Running Head: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VIDEO

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VIDEO GAME USER AND CHARACTER

BY

CURTIS T. SUTTERFIELD

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTERS OF ARTS IN THE TELECOMMUNICATION DEPARTMENTS DIGITAL STORYTELLING PROGRAM

BALL STATE UNIVERSITY

DR. JAMES W. CHESEBRO, ADVISOR

MAY 2006

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VIDEO GAME USER AND CHARACTER A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTERS OF ARTS IN THE TELECOMMUNICATION DEPARTMENTS DIGITAL STORYTELLING PROGRAM BY CURTIS T. SUTTERFIELD Committee Approval: _______________________________________ Committee Chairperson _______________________________________ Committee Member _______________________________________ Committee Member ____________ Date ____________ Date ____________ Date

Departmental Approval: _______________________________________ Departmental Chairperson _______________________________________ Dean of Graduate School ____________ Date ____________ Date

BALL STATE UNIVERSITY MUNCIE, INDIANA MAY 2006

Acknowledgements My experiences in graduate school would not have been possible without the love and support of my wife, Shannon. I need to thank Dr. Jim Chesebro for his support, patience, and guidance as both the head of the digital storytelling program and as my thesis advisor. The other members of my thesis committee, Dr. Joe Misiewicz and Dr. Laura OHara have been supportive and challenging. Thanks also to my family and my in-laws who understood how important this adventure was to me. I am also indebted to the telecommunications faculty, especially Dr. Dominic Caristi.

Abstract This thesis identifies and explores the types of communication modes that exist in video games. Different types of communication are identified and discussed based on Fryes audience centered theory of modes. The inferior communication mode, the mimetic communication mode, the leader-centered communication mode, the romantic communication mode, and the mythical communication mode are all explained. A convenience sample of six video game players were interviewed about video games. An analysis of their self-identification statements revealed that players seek a high level of romantic communication when playing video games. The romantic communication mode makes the video game world an idealized place where the players are able to manipulate their circumstances or show more intelligence than the user in reality. Uses of the communication modes are also explained.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Introduction to Video Games 1 Narrative Impact... 3 Thesis Statement. 5 Chapter Two: Literature Review.. Power and Addiction Uses and Gratifications Narrative Analysis Virtual Worlds Ludology The Emotional Impact of Video Games Research Questions Chapter Three: Methods Narrative Theories as a Conceptual Perspective Theoretical Framework Ironic Communication System Mimetic Communication System Leader-Centered Communication System.. Romantic Communication System.. Mythical Communication System Informant Interviews Data Analysis Chapter Four: Findings Ironic Communication System Mimetic Communication System Leader-Centered Communication System.. Romantic Communication System.. Mythical Communication System Summary.. 7 7 9 10 11 11 12 13 14 14 16 17 19 20 22 23 25 27 29 30 31 33 34 36 37

Chapter Five: Conclusions.. Importance Methodology. Findings. Significance Communication Mode Character Examples.. Limitations. Future Research. Final Thoughts

40 40 41 41 42 44 47 47 49

Reference List. 51 Appendixes. A. B. C. D 55 55 56 59 110

Chapter 1 Introduction to Video Games

The entertainment and game industries are always undergoing transformation. These transformations are often measures of shifting senses of what is significant in society. If so, video games are now emerging as a powerful cultural force, especially if measured as a media industry, as well as an influence on cognitive transformation. Hollywood has surely taken notice of this relatively upstart industry. Consumers spend more money on video games every year than they do on going to see the latest movie at theaters. According to an analysis of trade information in Rolling Stone magazine, every year since 2001 video game sales have surpassed box office sales in the United States (We Are What We Buy, 2005, p. 38). The same chart shows this game-centric entertainment industry annually takes in more than $10-billion1. The image of video game players has always been of children or young adults in arcades or around a game console hooked to the family TV but that only one segment of the audience, according to the Entertainment Software Associations website the average age of a video game buyer is 36 (www.theesa.com). With a wider age group and a staggering amount of sales, it seems very important to understand what is driving all of these escalating statistics, is it just games? The change in the entertainment and games industry is also evident in terms of talent. Peter Jackson, who helmed the most popular box office franchise in film history, The Lord of the Rings series, has predicted that video games are the future of entertainment (Drumming and Endelman 2005, p. 9), and hes not alone. Stephen Spielberg, the king of the Hollywood box
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The movie industry still reigns supreme in entertainment, even in the home. In 2004, DVD sales earned more than doubled video game sales.
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office, with accumulated earnings in the billions, has redirected his focus on creating original video games (Richtel, Oct. 15 2005, p, C-4). Likewise, George Lucass Star Wars films have spawned several video game titles in more than two decades working with the video game industry (Kent, 2001, p. 155). These are three of the biggest names in Hollywood, if the sales dont show the significance of video games, the involvement of these heavyweights should. While these producers and directors may be looking to cash in on a growing market, they are also creative geniuses who view video game experience as one where the user interacts with their surroundings and can even change the surroundings. Like the Guttenberg presss impact on orators and the motion picture had on the written word, these video games contain powerful tools for people whove made billions telling stories in the visual film medium. They may even be forecasting how storytelling is changing. Video games are making billions of dollars and inspiring films finest directors, and they also appear to be changing the way game users think. The interactive and explorative game world is one that is much different than the passive mediums of print, television and the movies. To adapt to this form of entertainment gamers, as they are known, are developing new cognitive behaviors that allow them to successfully navigate through the virtual worlds of the game. The early video game worlds of Pac-Man and Space Invaders required nothing more than pattern recognition and quick reflexes; todays games require much more complex thought patterns to achieve the desired outcome which is usually completing the story2. These games play out stories, with gamers taking on the role of heroes (and sometimes even villains) and completing quests. Looking back on history the first important literary works were by Homer and they entailed heroes and quests. To complete these new quests something seems to be

Johnson calls these cognitive behaviors probing and telescoping.

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changing in the gamers cognitive ability, not only to understand the way the story is now being delivered, but also how the player has to become an actor in the story. The industry itself is also aware that the story is playing an important role in their business. In the summer of 2005, a work entitled What Every Game Developer Needs to Know about Story appeared on the game developer website Gamasutra (www.gamasutra.com). The article compared video games to films, in so much as both are visual mediums and stressed some simple storytelling constructions such as Aristotles three act story structures. Although the author touches on the importance of story, he either is unsure why it is important other than it makes it more like film. It seems then story is important but why its important is not in this billion-dollar, creatively powerful, possibly cognitively expanding industrys lexicon. Narrative Analysis Another way to examine video games is as a communications system. Specifically, in video games interactivity is a central feature. Liu and Shrum (2002, p. 53) defined interactivity as the degree to which two or more communication parties can act on each other, on the communication medium, and on the messages and the degree to which such influences are synchronized. In a video game as opposed to other games and traditional mediums such as film or books, the communication is computer mediated. The interactions

within a video game are many times most clearly understood as governed by the narrative form. Berger (1997, p. 4) defined narrative as: a story, and stories tell about things that have happened or are happening to animals, aliens from other planets, insects-whatever. That is, a story of events, which means narratives take place within or over, of period of time. people,

contains a sequence

to be more precise, some kind

Narrative is considered one of the oldest and most powerful forms of communication (Chesebro & Bertelsen, 1996, p. 6). Although ancient in use, narratives ability for understanding is still cutting edge even in the digital world of video games. Understanding video games through a narrative lens would allow more meaning to what we already know about video games. To understand the potential power of narrative in video games it would help by returning to the claims of significance already elaborated on earlier. The movie experience is a decidedly one way event, especially when one watches the movie in a theater. A video game is interactive, this allows a player to help influence how the narrative unfolds; a film viewer just watches, a gamer participates. The ability to create a narrative experience in a non-linear structure is challenging and may be what is drawing Hollywoods top storytellers to the video game medium. The narrative aspect of a video game may also account for new cognitive abilities a game player needs in order to complete their adventure. Johnson identifies these cognitive skills as probing and telescoping (2005, pp. 45-55). Probing is accomplished when a user applies an approach to playing that is similar to using the scientific method. Based on the work of Gee, (1) a user explores/probes the game world, (2) develops hypotheses on how best to continue, (3) reprobes the game world and, (4) based on what happens continues or rethink the hypotheses. Telescoping is different in probing; a gamer remembers to reach a specific overriding goal and series of smaller goals must be obtained. Both probing and telescoping are enhanced by narrative experience. The use of generic conventions (Lacey, 2000, p. 135) is a narrative device that helps an audience anticipate what will come next, for someone probing a game world understanding a genre would enhance the chance of selecting the correct hypothesis for

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continuing in a game. Telescoping is similar to dividing a large narrative or book into subnarratives or chapters. Thesis Statement Researching video games through the paradigm of narrative has been a controversial issue in game studies. Neitzel (2005) argued quite clearly that video games are narrative devices. This study complements the work of Neitzel and others and can be usefully understood as one manifestation of how narrative can exist in human communication. Specifically it argues that a relationship exists between the user and the on screen character known as an avatar3. The relationship between player and avatar is enhanced by the use of narrative in video games. The mode of analysis is preliminarily based on field research but should ultimately viewed as heuristic. Wood defines heurism as the degree to which a theory provokes new ideas, insights, thinking and research. A theory is judged to be heuristic if it sparks new thinking (1997, p. 61). However, these finding require a more extensive and comprehensive research program. The findings reported here do constitute a powerful heuristic function theoretically. The primary source for initial data will be from a field study which has been defined as an experiment conducted in a natural setting (Frey, et al. 1992, 7). In the end, this thesis will argue that gamers differ in levels of emotional involvement. Some want the video game world to be an extension of the place we already live, while other games want that world to be a better place and for themselves to be better than the state they currently exist in. Video games fall into genres or modes of communication and can be viewed from an audience-centered perspective. Users experience different communication modes by experience different games. The communication modes have a role in the gamers emotional

An avatar is the users on screen representation in the game world. In some games avatars are the same for everyone such as in Pac-Man, many games now allow players to customize their avatars.
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experience. Video games are linked to other mediums such as literature and television, but what the user seeks is different.

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Chapter 2 Previous Studies Some may conclude that video games have been ignored by mass communication scholars. Trying to find an introductory mass communications textbook that includes a chapter on video games would be a daunting task but the financial impact shows video game are making an impact on a mass audience. It is probably more accurate to say the scholarly research into this area is far from extensive. Indeed, video games have been studied for years, albeit minimally and one of the focuses of academics has been on the game users and what drew these subjects into these virtual worlds. Another form of investigation for researchers and theorists was the merits of looking at video games as a narrative device, the debate over this issue created one of video game scholarships largest divisions. Video games have also been looked at in its ability to illicit emotions from users; much of this is recent scholarship with some intriguing answers for future investigations. Also discussed is the impact technology has had on the video game worlds search for realism and what the future may hold for the game designers of tomorrow. One of the first studies of gamers was published more than two decades ago. Turkle (1984) described video games as a psychology of addictive power and control. For more than a decade later, her work continued to concentrate on addiction to power and control, in one interview she conducted, a subject described how in the video game world hes in complete control unlike most of his life (1995, p. 67). The image her work left on readers were that video game users were a fringe portion of society, tucked away in computer labs and arcades, seduced by the games ability to make them something more than they were in the real world. This image of a video game nerd still is imprinted in the collective conscience of American thought but data shows gamers are quite active in exercising, athletics, and even volunteering

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(www.theesa.com).

Turkles theory of addictive power and control may have been true in her

subjects, but as the industry has evolved so has the demand of the gamers. A fantasy is also an area where a person has power and control and for these reasons can be addictive. Fantasy has been defined as the creative and imaginative shared interpretation of events that fulfill a groups psychological or rhetorical need to make sense of their experience and to anticipate their future (Bormann & Bormann, 1988, p. 82). Video games do deal in a fantasy world, the problem is however, the fantasy is not the players; it is the game designers fantasy. A player cant truly control a video game, they must respond to it. The structure the player is responding to is the games fantasy world and that is created by the narrative, this is true in all forms of the media and the video game is rarely if ever an exception. What the gamers are becoming is a group filled with passion for this medium of entertainment. This fantasy of the video game world a zeal for exploration, not control. A common way to understand the user of a medium is to analyze it through the theory of uses and gratifications. Since the 1940s, researchers have used this method to try and understand why a person chooses a particular medium and what types of satisfaction the medium brings to the user (Wimmer & Dominick, 2003, p. 403). Researchers have also taken the uses and gratifications approach to video game users. Building on the work of several other media researchers, Lucas and Sherry (2004) developed a detailed uses and gratifications model for video game users all of which was built on a methodology originally employed by Greenberg (1974) for understanding television users. By employing focus groups and interviews Lucas and Sherry (2004, p. 503) developed five principal reasons why gamers play; (1) competition-to be the best player of the game; (2) challenge-to push oneself to beat the game or get to the next highest level; (3) social interaction-to play as a social experience with friends; (4) diversion-to

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pass time or to alleviate boredom; (5) fantasy-to do things that you cannot do in real life such as driving race cars or flying; and (6) arousal-to play because the game is exciting. The authors scale was then used to reveal a discrepancy between male and female gamers. In Sherry and Lucass uses and gratifications for video gamer players, narrative is almost completely missing. Their second principal of challenge seems closest to understanding narratives impact. What is a gamer trying to accomplish by reaching the next level or completing the game? In many games this means fulfilling the narrative qualities of the game. Is it the challenge of the game or the desire to complete the story, to find out what comes next, to see the path the action takes them down, that the user is truly interested in? Understanding the motive for the gamer could help establish the role of narrative as a use and gratification in a video game. Using narrative as tool for investigating video games has identified several major aspects of video games. Some researchers have shown video games feature drama, and interactivity. Others have explored video game animation as transformational and realistic. A few researchers have also argued that narrative has little to no impact on video games and that other features are more important to understanding the power of the medium. One of the most important features to this research is the work done by others that shows the emotional impact video games can have on users. Laurel (2003, p. 564) was one of the first scholars to understand narrative could be the base for researching and understanding video games. She incorporated Aristotles six qualitative elements of drama into her vision of a computer based drama. Her work also focused on the metaphor of the computer being a new area for actors to perform theater. Murray (1997) also explored the world of an interactive narrative in Hamlet on the Holodeck. Three key concepts

