the character’s transmedia appearances. Yet, in Japanese media and ludo mixes, character proliferation is the norm so that different versions of the same character can exist without any issues of narrative coherency. Through a case study of the Fire Emblem: Three Houses ludo mix, this article argues that the Japanese concept of the kyara, a proto-character, demonstrates to be an excellent means to avoid a clash between the dynamic game character in one work and its appearance in another work. It concludes that through the use of the kyara, the IP owner avoids any clash between the dynamic game character’s appearance in its source work and its appearance in other ludic works, thereby giving the impression that the player’s agency over the dynamic game character stays intact.
},
keywords = {Dynamic game character, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Kyara, Kyarakutā},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The article focuses on how dynamic game characters create friction in a ludo mix strategy consisting of primarily ludic media, disturbing the narrative coherency that trans- or cross-media strategies strive for. In particular, dynamic game characters, with a development structure that the player influences, cause narrative inconsistencies with the character’s transmedia appearances. Yet, in Japanese media and ludo mixes, character proliferation is the norm so that different versions of the same character can exist without any issues of narrative coherency. Through a case study of the Fire Emblem: Three Houses ludo mix, this article argues that the Japanese concept of the kyara, a proto-character, demonstrates to be an excellent means to avoid a clash between the dynamic game character in one work and its appearance in another work. It concludes that through the use of the kyara, the IP owner avoids any clash between the dynamic game character’s appearance in its source work and its appearance in other ludic works, thereby giving the impression that the player’s agency over the dynamic game character stays intact.