Overview

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.

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9789463722957

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Reviews

''This dive into video game characters explores transmedia characters and their place in, and influence on, culture. [...] Throughout, the book contrasts character creation and consumption across Eurocentric and Japanese cultures, commenting on their interplay. This work, licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND, adds value to studies of Japan, video games, transmedia, and fandom, extending the work of scholars such as Henry Jenkins. The result is a text that can be of value for upper-level researchers.'' - K. Shotick, Choice ,Vol. 62 No. 1, September, 2024

Author Information

Joleen Blom is a university lecturer at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at the Tampere University Game Research Lab. She is the author of Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling published at the Amsterdam University Press. For more, see joleenblom.com

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