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are developed by Murray for a user to truly take part in an interactive narrative; (1) immersion, the act of fully plunging once self into a foreign environment or world using the metaphor digital swimming (p. 99), (2) agency, is the joy produced when a users action in the real world (e.g., pressing a button) creates satisfactory action (e.g., firing a shot at the bad guy) in the synthetic world, and (3) transformation is the act of morphing into something else. In the case of a user/avatar relationship, transformation is a powerful tool. The transformation of an ordinary person into the super hero like avatar is one possible reason for developing and exploring the user/avatar relationship. Another factor that could impair the user/avatar relationship is the almost cartoon aspect of the character. A television show like the Simpsons or South Park owes much of its ability to push the envelope of societal constraints by its ability to look unreal or exaggerated due to its animated state. Video games have the opposite position, due to its animated state its harder to believe that the character is in a real place. If recent developments continue this may actually be an unimportant separation. Wolf (2001, p. 94) points out video games have an advantage for telling stories since they are based in a diegetic, or on-screen, world that the user is already used to because of its similarities to television and film. Uren (2003, p. 7) in his analysis of video game design issues points out that computer technology is making the game world more realistic. Through the manipulation of 3-D polygons animation looks more and more realistic. In film, this advanced animation technology is making major changes too. In The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) trilogy one of the most pivotal characters was a computer generated Gollum. Movies such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) and Sin City (2005) used real actors on entirely computer rendered sets. These two worlds, real and animated, appear to be

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coming closer and closer to each other, setting up the capability of a realistic computer generated world with the ability to provide user interaction. Narrative Criticism A group of scholars known as ludologists worry that using narrative as a means for studying video games hurts this emerging field of research. Frasca (2003, p. 221), Juul (2001) and Eskelinen (2001) among others have taken an anti-narrative stance fearing that other academic disciplines will take over the field with their own theories and ignoring games unique qualities such as time relationships, rules, and simulations. Crossing disciplines however, can actually enhance a field as Burkes use of philosophy, literature, linguistics, and sociology aided his work with rhetoric and helped evolve the communications field (Foss, Foss & Trapp, 2002, pp. 187-88). Neitzel (2005, p. 227) may have argued best that a scope of either narrative or Ludology is too narrow because a computer is a hybrid medium and capable of so much more than other mediums. Her exploration of narrative in video games points out that one of the main separations between games and other forms of medium is the active involvement of the user. This separation or user involvement is one of the main areas that need to be further explored by research. The Emotional Impact of Video Games One way for a relationship to evolve is to add emotion to it. Some video game studies have explored the emotional impact of video games. One study (Schneider et al., 2004, pp. 36175) looked at how adding a more developed narrative to a first person shooter video game showed increases in emotional, motivational and physiological responses. Using a two by two design experiment emotional experience was measured in two ways self-reported and skin conductance. Another study by a private researcher (Bowen, 2005) used online surveys to

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determine what genre of video games created the most emotional impact. The 78% of the 535 users surveyed chose role playing games (RPG) as the most emotionally powerful, first person shooters were the second highest ranked at 52%, followed closely by action 49%, and adventure 48%. This research shows that video games produce an emotional response, especially in certain types of games. The role playing game series Final Fantasy was mentioned most often by users as being the most emotional game and that the surprise death of a character caused some users to be depressed for weeks. Previous studies in video games have shown that the medium is a communicative experience and that one area of communication involved in it is specifically narrative. What sets the narrative in video games apart from other mediums is the level of influence by the user. Users have the ability to transform into characters that act in other worlds which are becoming more and more realistic. Video games also produce emotion in users, and some video games provide a more emotional experience. What is missing from the literature is a closer look at the relationships developed between the user and the avatar. Specifically what is needed is a way to categorize and separate the different types of characters instead of lumping them all in one bin. This thesis explores that framework and provides some possible answers into why a user and character relationship develops, how it impacts the user, and how it motivates or discourages users to continue the experience. It also provides possible areas for future researchers to explore.

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Chapter 3 Methods

While video games can be viewed as narrative, and these games fill some needs for the users, as indicated in chapter two, the relationship between the user and the game character remains unclear. In part, no established criteria exist for defining characters in video games and video game players. To aid in defining different types of video game characters, naturalistic research techniques are used to provide an overview of the gamers world and greater insight into the user/avatar relationship. The relationship between the user and the video game character portrayed by the user can be highly personal. Accordingly, the design of the field research is to employ as unobtrusive a research method as possible when interviewing informants. At the same time, interpreting the collected data from the interviews requires either an existing theoretical framework to use or creating a new theory, for this thesis a framework for defining fictional characters already exists. This chapter explores different means of investigating narratives from a communications perspective, explaining why some would not work for this thesis. More information will be provided on a relevant theory, the collection of data, and it was interpreted. Narrative Theories as a Conceptual Perspective Lacey (2001, p. 6) supposes narrative is as old as humankind. Understanding narratives can be done in many ways, and through several different theories. Bormann (1972, pp. 396-407) developed symbolic convergence theory as a way to understand how a fantasy theme(s) develops in group communication but it has also been used for mass communication as well (Bormann, Cragan, & Shields, 1994, p. 272). Although an effective theoretical strategy, symbolic

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convergence theory does not intentionally look at the dynamic of character in a narrative which would make it less useful in collecting data to support this thesis. Another narrative analysis tool is Fishers (1984, pp. 1-22) narrative paradigm. The narrative paradigm focuses on the good reasons for a narrative and involves both probability and fidelity. Here a critic looks for coherence and truth in a narrative. Like symbolic convergence theory and some other narrative theories, the narrative paradigm does not focus on character and therefore is not as useful as the following theories in this case. Most likely the first narrative theory comes from Aristotles (1995) Poetics and is a good place to start when searching for an effective theory to support the thesis statement. Aristotle defines poetry as a type of mimesis or imitation. Within poetry there are three genres epic verse, tragedy, and comedy. Comedy involves a situation where the central character is inferior to the audience, which is where the humor is derived. In a tragedy the central character is superior to the audience and overcomes or succumbs to an admirable action. Epic verse is a narrative where the central character is similar to the one in tragedy. Video games could be separated between these three types of genres although epic verse is probably not relevant. Dividing video games into just two categories of either comedy or tragedy most likely would not result in enough distinguishable data to effectively address the thesis statement but this theory does address the importance of characters. Aristotles work also revealed another possible narrative theory to explore, genre theory or more specifically generic criticism. Websters New World Dictionary defines a genre as a distinct kind, or type (1990, p. 248). Generic criticism is marked by Bitzers (1968, pp 1-14) components of a rhetorical situation; the first of which is the exigence which is what begs us to investigate, the second part is that an audience must be capable of being influenced and be able

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to mediate possible changes, and finally the third component is the constraint or aspects that may shape the decision and action needed to address the exigence. If a rhetorical situation does indeed exist then Foss (1996, pp. 225-237) outlines three paths generic criticism can take. The first type of generic criticism is called generic description; in this case the critic creates a genre by noticing a pattern in rhetorical situations. The type labeled as generic participation investigates whether or not an artifact falls into a genre that already exists. Similar to generic participation, the final type of generic criticism involves investigating the artifact and how well it fits into a genre. Character is an important aspect of a genre. When a character violates rules of that genre, the audience can become lost especially in a medium that is condensing the narrative for brevity. Generic criticism can help identify a genre which is a type or a category, and character is important to a genre but is not necessary to generic criticism. The theory for this thesis will be based on characters like Aristotles and can be divided into many categories like generic criticism can do. Theoretical Framework Conveniently a system for classifying narrative characters already exists and can be adapted to video games. The theoretical framework employed to interpret video games is based on the 1957 volume, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays, by Northrop Frye. While Frye is predominantly viewed as a genre critic in the discipline of English, Frye developed the kind of audience-centered framework that is so useful in a study of human communication. In the First Essay, Historical Criticism: Theory of Modes of the Anatomy of Criticism, Frye (p.33) developed a theory of modes based on Aristotles work of a character being inferior or superior to ones audience. By expanding the Aristotelian model, Frye (1957, p.33) proposed five types of characters for literary fiction in the first of his four essays collected in Anatomy of Criticism.

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Fryes concept focused on the main character or heros action rather than their morality. This is a very important distinction for video games, especially more recent games, users are given the ability to choose between what type of morality play they want to take part in or more simply, whether or not they want their character to be good or bad. In a game such as the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto video game series, the hero goes around stealing cars, beating prostitutes and attacking police officers. In this type of game defining a video game character based on morality could pose quite a quandary. The type of action however is much more rigid and therefore more classifiable. If one considers the game play in a video game to be an action, then a classification of characters by there action seems to be an even more appropriate system than Aristotles. Fryes theoretical framework was intended for use in literature alone, his intention was to show how over the history of the written world in the Western society, the type of character changed over time from a character vastly superior to his audience to one that was inferior. Chesebro (2003, p. 367-418) adapted Fryes theory as a tool for analyzing communication. Fictional characters from prime time television were analyzed during a twenty-five year period. The study looked at the characters from an audience centered aspect making it a communication mode. The work on television also took into account the changes in characters presented over time. Two key variables in differentiating characters in this scheme were: (1) The apparent intelligence of the central character compared to the understanding of the audience and (2) the ability of the character to control the circumstances compared to the ability of the audience. That the classification system works when extended to another medium is a good test that it will probably work for another (e.g. video games). Chesebros adaptation of Fryes work specifically shifts Fryes generic modes to a theory of communication modes. At this point, it is appropriate

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to explicitly identify the five kinds of communication modes that are ultimately used to classify the content of video game players. Ironic Communication System One classification of character comes when a narratives hero is inferior to the reader in either intelligence or in their ability to control the circumstances surrounding them. If this is the case our hero is in an (1) ironic communication mode. Acting inferior is the main key to this concept. Everyone at one time or another has figuratively stumbled with whatever action we were trying to do and thus were acting in an ironic mode. For a character to be considered ironic though, they should spend most of their time in the users determination in this phase. Throughout his essay, Frye (1957, p. 41) provides examples of literary characters that fit the different modes. Table 1 Five Communication Modes in Different Mediums, provides a convenient summary of these examples. One of the most recognized characters is Hester Prynne the protagonist of Hawthornes classic The Scarlet Letter. Prynnes crime of adultery and more to the point her subsequent Table 1. Examples from the Five Communication Modes in Different Mediums Communication Mode Compared to Audience Ironic- inferior in intelligence or controlling circumstances Mimetic- same intelligence and controlling circumstances Leader Centered superior in degree in intelligence and same controlling circumstances Literature Hester Prynne (The Scarlet Letter) Daisy Miller (Daisy Miller) Othello (Othello) Television Archie Bunker (All in the Family) Mary Richards (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) Julia Sugarbaker (Designing Women) Motion Picture Larry, More, or Curly (The Three Stooges) Mitch (Old School) Erin Brockovich (Erin Brockovich)

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Romantic- superior in degree in intelligence and superior in degree to controlling circumstances Mythical- Superior in kind in intelligence and superior in kind in controlling circumstances

Beowulf (Beowulf)

Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote) Elizabeth (V)

Neo (Matrix)

Loki (Norse Mythology)

The Terminator (Terminator series)

punishment forces her to be inferior to the rest of the characters and to us, as we do not go around with letters sewn into our clothes. Fryes categories are based on action not morality, thus although Prynne is a model citizen after the birth of her daughter Pearl, it is her crime not the type of person she is that allows her to be categorized in the ironic mode. In television, Chesebro (2003, pp. 374-76) finds All in the Familys patriarch Archie Bunker to be an archetype of the ironic mode. Bunkers continual bungling of social situations due to his prejudices creates much of the shows humor. As an ironic character we do not laugh with Archie, we laugh at him and how foolish it is to stereotype others. Bunker shows he loves and tries to protect his family which makes him morally a good person, but his actions of prejudice and the situations it gets him into show how he inferior to the other characters and to us. For motion pictures the author developed characters that would fit into the categories as a way for the informants to understand how the types of characters differed. Larry, Moe, and Curly of the Three Stooges were given as an example along with Harold and Lloyd of the more recent film Dumb and Dumber. These characters from the cinema create laughter for us by being inferior to us. Similar to Archie Bunkers misuse of stereotypes, the Stooges use violent acts to show they are beneath us, the Dumb and Dumber characters lack of intelligence puts them into more and more preposterous situations, all of these actions show how they are inferior to us.

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Mimetic Communication System Within Fryes system, a second communication mode is the mimetic mode. When a hero is classified as mimetic, the character is neither superior in intelligence to others nor superior to others in terms of the heros ability to control the environment. Accordingly, this type of character could be a friend, a neighbor, a family member, or even a stranger on the street. In other words, the mimetic hero is one of us, and this hero emerges and is constructed from the experiences of everyday life. For the audience or the user as in the case of video games, a mimetic identification suggests that the video game player establishes, or perceives, or finds it is important to find commonalities with the video game character. Without bringing our own experiences into this kind of character, it would feel flat. Indeed Frye warned that it may be difficult for a reader to determine that this character could even be a hero. Frye provides James Daisy Miller as his example of a mimetic character. The eponymous heroine strives to climb the ladder of society but after a failed romance with a man who can bring her what she wanted, she dies of a disease that plagues other normal people. Millers failure at love with a socialite and her ensuing death show shes no smarter or better at changing circumstances than most people. Chesebro chose Mary Richards of The Mary Tyler Moore Show for his example of the character that embodies the mimetic communication mode in television programs. Marys character was for the most part very plain and her world fairly ordinary. The author points out that this structure is important because everyday life should be perceived as special rather than routine, as full of modest but intriguing surprises rather than boring (Chesebro, p.377). If Richardss life is ordinary then she is certainly on the same level as the rest of the audience, neither superior nor inferior.

