Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling: The Dynamic Game Character

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.

Author: Joleen Blom
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Published: 10/30/2023
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.29h x 6.30w x 0.79d
ISBN13: 9789463722957
ISBN10: 9463722955
BISAC Categories:
- Art | Mixed Media
- Games & Activities | Video & Mobile
- Social Science | Technology Studies