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For movie characters there are a long line of everyday people, comedies that do not rely on slapstick normally have at least one character like this so that the absurdity that surrounds them is more easily spotted. The recent movie Old School featured a central character named Mitch, so plain was Mitch that he didnt even have a last name in the credits. Mitch played by Luke Wilson participated in the craziness that surrounded him during the movie but he still acted like a normal person, the comedy came from the normal person in abnormal situations. Horror movies also thrive on characters that are neither superior nor inferior to us. It is easier to put ourselves in the shoes of a relatively normal camp counselor who is about to be slaughtered by Jason in a Friday the 13th movie, therefore it is scarier. It the abnormal happening in a normal setting that instigates the fear. Leader-Centered Communication System The character in a leader centered communication mode is more typically thought of as a hero, especially by todays modern definition of the word hero. The leader-centered character is superior in degree in intelligence to others but only through specialized training and education. This hero faces the same limitations our circumstances environment that the audience faces. The hero becomes a leader by using the special training or education to encourage others to follow them. Othello is an example of how being leader centered does not necessarily guarantee happiness in the fictional world. Fryes example is indeed a leader, a Moor who also is in command of a Venetian army. It is his intelligence, through training, that allows him to lead this army of foreigners. Othello is not able to control his circumstances however and kills his wife believing she was unfaithful. When it is later revealed to him that she had not committed

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adultery, he ends his own life. Although most in the audience could never command an army, anyone could be betrayed by their partner. Chesebro finds his example of the leader centered communication mode in the 1980s situational comedy Designing Women. At one time or another all four of the central characters on the show displayed the qualities of a leader. Julia Sugarbaker is identified after a review of the comedy stated she was the matriarchal figure of the four. The designers faced the same problems anyone on the audience might face but one would lead the others through the situation. In this case since they were partners in the design firm it made it easier for anyone of them to lead. In the movie Erin Brockovich, the title character uses her knowledge of law she has learned as a secretary to help clients and her boss win a major lawsuit. Brockovich is not a typical leader type in that she has to answer to her boss who is an attorney. It is her intelligence that makes her the leader and gets clients and her boss to follow her into a battle against a corporate giant. Brokovich is in circumstances the audience finds itself in, working for others, but by using her wits does not let that stop her from leading. Romantic Communication System A character that is superior to others in degree and able to manipulate their circumstances in exceptional ways is classified as existing in the romantic communication mode. While possessing extraordinary powers, this character remains a human. The superiority of the actions is only a degree more than what the mimetic character possesses. These characters have more options for controlling the environment surrounding them. In many ways these are the idealized characters, the ones who live where the grass is actually greener.

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One of the oldest English fictional characters is Fryes example of a character in the romantic communication mode. Beowulf travels to afar away land to save the people from a fierce Grendel monster and eventually the monsters mother. Later the people make him king and eventually dies during a fight with a dragon. It is Beowulfs intelligence and bravery that inspires the people to make him king. It is Beowulfs ability to battle supernatural creatures that shows his ability to manipulate circumstances. Jessica Fletcher of the television program Murder, She Wrote is an example of the romantic communication mode. Fletcher uses her superior intelligence to write famous murder mysteries and even helps solve crimes for police investigators. Her uncanny ability to solve crime is what makes her slightly superior to her circumstances. As Chesebro points out Fletcher is sometimes even able to explain a death constituted murder rather than a suicide or accidental death (p. 381). In the first movie of the Matrix trilogy, the central character Neo is proclaimed the one by the rebel Morpheous. Neo spent his life inside the computer created world of the Matrix as a hacker. Hacking we are believed to understand takes considerable intelligence, especially the way Neo hacks. Morpheous explains that hes been living in a lie and takes him to the real world outside the Matrix. After extensive training Neo is able to manipulate the Matrix world by seeing the computer code in everything artificial. The Neo character eventually progresses into another type of communication mode during the trilogy, but for the first film, his character is in a romantic communication mode. Mythical Communication System The fifth category of action for a hero is classified in the (5) mythical communication mode. This character is essentially a god and there are almost no limitations placed on them.

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Here the hero is much more advanced than the mimetic character, and far superior to members of the audience and their ability to control their environment. Frye points out that these types of characters are not usually found in normal literary categories (p.33), but instead were mostly found in scriptures. A case could probably be made that with the rise of science fiction writing in the last half of the 20th century this type of fantastical character has had a bit of a rebirth. Fryes contention was that Western literature was completing the cycle by returning to more mythical narratives. Fryes example for the mythical communication mode comes from Norse mythology. Loki was the troublemaker son of supreme deity Odin and half brother of Thor. Loki spends much of his time creating problems with mortals that Thor then has to solve. Loki is able to trick mortals easily by being superior in intelligence and by being able to manipulate circumstances. The only way he can be stopped is by another god, in most cases Thor. The science fiction television series V provided a central character in the mythical communication mode. Chesebro cites the offspring of a human and a visitor alien, Elizabeth, as the mythical character. Elizabeth has powers neither the visitors nor the humans possess. In this way she has become superior in intelligence and in her ability to control circumstances. The three different models of the Terminator cyborg in the Terminator movie trilogy also display mythical communication mode characteristics. The first Terminator is a pure killing machine, with a computer programmed to do anything to kill its target. It is also nearly impossible to destroy a terminator. When a Terminator is programmed to save future rebel leader a male cyborg and female cyborg are dispatched with the ability to liquefy their metal features making them even more unstoppable. Informant Interviews

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The second phase of the research involves informant interviews utilizing open-ended questions. An open-ended question is an interrogative sentence designed to permit unguided responses and allows subjects to introduce any situational variables they see fit to provide when answering the question. According to Lindlof and Taylor (2002, p. 177) there are four characteristics for ideal informants and an ideal informant is one that has at least characteristic, they include (1) extended experience in the culture, (2) serving the scene in a variety of roles, (3) respected by peers, subordinates or superiors in the social network, and/or (4) they are speakers of the language amongst the group and can clue the researcher into the languages specialized meanings. Extended experience was the primary characteristic of those interviewed for this study, although the heavier gamers were also able to provide some specialized terms. The subjects were chosen after answering that they liked to play video games as part of a convenience sample. Although this type of research is usually frowned upon for quantitative analysis, a convenience sample can be beneficial for exploring ideas. In this case it the theory that holds the key to understanding gamers, not how big the population of the study was. Another potential problem with using convenience samples is that the data can not usually be generalized, but the results found in chapter 4 may disagree with that interpretation. The researcher created a sample of six gamers who have been playing video games for several years. All of the participants had played the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console which was introduced in the mid 1980s (Kent, 2001). One of the variables for each informant was the amount of time spent playing each week. All participants reported playing video games every week but one two informants did it for less than two hours a week, two other informants played more than that, and the last two informants gamed heavily, at least 30 hours per week. As one could surmise from such a discrepancy in

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time spent gaming, the heavy gamers appeared more passionate and knowledgeable about the subject of video games but all participants provided characters they felt belonged in the appropriate categories. Each interview session was conducted individually with the informant and saved on cassette tape. Each informant was asked the same 25 questions (see appendix A) during their interview session. Follow up questions were also asked when appropriate which resulted in an overall different amount of questions for each participant. As Wimmer and Dominick (2003, p. 111) point out, the ability to ask more questions and to change questions is a decided advantage of qualitative research. Examples of characters in the different categories was provided by the researcher based on Fryes classification system and adopting it to motion pictures, which the researcher thought the population would be more likely to be familiar with than the characters in classic literary works. The questions were designed to elicit the informants to name specific characters they believed would fall into the described categories. In some case same characters were chosen by the informants but not all, and not in each of the five categories. This should come as no surprise due to the thousands of video game hero characters that currently exist. The informants were also asked to explain why they thought these types of characters appealed to themselves and to other gamers even if the informant did not like playing games with that type of character. A question of a link between character and genre of video games also was asked. Other questions were asked of the participants relating to video games but the questions of primary importance have been explained. Data Analysis After the six interviews were conducted the data was then transcribed resulting in more than fifty pages worth of responses. One follow up e-mail was sent out to one informant to

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clarify the spelling of a character mentioned during the interview process. The transcripts were then coded by the researcher (see appendix B) into a corresponding communication mode and placed in table 2 and finally synthesized. Bruyn writes the process by which one arrives at the process of a phenomenon is synthetic, involving bringing together of disparate elements of experience together intelligently and intuitively (1966, p. 95). The phenomenon in this case is the five types of communication modes. Coding the data into the five genres of communication mode entailed careful analysis of the interview transcripts. A set of criteria or a rubric was developed by the researcher. Most of the self-identification statements included the personal pronoun I, but not everyone. After distinguishing the statement it was classified as being in the ironic communication mode if the informant used key words such as inferior, simple, or expressed a sense there was nothing they could do against the computer. Diagnosing the mimetic communication mode relied on the informants using my or yourself, words that made the user feel as though they were in the game. Interpreting leader-centered communication is difficult because it so similar to the mimetic character. Key words for leader-centered communication mode include the obvious lead and more subtle word selections such as ranting, building, strategy or similar words that describe progression. For the romantic communication mode, informants described idealized notions of the worlds they played in and the characters they controlled such as being able to fly or the ability to wield magic just like Harry Potter does on film and in print. For understanding the mythical communication mode, the researcher sought out statements as being able to crush cars under your monster feet or being indestructible. The type of statements showed the informant realized they were not being part of humankind.

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The gamers differing levels of time spent playing, games played, and ability to articulate those experiences resulted in the researcher being able to catalog the informants self identification with a communication mode. Chapter four summarizes the findings derived from the data analysis as the interviews were so classified.

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Chapter 4 Findings

In this chapter, the data collected in this study are presented, interpreted, and assessed. Specifically, the interviews conducted with video game players are reported in terms of Fryes five modes of communication. As noted in chapter 3, the statements of video game players were classified into Fryes five theoretical modes. Such a classification provides a way of understanding the relationships video game players with the set of fictional characters that reside within a video game, implicitly reveal how video games players conceive of themselves as they play video games, and provide a link between video games as communication systems and modes or genres traditionally employed to define another kind of communication system, literature. In this regard, the interviews with video game players in this study are provided in Appendix B. Additionally, specific statements of video game players are classified into Fryes five theoretical modes on Table 2 in Appendix C. The significance and meanings of these classifications are provided in this chapter in several ways. First, the overall numeric emphases of this classification is provided in Table 3 below, followed by an interpretation of this frequency finding. Second, the significance and meaning of video game players statement in terms of each of Fryes five theoretical modes is provided. Finally, a conclusion regarding these findings is provided. Overall Numeric Emphases Table 3 provides a numeric assessment of the frequency of video game players statements in terms of Fryes five theoretical modes.

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Table 3. Frequency of Subjects Self-Identification with a Communication Mode Communication Modes Ironic Mimetic Leader-centered Romantic Mythic Total Number of Subjects Self-Identifications with a Communication Mode 8 25 18 48 17 116 Percentage of Subjects Self-Identifications with a Communication Mode 6.89 21.55 15.51 41.37 14.65 99.97

Overall, the video game players interviewed for this study overwhelmingly found romantic video game characters to be their most important source of identification. As Table 3 indicates, video game players identified with romantic video game heroes twice as often as the mimetic heroes in video games. This romantic identification suggests that video games function as a tremendous goad to the imagination, as a way of moving from the here-and-now to a more idealized, if not glorified, environment. Additionally, the video game players interviewed in this study identified with romantic video game heroes almost three times as often as they did with leader-centered and mythical centered video game heroes. Such a comparison suggests that for video game players, video games are more than leadership training sessions in which players want to experience only a mere increase in their sense of intelligence and/or the ability to control circumstances (i.e., a leader-centered domain). Likewise, the comparison suggests that video games are understood to function within a world governed by natural laws of physics rather than creating a world of the supernatural (i.e., the mythical domain). Finally, it should be noted that video games are seldom played as a way to abdicate power and personal importance; video game players identified with romantic heroes within their games almost six times more frequently than with ironic heroes within video games.

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Having considered the overall numeric emphases, it is appropriate to consider how video game players identified with or failed to identify with each of Fryes five theoretical modes. Ironic Communication Mode Everyone has a one time or another fallen into the ironic mode of communication. Someone loses their keys, asks someone else where they are, keep searching, get more frustrated, get upset the next time you speak to the person previously spoken to, and the keys end up being in the place they normally were all the whole time. While we are in the process we feel less than intelligent and we feel very frustrated by not being able to control our environment by finding the keys. A new job with new responsibilities can bring many of these same dreaded emotions. This is the ironic communication mode of feeling inferior. After weve found the keys, or become comfortable with the job, we can reflect on the ordeal and laugh. This is why many of the ironic characters in works of fiction are comical. Even when we laugh at someone because they are too smart, its not usually their intelligence we laugh at, it is how they are inferior in their ability to control their environment. These nerds are either socially awkward or may not have much of a fashion sense. These are some of the circumstances most of us control. The nerd image is one that seems to have been stuck on video game users since the time of Turkles research. Though when we look at the millions of people who are playing video games, is this a fair depiction? Are we a nation of nerds? If playing a video game makes you a nerd, then it would be fair to say by looking at the amount of money spent on this industry that we are indeed a nation of nerds. This nation then is inferior in its abilities to control our circumstances and would put us in the ironic communication mode. The numbers times an

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informant made a self-identification with a communication mode showed a far different story (see table 3). At less than seven percent, the ironic communication mode appeared far less in the results than any of the other communication modes. Anyone who plays games knows they can be incredibly frustrating, especially when starting out, and can make one feel like they are in the ironic communication mode. It appears in the responses however, this is not a problem, as informant #2 said I guess in Warcraft I want my character to progress and I guess my character is inferior at the time but I dont know if it is the progression that I find enjoyable. Although the informant understood inferiority is part of the learning process its not what draws him to the games, Its not like I pick out the character thinking hes inferior or anything like that. Sometimes a gamer gets that feeling after theyve played the game for a while, some think its the programmers revenge as informant #6 revealed, I feel like the computer cheats (laughter), I swear sometimes the computer is against me. If the games did indeed cheat to make the player feel inferior it seems that games would soon lose their appeal. It may be a laugh to feel inferior now and then, like the key and new job examples showed us we do sometimes in life, but a steady dose of it would probably make the user move on to some other game just as we would move on with something else in our lives. When the informants were asked what kind of video game character fell into this mode, not surprisingly, it was the most difficult for them to name. Mimetic Communication Mode As children many of us played games like make believe, maybe we had toy soldiers or dolls to help stimulate our imaginations. Many times the activities were a way to role play at things we saw adults do and planned on doing some day when we grew up. Sometimes we would make this imaginary world to be one that s better than reality, so we romanticized it.

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Other times however we just inhabited that world. In many ways, when we invited friends in to our play, we called it house or soldier, but what we were usually doing was playing life. Playing life could be very useful because it allowed us to learn what we liked and did not like, what was useful and what was not useful. In the play of life we created, we did what Johnson (2005, p. 45-55) called probing. We used the scientific method in our approach to play but what we were really exploring was the mimetic communication mode. We mimicked real life or at least what we thought was real life. Some video games offer the chance to play life or experience the mimetic communication mode. The example most of the informants thought of for the mimetic communication mode was the game of The Sims. The game is essentially a simulation of real life, you have to get a job if you want to buy things, wake up late and miss work you get fired, if you want to advance in work you need a larger social network so you need to make more friends, if you want to increase your friends you are not only going to have to buy a phone you are going to have to use it and invite these people over for socializing. These are but a few examples of the monotonous things we have to do in every day life that somehow are fun when put it into a little pixilated world. Informant #2, a heavy gamer, saw the similarities immediately I played Sims for a while and that really fits what youre talking about. The character is so much like you; you might even name the character after yourself. You can even make the character look like you. The game has been described as a doll house but it is much more than that it is a place where we can probe and possibly figure out how to change some of things weve done wrong in our life. It is like deciding to go the college route in the board game called Life instead of taking the quick bucks of the shorter path, although The Sims is the game of Life on steroids. If someone is recreating

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their life as you are able to do in the game to some degree, then they are certainly in the mimetic mode of communication with the game, its not inferior or superior it is essentially the same. This mode of communication had the second highest total of self-identifications among the informants. One of the reasons the total may have been so were the number of response informant #2 made concerning this aspect of gaming and that he made the most identifiable responses. Informant #2 made 15 of the 25 statements in the mimetic communication mode and he also made the most self-identifications with 38. The Sims may explain how this type of communication mode is an everyday slice of life but informant #2 provides even more detail when it comes to idolizing, game play, and choices. Ive never been a big fan of magic abilities, that just doesnt buy it, but Ive always my whole life been a military person so Ive always had you know this respect for this warrior person. Even though #2 could essentially be anyone in the world he goes with someone he respects, It just seems like all the games I like are the kind(s) were youre the normal average type of character. One aspect he sees is that like in a Sims type game there is room to grow, I can see that as being a driving force for someone to try and improve your own situation and you can do it a lot easier in a game than you can in real life. One advantage game makers have in creating games in the mimetic communication mode is something the other heavy gamer, informant #6, saw Its not hard to believe whats going on in a game if it looks like Joe Blow and Jane Doe. With both heavy gamers weighing in with such lucidity, maybe when one spends so much time in the game worlds, a dose of reality is also needed. Leader-Centered Communication Mode Most everyone at one time or another has felt frustration with a boss, chairperson, or some other type of authority and felt we could do a better job if given the chance. In this case it

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is our desire to lead that we are trying to act upon and it is in the leader-centered communication mode that we enter. Most people will not enter a situation with this attitude; they need some experience or training. The hero character in the leader-centered communication mode is only slightly superior to the audience and it is because of their background and training. Most of us would not want to lead on the first day of a job unless we already had prior experience and training. It is only after the training and the experience that we will start to entertain the fantasies from the beginning of the paragraph.

Video games offer users this ability of leadership without many of the hassles and risks of real world, here the only consequence of having to start the game or section of the game over. This is of course a very powerful feeling and one that can be rewarding for the gamer as informant #1 explains: The ability to act and make decisions in a video game that I think in our life were forced not to act in order to survive, were forced not to tell our boss hes an idiot because we need our jobs to pay the electric company, to pay our rent but uh, so, a lot of things in real life is learning when not to react or tolerate situations. But as a leader in a video game you dont have to tolerate any of that, you can take care active role somewhat. These are obviously personal feelings for informant #1, who was the only informant to make more self-identifications in the leader-centered communication mode than any of the other modes. Informant #1 was also the oldest informant by a substantial number of years, twelve. It may be that he has had enough training in his life but his work position keeps him from of that, a more

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capitalizing on the leadership qualities he believes he possess. The leader centered video game character may be providing him a virtual refuge. Age may be a factor in this analysis too as the next oldest informant #4 had the next highest percentage (5 of 18) of responses in the leader centered communication mode compared to overall responses. Informant #4 was able to express in even more detail why he wanted to be the mayor of another simulation game Sim City, I enjoy the task of having to manage so many things at one time, something that is functional and hopefully successful. Many people would not want to be a Mayor in real life because of all the managing that it would take, but here in a game world all that managing is the reward, not the burden. The self-identification from informant #4 also reveals that video games are teaching people to multi-task and how hard a job such as being a mayor can really be. Romantic Communication Mode Many people will refer to high school or college as the best times of their life, maybe its true but when we reflect we forget many of the hardships of growing up. By cutting out what went wrong and the struggles we went through we have made the experience superior to the one we are currently in, this is also what happens with the character in the romantic communication mode. In this communication mode everything is a little bit better or slightly superior to what the audience has in their life. Here what is experienced is romanticized and just out of our reach. Most daydreamers would strive for this fantastical world that exists in the romantic communication mode. Video games are ripe for the romantic communication mode; it is concerned with escape from reality. If video games are a way to indulge in fantasy and do things you can not do in normal life as Lucas and Sherrys uses and gratifications study suggests, it should not be a

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surprise that many people play video games for romantic communication. Indeed, more than 40% of the informants self-identifications could be categorized in the romantic communication, almost twice as many as the next leading mode which was mimetic (21%). All six of the informants had this category among the top two of their five different self-identification communication modes. Informants #5 (7 of 14) and #6 (17 of 31) each had at least half of their responses cataloged in the romantic communication mode. This form of escapism is common for all mediums in entertainment but some of the selfidentifications among the informant gamers reveal some of the reasons why. Games can offer an extremely immersive experience which can be rewarding in ways more traditional media usually is not as informant #1 explains it is a sense of experimentation, what would happen if I did this, or let me see if I can get this done or whatever, somebody that has a lot of curiosity. A feeling echoed by informant #4, Im never going to find myself in a situation like that so games are a way for me to experience that you know? However much of a character issue that might be, it gives me the chance to see something I wouldnt normally see. Sometimes that experimentation is powerful in the users mind. For someone stuck on Earth and its laws of physics game play as informant #5 points out can be rewarding, sometimes you can step outside of the box and you can do things that are pretty cool and to do things you cant do in real life like climb walls. Its fun to explore that and do stuff out of the ordinary. Exploring can be an enjoyable experience especially in a romanticized way, here theres no airport security hassles, no worries about rising gas prices. In the romantic communication mode the emphasis is on a superior experience for the audience which in this case is the video game user. Experimentation and the ability to do things the audience cannot is one thing but the romantic communication mode also allows a user to dabble in anonymity. Like you can say

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things to people you wouldnt say in real life. Some people do vulgar things that you cant really do in real life (starts laughing). So its like a different, it puts a fairy tale twist on everyday activities. Informant #6 reported. This is also a sense of experimenting but unlike the first three statements hints at the potential destructiveness that can exist when we indulge the romantic communication mode. You can also explore more fantasies that may be frowned on in the normal society as informant #2 revealed when shes allowed to build a character like herself, If I make it myself, Ill make it to be a little brunette girl but Ill put tattoos all over myself so its super me. The gamer may be able to experience the satisfaction in the virtual world of something they would not or could not do in their real life. Like the leader-centered communication mode, the gamer is experiencing something to superior than their normal life, but in a romantic communication mode it is a dominant experience, something few if anyone can ever experience in real life. Mythical Communication Mode Mythical storytelling dates back to the rise of civilizations, a time when people had questions but not much science. Mythical characters explained what could not be answered such as why people died at sea; it was Neptune or Poseidons fault. What happens to us after we die? If we mummify ourselves we can be with Ra the sun god. What caused thunder? It had to be Thors hammer. A myth used to make the unexplainable explainable because the mythical characters were superior to the audience they were told to. Characters in the mythical communication mode remain a minority among fictional characters in the modern age but a story containing mythical characters such as in Tolkeins The Lord of the Rings trilogy shows these types can still be popular in various mediums.

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The video game world gives users the chance to actually be a mythical creature, which may not be as amusing as it sounds. Informant #1 experienced this feeling, I liked being Godzilla because you can stomp around and kick cars and punch buildings and stuff like that it was pretty fun. He would later go on to say that wasnt much fun and maybe in human terms it is not much fun to be a god. In some video games there is a way to cheat the system called a god-code that essentially makes you indestructible. Some use this cheat as they are called to get through area of the game that is too difficult to pass for the user or sometimes to just get through the game faster. As informant #6 volunteered, Its got to be nice to just rampage through anything you want, do any task that is at hand, do anything you want really. This godlike superiority is also a powerful emotion to tap into in the video game world, for informant #2, I think I am the character essentially; I am the character in that game. There is not some virtual persona of me in the game, it is me controlling everything. Of course, when you have that much control and you cannot die it may also make for a game that is not very challenging which is why this function has to be found in the game like an Easter egg and not part of the normal game play. Conclusions When discussing video games and characters, the informant self-identification statements overwhelmingly favored the romantic communication mode. This mode emphasizes a world beyond everyday reality as well as world that goes beyond the directions provided or governed by leaders. When people invoke and employ a romantic communication mode, they depart form the here and now for a different kind of world, a world that differs in degree in terms of how things are understood and what controlling circumstances are. In this sense, playing a video game is a way to get away, and most people do not want to go back to the real world if given a

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chance to leave it at least temporarily. There were two other communication mode findings that bear repeating. The mimetic communication mode scored high among the heavy gamers who played for more than 30 hours a week. The need for mimetic communication could be because so much time is spent in an artificial world they need to get a dose of reality. Leader-centered communication scored high among the two oldest informants. The ability to be your own boss or be needed seemed to play important roles for the gamers who made these types of selfidentification statements. Also examples of five different video game characters that corresponded with the appropriate communication mode were provided.

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Chapter 5 Conclusions

In this fifth and final chapter a summation of the previous chapters will be made to support this thesis. Arguments were made that video games represent digital communication, specifically narrative and interactivity, and that games merit academic investigation. Previous game studies have focused on users and on narratives but there is a void in the literature between users and narratives. This thesis adapted Fryes theory of modes to analyze the relationship between the user or audience and the narrative. A convenience sample of interviews was used to determine what communication mode players favored in video games. Overwhelmingly, the self-identification statements showed the users looks to engage in the romantic communication mode where the character is superior to the audience by degree in intelligence and the ability to control their circumstances. This chapter will also point out some of the limitations of this thesis and propose some possible future research in this area. Significance Video games are a growing form of digital communication. Video games are narratives and are also an interactive form of communication. Most other mediums are rarely if ever as interactive. This type of digital communication makes it imperative to understand the role of the user which is also the audience in the narrative process. The video game industry creates billions of dollars in sales every year, making it a lucrative medium. Top talent in other mediums are embracing and exploring the creation of new video games. It has also been speculated that video games are also changing our cognitive abilities through the two concepts of probing and

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telescoping. This thesis enhances the understanding of what type of communication gamers seek when they play video games and classifies the various modes. Previous Studies Although studies on video games are relatively new, the studies are increasing exponentially. Some of the earlier studies searched for reasons why users play video game. Much of the theoretical debate in the past half decade revolved around whether or not video games were indeed narratives and whether they should be studied as such. Neitzel made a powerful argument that video games were indeed narratives and this thesis complemented her work. This thesis explored the relationship between the user and the game character in terms of communication genre. Previous studies on video games revealed a lapse in this area of inquiry. Methodology A convenience sample of six video game informants was employed to uncover the relationship between user and gamer. The informants were interviewed at separate times but with essentially the same questions. Although primarily known as a way to identify works of literature, Fryes theory of modes also works as a way to analyze audience centered communication. Five modes of communication were identified and distinguished. A table provided fictional character examples from the mediums of literature, television, and motion pictures. The informants interviews were then coded and placed into a table depending on which mode of communication the self identification statement most accurately fit. A data analysis of the informants statements was then implemented. Findings Gamers self identification statements showed that they desire the relationship between the game and themselves to more often be in the romantic mode of communication. This means

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they prefer a world where they have extraordinary powers such as being able to fly, being able to breathe underwater, or even being able to walk away after crashing a car. It is the ability to be superior in degree to a normal audience in both intelligence and their ability to control circumstances that makes this type of communication appealing. If one is to explore another world as video games allow a user to do it makes sense that they would want to be better than they perceive themselves to be in their own world. The mimetic communication mode also ranked high among the users, especially the more frequent gamers. One possible explanation for this finding is that gamers who spend so much time in a world full of romantic communication also need a dose of reality that the mimetic communication mode supplies. Communication Mode Character Examples In the third chapter of this thesis, table 1 showed examples of the characters belonging to the five communication modes, in different mediums. At this time, we can now update the table including video game characters creating table 4 five communication modes in different mediums. The video game informants provided examples of characters they believed fit into the various communication modes.

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Table 4. Five Communication Modes in Four Different Mediums Communication Mode to Audience Literature Television Motion Picture Video Game

Ironic- inferior in Hester Prynne intelligence or (The Scarlet controlling Letter) circumstances Mimetic- same intelligence and controlling circumstances Leader Centered superior in degree in intelligence and same controlling circumstances Romanticsuperior in degree in intelligence and superior in degree to controlling circumstances MythicalSuperior in kind in intelligence and superior in kind in controlling circumstances Daisy Miller (Daisy Miller)

Archie Bunker (All in the Family)

Larry, More, or Curly (The Three Stooges) Mitch (Old School)

Q-Bert (Q-Bert)

Mary Richards (The Mary Tyler Moore Show)

Self Sim (The Sims)

Othello (Othello)

Julia Sugarbaker (Designing Women)

Erin Brockovich (Erin Brockovich) Neo (Matrix)

Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)

Beowulf (Beowulf)

Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote)

Mario (Super Mario Brothers)

Loki (Norse Mythology)

Elizabeth (V)

The Terminator (Terminator series)

Godzilla (Godzilla: Save the Earth)

The ironic character had the fewest instances of someone providing a character but informant #5 had the quickest response of Q-Bert. Q-Bert was a popular arcade game in the 1980s. The title characters actions involved hopping from block to block

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and being chased. These actions are obviously inferior to the audience. Many early video game characters such as Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, and Pogo were fairly simple characters that did not do much besides playing elaborate games of chase. As mentioned previously The Sims was an overwhelming choice as a character in the mimetic communication mode. The game itself consists of rather mundane normal everyday activities, such as using the phone, cleaning, using the bathroom, and paying bills. I named the character Self Sim when a user created a replica of themselves as an avatar. In a world where we try to recreate ourselves and we have to perform normal actions in order to sustain the game, weve really mimicked life. The Self Sim certainly falls in the mimetic communication mode. Most of the informants agreed that games from the players perspective where you do not see the character but are more or less inhabiting the character called first person shooters would also be an example. If the player is the character then essentially they are the same audience. The video game character Lara Croft has spun out of her Tomb Raider game world onto the Hollywood movie screen. The character which is a take off of the Indiana Jones character and informant #2 believed she displayed many leader centered communication mode qualities. Croft is an archeologist, which takes years of training to become, but the training makes her smarter in certain areas and only by degrees. Some of the challenges she faces as a tomb raider require intelligence over brawn. The character of James Bond came up as a leader centered character too. 007 uses his vast spy training to beat the bad guy. The informants made many romantic communication mode self-identifications during the interview process, but had a harder time coming up with a hero character. The one that most seems to fit is the Mario character. Originally, Mario and his brother were just plumbers but in the Super Mario Brothers games, he becomes almost a superhero in his ability to try and save the

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princess. The Mario series had very fairy tale like storylines and Marios ability to run, jump, and swim were in the superior vein. Informant #4 said In Mario you can fly, I mean hey who can fly or jump in the water and swim without breathing forever. Informant #4 went on to say that Marios super actions help feed his ego, which may be part of the reason some people play games in the romantic communication mode. Other informants brought up comic book superheroes such as the X-Men and Batman as examples of romantic communication mode characters. For the mythical communication mode character some of the informants brought up the cheat code, but this is not really a character it is a way to manipulate the game. Informant #1 spoke about Godzilla being able to crush cars and be pretty much superior in its ability to control circumstances. Part of the fun of inhabiting a creature like Godzilla is to be superior and be able to do things normal people can not do. Informants also brought up god games such as Civilization. In that type of a game you are more of the strategist, however and no more a character than you would be if you were playing chess against someone else. The pawn, the bishop, the queen, those are the characters in chess, not the user. Limitations One limitation of this study was the use of a convenience sample for interviewing. The findings do not necessarily represent the population and a scholar could argue it has no validity. Wimmer and Dominick point out though that Proponents of using available samples claim that if a phenomenon, characteristic, or trait does in fact exist, then it should exist in any sample (2003, p. 87). Convenience samples can be encouraged for exploratory purposes. The size of the sample was also small for this study but as Lindlof and Taylor point out No tests or coefficients exist to tell the researcher when the sample size is big enough (2002, p. 129). This

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thesis is heuristic, meaning that it is exploratory and it sparks new thoughts or ideas. The video game user plays such an active role in the narrative of a video game it only makes sense to study it from the user or audience perspective. If the narrative is not strong, the game may still be quite rewarding because of the game play. Researching games from the genre of communications mode allows for the game play factor. A conventional genre breakdown would take into account only the narrative itself. Fryes original theory was developed as a way to show how literature had evolved over the centuries. His contention was that western literature started in the mythical mode, moved to the romantic, then moved to leader-centered, then to mimetic, and lastly went into the ironic form before becoming mythical again. There is one problem however in this literary timeline and that is his examples do not agree with it. Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter was originally published in 1850 and provided the example of an ironic character in Hester Prynne. Daisy Miller the mimetic example of a character was written by James in 1898. If the modes of literature transitioned the way Frye believed they did then the ironic mode would have come before the mimetic mode in literary history. This problem with Fryes theory of mode only impacts his study, this thesis made no claim that the modes transitioned in video game history. Future Research There are many ways to explore the ideas in this thesis. One of the biggest questions that remain is an understanding of why the romantic communication process appears to be so dominant among the gamers. Video games provide a sense of escapism, but what the gamer is really trying to escape from may be the more interesting question. Video games create their own worlds, and the ability to enter and in a sense live in a romanticized world should be alarming. If just watching television rots your mind (and many would disagree), imagine what living inside

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the television world could do to it? It was not a very pleasant experience in the movie Pleasantville. The digital society may no longer need to go anywhere but their computer for a vacation. If vacation is as close and easy as a mouse click then why would anyone want to do anything else? Although sample size is not always as important as the thought process it sparks, a larger sample could be beneficial to the findings in this thesis. It is likely based on the analysis provided in this study that the romantic mode of communication would continue to be the top reason gamers indulge in this sort of play. A larger sample may be able to provide more answers about the mimetic mode that showed up in the data for this study. I would suggest a sample with a population of 100 people, preferably gamers who average playing 20 or more hours per week. The heavy gamer informants are deeper into the culture and at least in this study provide more details about it. It was also a heavy gamer that made more mimetic communication mode self-identification statements. A second researcher should also be used to help with the interview process and the interpretive process. It is also recommended that the interview questions be adjusted. Adding type and degree or something similar to the descriptions of the different types of character should have been clearer. The movie character references were used to help the informants picture the type of character in that mode of communication. Unfortunately, it may also have swayed them into immediately classifying video game characters based on the motion pictures which were used as examples. Final Thoughts Narratives are almost always the key to a successful creative endeavor in almost every medium. When Hollywoods A-list looks for a project it is almost always based on a script

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and the financial benefits are worked out later. This of course is dependent on that stars standing. An A-list star gets a choice, but a B-list star may not be as able to be as choosy. Either way, what is at stake is normally the script. When a work of fiction is critiqued in literature it almost always by the story it tells. Although a character is important in the movies and on the page, it is the narrative that usually makes it a success. Each of these mediums depends on print, in television or in motion pictures it is the script, the book in most cases is all on the page. For a video game and much of digital communication, character becomes more important. Interactivity puts the onus on the user or audience to develop the narrative. Understanding the communication modes presented in this thesis allows for game play to be accounted for. It is the action of the communication that is key component, not always the story the gamer is left with. The action is a direct result of the character and not always the story. You can get from A to B in a video game without having to go on a fixed linear journey a movie or book forces you into. This ability to escape into a non-linear story is the essence of game play. Will Wright, the creator of The Sims, made an interesting point about the future of video games in the book Smart Bomb (Chaplin & Ruby, p 153). Wright believes that video games will one day understand what desires when want to quench when we inhabit these virtual worlds, just like Amazon.com recommends you a book. It seems that if a video game is able to do that, it needs to understand much more than what type of adventure you want get involved in. A game would more importantly need to know what type of character we would want to be, because it is the character that creates the actions, not always the narrative. Another key concept is the desire aspect. Desire is an emotion that can be explained by the communication modes. If the desire is to be fantastical, then the character would be romantic. If the desire is to be just like the users

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real life, the game must give you a mimetic character. If a game is going to help think for us, it must also understand us, and this thesis provides an important piece to that puzzle.

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Appendix A Research Questions-The Relationship between User and Video Game Character

1) In a given week, how many hours do you spend playing video games? 2) Do you consider that an adequate amount of time? Too much time? Not Enough? 3) What is it that makes you enjoy a game? 4) What frustrates you about video games? 5) What aspects of the stories that unfold while playing a game do you find interesting? 6) How can you change a story in a video game? 7) What type of characters in video games appeal to you? 8) In works of fiction some main characters are inferior to us, if you think about slapstick comedy such as the Three Stooges or Harold and Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber these would be examples, have you ever played a video game where the character you control is inferior to a real human? 9) What do you think the appeal of a character like that is? 10) Does that type of game character appeal to you? 11) Some characters in comedies or even horror movies are just like us, or at least they act that way, if you think of the characters in Old School, American Pie, or the campers in Friday the 13th thats the type Im talking about. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 12) Why do you think somebody would want to play a character like that? 13) Do you enjoy playing a character like that in a video game? 14) Some characters in fiction are superior to other humans and tend to be leaders; most of these types of characters are in dramas and war films. Tom Cruise tends to play this type of character

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convincingly in movies like Top Gun or A Few Good Men. Clint Eastwood and John Wayne are usually typecast as these types; Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich could be considered this type, King Arthurs knights, so could most of the alliance in the Star Wars saga. Can you name a few video game characters that you think would fall into this type of role? 15) Why do you think that type of video game characters appeals to people? 16) Does that type of character appeal to you when you play a video game? 17) Another type of character is superior to others AND is superior to nature. If you think of Superheroes such a s Spider-Man and his ability to spin webs or Neo in the Matrix and his ability to slow the world down in bullet time and see the computer codes in everything. What video game characters do you think fall into this type of category? 18) What do you think the appeal of a character like that is? 19) Does that type of game character appeal to you? 20) There is also a fifth type of hero in fiction. This category of character is godlike; Zeus, Aphrodite, or Apollo from Greek mythology, Superman or the Terminator could also be considered this type, basically indestructible and superior to mere mortals. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 21) Why do you think somebody would want to play a character like that? 22) Do you enjoy playing a character like that in a video game? 23) Of the five types of characters weve discussed is there one type that is particularly appealing to you? 24) Is there one type you tend to play more than the others? 25) Do you think the type of character is related to the genre of a video game?

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Appendix B Informant one, 37 years old, male

C: can I get your name? 1: XXXXXXXX C: and XXXXX how old are you? 1: 37 C: how long have you been playing games? 1: its been two phases of my life, when I was growing up and then I lost the interest and my interest has started again in the last 6 years. C: in a given week how many hours do you spend playing video games? 1: probably about 5. it really depends if Im on break or Im in school or if Im working a lot so sometimes it will be more than 5 hours per week but usually its about five hours. C: do you consider 5 hours to be and adequate amount of time? 1: sure C: not too much? 1: no not at all. C: what is it that makes you enjoy a video game? 1: hmm C: what are some of the elements that you enjoy about video games? 1: well I enjoy the immersive feel of beingwell you knowin a different world, the escapist part of it. I uhh enjoy the ability to do things that I cant do in real life. A lot of time I just enjoy it playing with my friends. You know sharing collective moments and things like that.

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C: So kind of a social thing? 1: Yeah...kind of yeah. C: When you do it social do you do it in a group or do you do it on-line? 1: botha group and on-line with x-box live or a LAN party something like that. A lot of times I dont enjoy playing video games by myself, it can get rather boring and drawn out. C: Is that what frustrates you about playing video games? 1: Yeah that and some games are uhvery strict over their dying and retrying policy. Like one thing that frustrates me about games is that theyre poorly designed. So that the physics within the world youre working in and if something doesnt work right or and the other thing that really frustrates me is when you die and you have to go all the way back toyou know say you spent 10 or 15 minutes playing and you lost 10 or 15 minutes (of time) playing practice. The other thing that frustrates me is you try to do a task and I keep dying and dying and dying it gets frustrating because you want to just move on. I more so like enjoying the story and participating in the story as opposed to than killing things. I want I want the story to move forward as opposed to racking up notches on my rifle or whatever. C: What aspects of the story that unfolds do you find interesting? 1: I really respond to a nice story line, voice acting. If voice acting is very bad I cant stand a game. Humor, if there is humor in a game I can relate to it and of course graphics and sound, stuff like that. Those all lead to the immersive effect for me. C: How can you change a story in a video game? 1: Uh by going different places. By trying different things. Not always taking the same path. It depends on if the video game designer has been real strict with his environment or allows you to play free in the realm. And I like the free playing realm of games.

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C: What characters stand out to you? 1: 1. I like the heroes, in Halo the Master Chief character, the ones that are standing up for good and fighting evil. (l) Im not too find of games where you play a thug and you go kill cops. I guess being in news I see enough of that world and Id rather be one of the good guys. I want the good guys to win because Its not going to happen in the real world, might as well have it happen in Halo or something so. C: In works of fiction some main characters are inferior to us. 1: Id have to think about that. Yeah, yeah I have. When youre playing animals like Godzilla, or the Incredible Hulk Ive played that game as well. They have powers but theyre not like human characters, they have human abilities but especially Godzilla. In the end hes just a big lizard. You can play as other people too. Lets see Im trying to think of other games that Ive played. Star Wars Battlefront game 2. when I play as Chewbacca or a Wookie, or an alien, sometimes I feel that the characterization for that hasnt been you know tweaked enough to have enough empathy for that character. (M) C: Can you think of a more human character, I guess the Hulk is human but had gamma rays? 1: Rightuh a human character that was beneath me. C: Kind of a funny slapstick character. 1: Oh...no I cant think of any. Im thinking of all the games Ive played. 1st person shooters and war games and all of that. C: What do you think it is about Godzilla, or the Hulk that someone would find appealingbeing a Chewbacca? 1: again the ability to do things that I normally wouldnt be able to do. 3. I liked being Godzilla because you can stomp around and kick cars and punch buildings and stuff like that it was pretty

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fun. (M) The Hulk he can knock helicopters out of the sky and stuff like that. They didnt get, neither of them really gave me a sense that you had to be really smart it was more brute force as opposed to smartness and planning around. C: Does that type of character appeal to you? Do you seek out that type of game? 1: I seek out the type of characters yeah that require some smarts. Um 4. I like to develop some strategy, not the brute force going around smashing things (l) and pummeling fists and stuff like that. C: So when you look for a character in a game, you are not looking for inferior characters? 1: No not at all. 5. Im looking for characters that are similar to me or superior to me in terms of intelligence and stuff like that. (m) C: Some characters in comedies or even horror movies are just like us, or at least they act that way, if you think of the characters in Old School, American Pie, or the campers in Friday the 13th thats the type Im talking about. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 1: Well probably the Sims were you can play everyday characters and uh Im thinking of the video games I have and I dont really have with the exception of I have an Indiana Jones game, the Harrison Ford type although hes closer to the hero type than a regular human. C: If were already that person why would somebody want to play that person? 1: Why would somebody want to play that character? I dont know maybe to get practice on some things? C: Like if you were going to play the Sims. 1: Yeah. C: Why would anyone want to play the Sims?

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1: 6. I think people play the Sims because they want to be god and have control over something because they dont have control over their lives so they must feel like they can have control. (M) And most of the games I play, I dont play as everyday people. C: so you dont play that type of character often? 1: no, no, not at all. C: Some characters in fiction are superior to men and tend to be leaders; most of these types of characters are in dramas and war films. Tom Cruise tends to play this type of character convincingly in movies like Top Gun or A Few Good Men. Clint Eastwood and John Wayne are usually typecast as these types; Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich could be considered this type, King Arthurs knights, so could most of the alliance in the Star Wars saga. Can you name a few video game characters that you think would fall into this type of role? 1: Oh sure, most of I have, all my games tend to fall into that type of game or realm, um, well I just jogged something about common everyday people. Going on this riff about leader characters, theres Master Chief in Halo, there is a couple of James Bond games, I have a Buffy the Vampire Slayer game, I have the Indiana Jones game, I have the Splinter Cell series. Um, so, those are all hero types. The everyday hero things that just jogged my memory of the games that I do play are war situations like Ghost and Recon, Call of Duty. C: Where youre the common soldier? 1: Yeah, 7. the common soldier as opposed to the leader and oddly enough I dont find those as enjoyable as the games where youre the leader or anything like that. (l) C: Going back to that leader type of character, what do you think about that, appeals to people? 1: The ability to be in control, its just uh, gratification to the ability to earn respect. 8. The ability to act and make decisions in a video game that I think in our life were forced not to act in

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order to survive, were forced not to tell our boss hes an idiot because we need our jobs to pay the electric company, to pay our rent but uh, so, a lot of things in real life is learning when not to react or tolerate situations. But as a leader in a video game you dont have to tolerate any of that, you can take care of that, a more active role somewhat. (l) C: Is that the type of character you like to play? 1: Yeah I do, a more active role. C: Another type of character is superior to others AND is superior to nature. If you think of Superheroes such a s Spider-Man and his ability to spin webs or Neo in the Matrix and his ability to slow the world down in bullet time and see the computer codes in everything. What video game characters do you think fall into this type of category? 1: Well theres quite a lotany video games where characters have super powers or anything like that, the Incredible Hulk is an example, the Prince of Persia with his ability to control time, Godzilla in some ways. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, those kind of games. Yeah any super hero game Spider-Man, Superman, Batman. C: Can you think of any strictly video game oriented? 1: Well Prince of Persia, yeah, Im trying to think of what I have back at home, I know. I dont really play those games very much. C: okay. Why do you that would appeal to somebody to be a character like that? 1: Again, a sense of control and a uh, a control over your own destiny or over your own life, yeah, a sense of control. C: And there is also a fifth type of hero in fiction. This category of character is godlike; Zeus, Aphrodite, or Apollo from Greek mythology, Superman or the Terminator could also be

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considered this type, basically indestructible and superior to mere mortals. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 1: Uh, theres a couple of video game characters that Ive not played that I know are gods but I uh, what Ive found is thats less of a character but more of a metaphor for a game. For instance in PC, the god games like Civilization and the Command and Conquer and stuff like that where you build things, even in Sim City where youre allegedly the mayor but you can build things. I think theyre less likely to be a character and more likely to be a metaphor for the user, the player, the video gamer, his or her self. C: So the actual player is the character? 1: Yeah, right. C: Okay. Why would someone want to play that kind of game? 1: Oh, uh, not only for a sense of control, but also a sense of adventure. Um, 9. a sense of experimentation, what would happen if I did this, or let me see if I can get this done or whatever, somebody that has a lot of curiosity. (r) C: Of the five types of characters weve discussed is there one type that is particularly appealing to you? 1: I really like the hero type leader slash archetype. 10. You know leading a charge or whatever you know I really enjoy that. (l) C: Is that the type you tend to play more than the others? 1: Yeah, definitely. C: Do you think the type of character is related to the genre of a video game? 1: Yeah definitely but I also think that its not only related to the genre but to the story of the video game as well. Definitely to the story just like regular stories and characters we can classify.

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Informant two, 24 years old, male C: Can I get your name and in a given week an estimate of how many hours you spend playing video games? 2: My name is XXXXXX, and I uh, in a given, Id say uh 4 to 5 hours. Video games or games in general? C: Video games. 2: Video games, I probably play 4 to 5 hours a day, so times 7. C: So about 30 hours a week? 2: Yeah well on the weekends I might, well theres been a few weekends where I play 8 hours in a day, it just depends. C: So 40 to 50 a week? 2: Yeah, on average I play at least 3 hours a day and its usually more, so times that out by 7, yeah definitely between 30 and 50. C: Okay. 2: Yeah a full time job playing games. C: Sometimes fun is a full time job. 2: Agreed. C: Do you consider that an adequate amount of time? Too much time? Not Enough? 2: Its probably too much, its just one of those, I mean the games I play get enough immersive. Last night for example I sit down at 12:30 to play for a half hour, 45 minutes of playing and then an hour later Im hoping this can wind down and an hour and a half later I actually go to bed. It happens to where Ill think Im playing a game too much; Ill actually quit and do something else. So yeah, I think I play a lot more than is necessary.

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C: What is it that makes you enjoy playing video games? 2: Its like escapism, it doesnt involve real life. Its like you can complete goals in a video game and feel the satisfaction of completing goals without it being difficult goals to achieve in the real world. So you can again curb, theres quests or you can be hanging out with people online that you are not physical hanging out with them, its through these avatars and everybodys on an even playing field. So its kind of that aspect to it, like a social, its kind of a easier social atmosphere to it, with other players on line and like I said its goal oriented. You can complete things and accomplish things where as in real life accomplishing things is more difficult. C: what is that frustrates you about video games? 2: Um, most of the times a lot of the frustrations Ive been having are technical issues. You know whether its lag time because of your connection or servers slowed down. And also graphics, my graphics card wont be up to par. It will look bad kind of choppy. And then there are physical, technical problems with the game itself. Actually playing the game? C: yeah. 2: In some games youll come to a spot that is super difficult or it will be confusing as to what youre supposed to do so that will be frustrating, or there is a specific goal you are trying to accomplish and it takes excess amount of time to do it, that becomes frustrating sometimes too but I try to eliminate frustration from playing games so if they cause me frustration Ill probably quit playing them. C: Many games feature stories, what aspects of the stories that unfold while playing a game do you find interesting? 2: Um, I dont know, sometimes the story doesnt have a whole bunch to do with why I play games, Im not going to say theres not a value for a story but the value I have for a storyline is

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usually a lot lower than other aspects of the game. And a lot of times I play a 1st person shooter game where the story is any story Ive created. You know good guys versus bad guys and Im the good guy, or Im the bad guy and its just kill them or they kill you. Thats kind of like the story that for most of the games Ive played are kind of there. Now Im playing all the online multi player games and all the quests have these storylines that unfold, and I find it interesting but it is to the point now that when you read about the story I just kind of skip through the text and dont get into the story so much. Im all about the item Im going to get, or the money Im going to get or the experience of the quest. Im much more of the goal oriented as opposed to the story oriented. I mean there are players out there that are all about the story. In the game Im currently playing its all about the war effort and Im collecting, and all the other players are collecting for the effort so that a new area is going to open up. A whole story line about this alien race and a lot of people are real big into that but Im all about turning stuff in for the war effort because Im getting stuff out of it, like I get free items or I get reputation. Thats why I do things for the war effort, thats why I do it, it has nothing to do with this storyline. C: Can you think of a story in a game that was really cool? 2: There someI dont know kind of theres some 1st person shooter games that have side stories going on and Im like a really big fan of those Medal of Honors, if you kill so many guys and collect so many of these items you get to call in air strikes, and it kind of adds elements to a story and you get to bomb the enemy so its kind of a fun thing to do, so I get off on these side stories. Again, in Warcraft, the game Im playing now, the best stories Ive found are in these battlegrounds where its only player versus player, theres a storyline that takes place, good verse bad, you against the horde, and youre a leader and trying to kill their leader. Theres all sorts of

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side quests like you can go mine in a mine, and all the troops that the computer is controlling become tougher to beat and the story of all that. But I dont get too wound up in those stories. C: How long have you been playing games? 2: I had an Atari when I was 4 or 5, so I remember playing ever since. In high school it was console games, and it was just player versus player. I remember Nintendo and those Zelda first person story games. Most of the time though it was just a social, play through high school and especially grade school like the Nintendo and Sega and stuff. I didnt start getting into computer games until college because of the high speed internet and the ability to play online and the 1st person shooter games. Or even get on the schools network and play networked games 1st person shooter style. And just recently Ive come across the MMORPG kind of games. Ive been playing for a really long time. C: How can you change a story in a video game? 2: Um, I think, I mean a lot of games have built in shifts, depending on what direction you can, depending on the branching structure. In those games youre not really changing the story youre going in a different route of the story than the game designer had planned for you. The most changes Ive seen is if youre doing, if youre playing and you create your own story to kind of go along with it, like I said I played Medal of Honor for a long time, and there are mods you can get that would add things to the games. It was like depending on who downloaded these mods how well you changed the story the creator intended for you. Mods would introduce landmines or tripwires you normally wouldnt have access too. To add things like that or explosives or you can change skins in a game so your character looks like Dennis Rodman for example. So your troops show up different on your computer, and they would only show up different on your computer because you had the mod downloaded, on the other computer you

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would see what the game normally set out but it was kind of like you change the story for yourself cause then like Dennis Rodman or Ronald McDonald, because they had really bright colors so then the enemy would stick out more in the background so that was kind of fun. And sometimes there are others guys that join up in these clans and go fight someone else. And a clan I was in actually had a ranking structure, where you actually had military ranks involved so you had superior officers and like a chain of command, so you create this story to go along with the story in real life, then youre playing the game for a whole different purpose to kill other guys and do better than everyone else in our clan. It just depends. C: What type of characters in video games appeal to you? 2: We covered that first person shooter background, so 11. Im always playing the guys who go around killing everybody, whoever had the biggest weapon usually wins so, the bigger weapon or whoever has explosives (m), so Ive always played those kind of characters and then 12. in these multi-player games Im playing now Im always the warrior type characters (m). 13. Ive never been a big fan of magic abilities, that just doesnt buy it, but Ive always my whole life been a military person so Ive always had you know this respect for this warrior person. (m) When thats an option 14. Im always playing the warrior class, not so much the support Im the hand to hand kind of fighter guy. (l) C: In works of fiction some main characters are inferior to us, if you think about slapstick comedy such as the Three Stooges or Harold and Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber these would be examples, have you ever played a video game where the character you control is inferior to a real human? 2: Not really, uh, most of the games I deal with now I create a character for myself, if Im a character in a 1st person shooter theres no one thats inferior. I was real big into Zelda for a

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while; I was real big into sports games so you werent going to be finding anyone who was inferior on a professional sports time. Even if they were at the time, its not sticking in my mind that they were. Maybe Zelda or the Mario Brothers but I dont remember thinking about that at the time. C: What do you think the appeal of a character like that is? 2: I dont know, uhI guess be able to build up. Hopefully in a game if your character is that way you can build him up to either an equal or an above equal of everybody else. 15. In the multi-player games I play there are characters that are way down on the totem pole in abilities but eventually you get them either equal to everybody or above everybody else. (i) But the whole goal isnt to play an inferior character the whole goal is to advance and that can be an attraction or it could be that in their own life they feel inferior to everybody so that it gives them this feeling that if their character can grow then they can grow on a psychological level it may be why theyre picking characters but it is not a driving force for me. I dont see that as driving factor in my game play. C: Does that type of character appeal to you? 2: No not really, maybe on a subconscious level but I dont know. 16. I guess in Warcraft I want my character to progress and I guess my character is inferior at the time but I dont know if it is the progression that I find enjoyable.(i) 17. Its not like I pick out the character thinking hes inferior or anything like that. (i) C: Some characters in comedies or even horror movies are just like us, or at least they act that way, if you think of the characters in Old School, American Pie, or the campers in Friday the 13th thats the type Im talking about. What video games allow you to play a character like that?

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2: 18. I played Sims for a while and that really fits what youre talking about. (m) 19. The character is so much like you, you might even name the character after yourself. (m) And make it like you and then it progresses that way and theres an attraction to maybe setting that aside, or maybe 20. even in first person shooter games Ill have a particular call sign so you kind of get this embodied feeling where thats you in the game. (m) 21. Especially in World of Warcraft, I think maybe thats when you want the character to be equal to you and you want the character to progress. (m) I never really thought of a game on a level is this more like me? 22. I mean there are a lot of other games out there like Final Fantasy or games similar to that where you jump into a character thats normal like in Resident Evil, you jump into a random guy that just kind of happens into a situation and try to overcome an enemy thats presented because of this unusual circumstance. (m) Im not into games in that style but I remember playing the old Friday the 13th game for Nintendo where you start out as the campers but it was a complicated game so I never figured it out or the appeal. C: Why do you think someone would like to play a game like that? 2: 23. I dont know maybe its kind of like similar to people playing inferior characters to make themselves feel better. You know playing some kind of random Joe Schmo so that youre tied into the experience more. (m) You kind of think that you were one of the campers in the game and its your driving force to conquer the game because youre the one playing it. I dont know, like I said those arent terms Ive been think of when it comes to games. C: Do you enjoy playing games like that, like the Sims? 2: 24. I mean had fun playing the Sims but I dont know if it was the character development that I was all about. I mean maybe it kind of was because you know Id worry about the job and money and then Id look at my situation about getting a job or money. Maybe there are a lot

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more parallels along those lines but I dont think that consciously think that picking a character is me and then its all about me. (m) But 25. I can see that as being a driving force for someone to try and improve your own situation and you can do it a lot easier in a game than you can in real life. (m) C: Some characters in fiction are superior to men and tend to be leaders; most of these types of characters are in dramas and war films. Tom Cruise tends to play this type of character convincingly in movies like Top Gun or A Few Good Men. Clint Eastwood and John Wayne are usually typecast as these types; Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich could be considered this type, King Arthurs knights, so could most of the alliance in the Star Wars saga. Can you name a few video game characters that you think would fall into this type of role? 2: Yeah I mean there are a ton of them. I mean Lara Croft shed fit into that particular, better than average, Indiana Jones style of character. You said Star Wars all those, Star Wars games where you can be the Jedi and be a superior player. Like I said 26. I use to play Call of Duty a lot and the multiplayer game everyone is on an equal footing but if you play the single player version its just like Saving Private Ryan or even A Band of Brothers where the game parallels that same storyline. (l) Like 27. you start out as some great and eventually through succeeding you move up through the ranks and I mean not like a super human soldier but you do become an elite soldier. (l) So 28. even like the Mario games, even in Donkey Kong, he has to overcome certain obstacles. (r) Even 29. in Zelda he gets to parts where he has way super human abilities. (r) C: Why do you think that type of video game characters appeals to people?

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2: 30. I just think a lot of people like that dominating role they step right into a game and you are in a position to lead. (l) Theres no following you just do what you want to do. People probably pull that from their real life experiences as well. C: Does that type of character appeal to you when you play? 2: No, not really I mean Ive never been into that type of game like Tomb Raider those really arent my style where you go in and pick a character and combat these levels. I just even in the console game days I was more into sports were it was me against the guy sitting beside me such as my brother. It was just competition between us, it didnt really matter the character development. 31. Even now I play multi player games so its hard to say that its the character that drove me to it, I mean youre just kind of creating yourself and a level of equals. (m) C: I guess when you get done playing do you like being that type of character? 2: Um, not really, I more like the fact that I beat the game. I didnt think about it in terms of characters. C: Another type of character is superior to others AND is superior to nature. If you think of Superheroes such a s Spider-Man and his ability to spin webs or Neo in the Matrix and his ability to slow the world down in bullet time and see the computer codes in everything. What video game characters do you think fall into this type of category? 2: Um, I dont know. There are a lot of games without human characters like Sonic the Hedgehog or whatever race of hedgehog he is, where he has the ability to spin around that way. Or all the X-Men games are that way where you pick a character who has mutant powers who is going to be better than everybody. So a lot of games, like the Matrix games are that way. I dont know. C: So like everybody in the Matrix game is like Neo and they can all see the code?

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2: Usually when you play the single player version of Matrix you have the option to bullet time the game, so you hold down a button and you can slow motion aim at individual guys. I mean that and you didnt play Neo, you went along with the movie but you didnt play Neos part, you played other peoples part. Like stuff that happened in the movie but you didnt see it, you just kind of knew it happened; you actually play through that section. You do a lot with the chick that flies the ship in the last couple of versions I cant remember what her name was. C: Jada Pinkett Smith? 2: Yeah, you get her character or you choose the male character, if you play the female character you play her or the dude that was always with her. Like they blow up some power plant, you do the whole scene, then you get in a car chase after. Stuff that paralleled the movie but wasnt exactly there. They were all super human, they could slow the matrix down and they all had an advantage on everybody because of that. C: Does that type of character appeal to you? 2: Not really, again I dont play that many character driven games. I cant really pull out whether the character or something was appealing. Usually sports games. I guess Im driven around characters that are built around me where Im in control or its me in the game Ive created, I became this avatar or call sign name where everyone is equal across the platform. C: Why do you think someone would want to play that kind of character? 2: I dont know, 32. I think when it comes to super human abilities, it comes down to wouldnt it be cool to have super human abilities and just kind of fun to play a character that can do these kind of things. (r) 33. I kind of wish, especially with super heroes, theres kind of a background before the game built around this character thats then generated in the game. (r) 34. They were characters from movies so then instead of just watching the characters and thinking how cool it

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was. You then get to do those cool things in a virtual environment because humans dont have the force and that cant make things levitate. (r) 35. You can watch it on the silver screen and think its cool but then you can actually play it out and then you can that much more attachment on the screen. (r) 36. Like theres also some characters out there with super human abilities like say Sonic the Hedgehog, I dont know he doesnt have that many powers so maybe he would have been cooler if he had been in a movie first before becoming a computer game. (r) C: There is also a fifth type of hero in fiction. This category of character is godlike; Zeus, Aphrodite, or Apollo from Greek mythology, Superman or the Terminator could also be considered this type, basically indestructible and superior to mere mortals. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 2: Well just 37. along that god line there was a game that came out called the God of War and the Mark of Kri, where you played these warriors types that could profusely beat up on hundreds of peons. (M) It really comes down to games were you can dominate hundreds of players. I have some friends that play them so Ive kind of played them on the side but I wouldnt say they appealed to me but I can see there are games like that out there. Or the Sims, or 38. Sim City you kind of have this god character because you get to do whatever you want and you kind of control them to an extent, you can cause stuff to happen, or take stuff away. (r) 39. I mean in Sim City, Ive played my fair share of that game and you can cause natural disasters to happen at will just to shake up the game and see how you can handle it with whatever fire department you created and stuff like that. (r) C: What would the appeal of that be? 2: 40. I dont know its kind of fun to cause a riot then get the police out there and kick a bunch of rioters asses. (M) I dont know, in the other games like God of War it just comes down to

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something like 6 story tall monsters that look a normal human guy a God of War that is apparently some kind of god that has to come to Earth to fight for some particular reason. 41. Most of the games like that its usually cool to play a guy like that and its the game play thats the driving force but as far as the character is concerned some could get attached to the character and enjoy that type of wiping out a bunch of peon fighters. (M) And even then theyre not peons theyre kind of really tough guys but you can slaughter them so bad so some people have a drive for those. C: Do you like playing characters like that? 2: Sometimes 42. its fun to play Sim City and take over and have complete control or you can do at will whatever you want to do. I mean there are limitations in the game that you can do but there are a lot of things set aside that you can do to really mix things up. I mean thats a really fun driving kind of factor for that. (r) For some of those games there is kind of a fun element because of the god ability but I dont really know. I mean 43. even in first person shooter games were there is a cheat mode thats called godlike and you are unstoppable. In World War 2 you can run out of the trenches you can shot by 50 Germans all at once, or you can get hit by tank for Christs sake and youll be fine. (M) Youll also have unlimited ammo, so if youre in a real hard spot in a game, you can dominate them just to get by but I wouldnt say there is drawing to that. Sometimes its just out of necessity to do that stuff. C: Of the five types of characters weve discussed is there one type that is particularly appealing to you? 2: Uh 44. Id have to go along with the character thats the same level Im at or the games that you create this avatar to play as yourself so, I guess because Im more goal oriented I guess I kind of like to grab on to a character were I could be that character and accomplish those goals

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because its kind of easier to accomplish these goals in a computer world like making money or fighting or something like that (m), especially those WW 2 games instead of actually joining the military you create this character that could be you, then you go out and fight then it has that kind of emotional tie to it. 45. I think Im more of the level of characters that are equal to me Ive created the character to specifically be me or at least be like me. (m) Even 46. in sports games Ill create myself in the game and then Im obviously not going to create myself as a quarterback in a game with My quarterback abilities. Then Id be riding 4th string on the bench, so Ill create him a little bit better than me and Ill still kind of have this feeling that its me and its on an even playing field. (r)As opposed to me but obviously a lot better than me. I put myself on the same level as all the other football players that way were all on the same level. C: Do you tend to play that game more often? 2: Yeah, I mean I dont feel a big character. I dont feel a huge character attachment. I mean I do, in Warcraft Ive logged a lot of hours playing so I feel attached to the character but I dont think what that character embodies is what attracted me to the game but yeah I mean just tend to play first person shooters and the character you are in a 1st person shooter is the character you are. You just, whatever I name my character as is what people see me as, and that pretty much embodies me even though it might be an alien race or a hero or and ally from World War 2, were all on the same level. In a 1st person shooter you can be an engineer so you can fix stuff, or you can be an explosives expert, or you can be a sniper rifle or you can be the assault guy and have an assault machine gunner or a heavy machine gunner. But youre still an equal amongst everyone else because they have just an equal an option to be that. Especially in World of Warcraft you can create a warrior race, you can create a mage, you can be a paladin, a shaman, there are all these different kinds of races you can get and as you progress you can branch off

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with all these kind of abilities like they call talent points. You might be a level one and there are level 60s in the game and youre not equal but you can be if you play enough and you could have progressed. Youre pretty much all equals you just change by the amount of gear and experience you got. 47. It just seems like all the games I like are the kind were youre the normal average type of character. (m) 48. Then you make them better than the average character. (r) C: Do you think the character is related to the genre of the video game? 2: Yeah, I mean just like you were trying to apply them to the genre of the movie. You know certain kinds of movies are going to have certain types of characters. In a war movie youre going to have the hero and someone is a better leader or slightly superior. Or like in a super hero film you always have someone who is godlike or semi-godlike, like X-Men, or Spiderman or Superman. 1st person shooters are always going to have the characters that are just randomly you, or in a multi player game, youll have this character that is you and youll just progress. All sports games, even future games have this set character development depending on what genre youre into. I think it will depend on genre but I think in a video game you can easily move from a genre, take a character and move it into another genre more easily than in a movie. Because with a movie there is so much of an expectation because movies have been around for so long and so many people watch movies. Not everybody but they kind of have an expectations. Video games have less I mean the numbers are obviously increasing but there are so many games you can play and so many things that you can classify as a video game. I just think in a video game you can really play around with character development a lot more than you can in a movie. Video games have a lot more creative ideas. You can have a normal guy but he has to progress himself.

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Informant three, 23 years old, female C: Can you give me your name? 3: XXXXXX C: In a given week how many hours do you spend playing video games? 3: Less than an hour a week. C: Do you consider that an adequate amount of time? Too much? Not enough? 3: It depends on the game whether it is boring or not. C: What is it that makes you enjoy a game? 3: Um, if its challenging and its fun, and I develop some kind of skill in the game. C: What makes a game challenging? 3: Ill play Tony Hawke a lot. Tony Hawke 1, 2 and Underground, you just have to keep doing goals and you have to get better and better at your skateboarding. C: What frustrates you about playing video games? 3: I just get annoyed with them after about a half an hour. C: what is it that annoys you? 3: If I cant complete a goal that would be one and if I just get bored. Ive been playing Katamari Damacy this guy that just rolls a ball around making it bigger and bigger and it gets old after awhile. C: What aspects of the stories that unfold while playing a game do you find interesting? 3: I like the cut scenes of all the Final Fantasy series, thats one of the reasons why I do play Final Fantasy is just to get to the cut scenes. C: How can you change a story in a video game?

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3: I dont know if you really can because it is already there, youre just kind of exploring around when it will let you explore. C: What type of characters in video games appeal to you? 3: I like Tony Hawk, I like creating my own character on Tony Hawk and I liked (inaudible) in Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy X. C: In works of fiction some main characters are inferior to us, if you think about slapstick comedy such as the Three Stooges or Harold and Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber these would be examples, have you ever played a video game where the character you control is inferior to a real human? 3: In the Katamari game the little guy is put down a lot by his father the King of all Cosmos but I will say in Tony Hawk you can skate around and find inferior people throughout the game. Theres one hidden spot where you can find a policeman banging a goat. You can also play (as) a big ugly trucker who is drunk. You can get a special character like that. C: Im thinking of characters you actually play in the game how long have you been playing games? 3: Since the Nintendo days. C: So go back all the way to those days to think of characters. What do you think the appeal of playing a character like that is? 3: Playing an inferior character? That it would be maybe more comical. C: Does that type of character appeal to you? 3: No, I cant think of any that I play.

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C: Some characters in comedies or even horror movies are just like us, or at least they act that way, if you think of the characters in Old School, American Pie, or the campers in Friday the 13th thats the type Im talking about. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 3: Like Earthbound an RPG that came out for Super Nintendo. Its this little kid and then a meteor comes down and then you run into the game and hes just a kid that would play baseball. I guess Tony Hawk wouldnt be because it is Tony Hawk. C: Why do you think somebody would want to play a character like that? 3: I just liked it because it was fun, just the skill of trying to get through the course. C: It was the action not necessarily the course? 3: I guess I play for action. C: So you enjoy playing a game where you are just average? 3: I dont pay attention to characters, unless it is an RPG and in Final Fantasy is like a love story and I think that is why I watched. C: Some characters in fiction are superior to men and tend to be leaders; most of these types of characters are in dramas and war films. Tom Cruise tends to play this type of character convincingly in movies like Top Gun or A Few Good Men. Clint Eastwood and John Wayne are usually typecast as these types; Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich could be considered this type, King Arthurs knights, so could most of the alliance in the Star Wars saga. Can you name a few video game characters that you think would fall into this type of role? 3: I would say in Final Fantasy VIII Squall is the main character and he becomes the hero at the end of the game. You watch him change in the character development because he doesnt want to be the leader in the beginning of the game. He doesnt want all the responsibility but ends up getting it all in the end.

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C: Why do you think that type of video game characters appeals to people? 3: 49. They enjoymaybe they wish they could be more like that character. (r) C: Does that type of character appeal to you, one that you can watch grow? 3: It did in Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy III was excellent too. C: Another type of character is superior to others AND is superior to nature. If you think of Superheroes such a s Spider-Man and his ability to spin webs or Neo in the Matrix and his ability to slow the world down in bullet time and see the computer codes in everything. What video game characters do you think fall into this type of category? 3: With Nintendo I once played the Batman game. Could the Sponge Bob games? In the Tony Hawk games you are doing stuff that skaters can not do. C: Does that appeal to you? 3: Tony Hawk does, yes. C: Even the character? 3: Not really the character. C: Why do you think someone would play that type of character? 3: Hm, have you ever played FX Tricky? (no) Its a snowboarding game for the X-Box and Im sure it is on the other one but you can choose each character you want but youre still going to snowboard but each character has their own personality that they each bring into the game. 50. I guess you could see yourself in those characters as they snowboard down the hill. (m) C: There is also a fifth type of hero in fiction. This category of character is godlike; Zeus, Aphrodite, or Apollo from Greek mythology, Superman or the Terminator could also be considered this type, basically indestructible and superior to mere mortals. What video games allow you to play a character like that?

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3: I know in Doom you could put in the god cheat code and then just kill everything (laughter). C: Can you think of any other type of characters? 3: Probably in Sims you yourself become the god type character to create and control the universe, also in Sim City. I played Sim Ant on the computer; I use to play that all the time. C: What is the appeal of a character like that? 3: 51. You control almost everything. (M) C: Of the five types of characters weve discussed is there one type that is particularly appealing to you? 3: It would be the godlike one but it would be the player, its the god character that controls the game. 52. I like in Tony Hawk how you create the character, and I like the Sims because you create this world. (M) C: When you create a character do you make it like yourself or someone different? 3: Ill do both depending on how Im feeling that day. C: If you make it to be yourself, what becomes important to you? 3: 53. If I make it myself, Ill make it to be a little brunette girl but Ill put tattoos all over myself so its super me. (r) C: Is there one type you tend to play more than others? 3: I play action, Tony Hawk, RPGs. The more typical person. C: Do you think the type of character is related to the genre of a video game? 3: Yes, because within every genre there is structure and you have to fulfill that, so that you have to have these certain characters to play out the genre. Like in Horror films you have to have a monster, you have to have a hero, and the hero can fail and the monster can prevail but you still have to have the two characters. In games you have to have a challenge against something else

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whether it be complete this goal, youre not going to just sit there and walk around in it (the world).

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Informant four, 25 years old, male C: Can I get your name? 4: XXXXXXXX C: In a given week, how many hours do you spend playing video games? 4: a couple hours a week. C: Do you consider that an adequate amount of time? Too much time? Not Enough? 4: Id say not enough; Id like to play more. C: What is it that makes you enjoy a game? 4: 54. Its a way to be detached from my existing reality. (r) C: What frustrates you about video games? 4: If the media doesnt work or you have a bad disc or the controls arent explained properly. C: What aspects of the stories that unfold while playing a game do you find interesting? 4: Well I dont care so much for how far fetched the reality is, honestly 55. sometimes I game just because I need to shoot something. (l) It can be as simple as that, maybe if I gamed more Id pay more attention to the story or the narrative that is involved. 56. If Im playing a 1st person shooter I just care about shooting guys. (l) 57. My other favorites genres of games are car racing games or like Sim City which is actually something very constructive. (l) C: How can you change a story in a video game? 4: Um, it depends on how much it lets me quite honestly, um, there is a changing trend now that you can control the narrative. Then I go back to Knights (of the Old Republic) where your answers determine your next move in the game. 58. I like a variety where I can choose my course and have a different story every single time. (r) C: What type of characters in video games appeal to you?

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4: 59. Thats like asking a teenager that question, no distinct preference per say. (m) C: In works of fiction some main characters are inferior to us, if you think about slapstick comedy such as the Three Stooges or Harold and Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber these would be examples, have you ever played a video game where the character you control is inferior to a real human? 4: Nothing comes to mind, I dont think so. C: How long have you playing? 4: Games? The better part of 15 years. C: Go ahead and look back through that entire time. 4: I can pretty much go through the entire list of games that Ive played from Prince of Persia to Doom. Medal of Honor, a good deal of the WW2 games but I wouldnt say any were inferior except in some of the games were you play a Private or something like that. I dont know if that counts as an inferior character. C: What would the appeal of playing an inferior character be? 4: I dont think Ive ever put that much thought into it. C: All right Ill give you an example of a video game character that I think is inferior to a human is Pac-Man because all he does is gobbles up pellets and runs away from ghosts. What do you think the appeal of a character like that would be? 4: Kicking ass! 60. Sometimes, even games as simplistic as Pac-Man are just ways of ranting, virtual ranting thats what it is. (l) C: Does that type of game character appeal to you? 4: Pac-Man, yeah I really enjoyed playing it.

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C: Some characters in comedies or even horror movies are just like us, or at least they act that way, if you think of the characters in Old School, American Pie, or the campers in Friday the 13th thats the type Im talking about. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 4: I dont know if I have, Im quite picky about the games that I play. To some degree in Knights I played on the dark side. C: And you were kind of just normal the character was just normal? 4: Ive played some games like that, 61. maybe the World War two shooter games are kind of like regular characters, maybe not someone Ive encountered in real life but it has really happened to somebody at some time. (r) C: Why do you think somebody would want to play a character like that? 4: For me its based on 62. games do give you the opportunity of leading lives you never would think of whether theyre however far fetched they may be (r) this could be a character in Star Wars or Call of Duty. And I cant remember if it was Call of Duty or Medal of Honor where the characters were created for the game, and they interviewed survivors and based on his descriptions were used in the game but I cant remember which game it was for, for a realistic depiction. So 63. Im never going to find myself in a situation like that so games are a way for me to experience that you know? However much of a character issue that might be, it gives me the chance to see something I wouldnt normally see. (r) C: Do you enjoy playing a character like that in a video game? 4: I do, I do. C: Some characters in fiction are superior to men and tend to be leaders; most of these types of characters are in dramas and war films. Tom Cruise tends to play this type of character convincingly in movies like Top Gun or A Few Good Men. Clint Eastwood and John Wayne are

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usually typecast as these types; Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich could be considered this type, King Arthurs knights, so could most of the alliance in the Star Wars saga. Can you name a few video game characters that you think would fall into this type of role? 4: Well Ive played several of the Star Wars games. Ive played Luke in one of the Star Wars games. I dont know. I think Sim City may be the best example, 64. you are the Mayor and you lead, you create everything that goes on in that city. (l) 65. I think I am the character essentially; I am the character in that game. There is not some virtual persona of me in the game, it is me controlling everything. (M) In that sense I am the leader of that game. C: Why do you think that type of video game characters appeals to people? 4: For me 66. I enjoy the task of having to manage so many things at one time, something that is functional and hopefully successful. (l) You know I need to make sure my budget is always in the surplus and to see what my city is doing all the time. Its not like you create a great city and it stays that way, you have to continue to maintain it to keep it that way. So that it continues to be a successful city. C: Does that type of character appeal to you when you play a video game? 4: Immensely. C: Another type of character is superior to others AND is superior to nature. If you think of Superheroes such a s Spider-Man and his ability to spin webs or Neo in the Matrix and his ability to slow the world down in bullet time and see the computer codes in everything. What video game characters do you think fall into this type of category? 4: Uh, 67. car racing games can defy nature, you can crash into a wall a thousand times and youre still playing (r), you know? ??? Breakdown is one of my favorite games for example, and 68. you take out as many cars as possible, you ram into them or one of the different modes in that

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game that you have um, you start from a point and you have to run into an intersection full of cars and the idea is how much money, how much damage did you cause in money. (r) So you defy nature without being a super hero. C: What do you think the appeal of a character like that is? 4: Because 69. its far from reality and you need that sometimes, especially if the moment is not the best you need something to keep you away from it. (r) C: Does that type of game character appeal to you? 4: Yeah sometimes. C: There is also a fifth type of hero in fiction. This category of character is godlike; Zeus, Aphrodite, or Apollo from Greek mythology, Superman or the Terminator could also be considered this type, basically indestructible and superior to mere mortals. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 4: HmmIm really bad at this. C: No your not, why would somebody want to play a character like this? 4: Control I guess, lust for control, an inferiority complex? (laughter) C: Would you enjoy playing a game like that? 4: I never have, so I couldnt say. C: Of the five types of characters weve discussed is there one type that is particularly appealing to you? 4: The whatever for Sim City. C: The one where everyone is just like us, or a leader? 4: The leader, yeah the leader. C: Is there one type you tend to play more than the others?

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4: 70. I like the Bond games, and the Bond games are a lot about leadership so I should have brought that up. (l) The leader games I play the most. C: Do you think the type of character is related to the genre of a video game? 4: Can you explain? C: If you play a 1st person shooter is the character always a normal person or if you play a Sim game will the character always be a leader? Umm, its not impossible to change and merge those I just wonder how successful theyll be. 71. The common theme of most every 1st person shooter game is that you are a common everyday person that you have to overcome certain situations. (m) In Sim City and this is my limit of thinking, if I were to play one of the people living in my city, the kind of control that citizen would have would have an impact on the city. That is a toughie; Im kind of indecisive on that one.

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Informant five, 23 years old, female C: Can I get you name and age? 5: XXXXX, 23. C: In a given week how many hours do you spend playing video games? 5: When not in school I can spend 5 or 6, but with school 1 or 2. C: so if you put it together and averaged it out? 5: 3 or 4 is desirable. C: Do you consider that an adequate amount of time? Too much time? Not Enough? 5: Umm, its adequate for my life right now because of school and stuff. Id love to be the type of person who sits around and plays video games all the time. C: What is it that makes you enjoy a game? 5: Oh wow, like the different worlds and characters. I like story games and getting through the story and completing it is interesting to me. C: What frustrates you about video games? 5: When controls are hard, and the way that theyve gone to 3-D makes it confusing. I like old school, like Mario, Im from that generation. Sometimes its hard to follow cause of the graphics and sometimes your controller doesnt do what you wanted it to and thats kind of frustrating. C: Ok, What aspects of the stories that unfold while playing a game do you find interesting? 5: I like how it starts off sort of simply and then you have to build up. 72. I like the Harry Potter games and throughout the game you get more spells and build on what youve got at the beginning of the game and it gets more and more challenging. (r) Then it all comes to head at the end when you face the final boss or King Kupa. It usually builds on what youve achieved and then it comes to head, I like that a lot.

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C: How can you change a story in a video game? 5: Umm, how can I personally change it? C: When youre playing the game how can you change the story? 5: You can either unlockables and get them or you cant, you can find certain secrets or you can end up at the end you dont have what you needed. Is that what youre talking about? C: When you watch a movie, it starts and it ends, maybe you can pause but there is not a lot of interacting you can do with it. In a video game, it can be different for everyone. Maybe like Pac-Man, everyone is going to go through that first border but in a game thats trying to tell a story its not quite that simple, so how can you change it? 5: You can I guess with some video games you can go back and play it differently every time, so you dont have to go that straight order. You can go back and retry things youve done before and get more or get less. You can go back and forth and choose what you are doing. C: What type of characters in video games appeal to you? 5: Umm, the ones that dont appeal to me are the shoot em up types of characters. Like the Lara Croft and that kind of thing, I dont like the gunplay kind of thing. 73. I like simple characters, I think. (i) Like I said 74. I like the Harry Potter characters (r), 75. I also like fighting games like in Mortal Combat Radon, the lightning character. (r) Characters in fighting games that do stuff 76. like the old Street Fighter games, like the character Eh Honga would do a lighting kick, if they do an interesting move, I like that. (r) C: In works of fiction some main characters are inferior to us, if you think about slapstick comedy such as the Three Stooges or Harold and Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber these would be examples, have you ever played a video game where the character you control is inferior to a real human?

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5: Q-Bert! (laughter) Cause 77. he just bounces from square to square. (i) The simple characters like that are the ones that I think of because they can only do simple motions and movements and theyre very limited. So they are inferior. C: What do you think the appeal of a character like that is? 5: Um, because anybody can do it and you dont have to think too much about it, its just a simple activity and it gets you away from life and you dont have to think too hard about it. Where as the more complex games are quite about of thought process into what you are doing. With the simple guys it is easy. C: Do you like playing a character like that? 5: On a certain level, it depends on the mood Im in. If Im feeling nostalgia I will but it also depends on what kind of time I have to put into it and what kind of day Ive had. C: Some characters in comedies or even horror movies are just like us, or at least they act that way, if you think of the characters in Old School, American Pie, or the campers in Friday the 13th thats the type Im talking about. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 5: The Harry Potter games just because youre a student or the skateboard games. C: Why do you think somebody would want to play a character like that? 5: You can sort of relate to them on a certain level. Theres nothing supernatural or extraordinary about them, they are just like you are so you can visualize yourself in there place. You could be in this video game. 78. Its appealing to just be an average person sometimes. (m) C: Do you enjoy playing a character like that in a video game? 5: Yeah I think that is probably the type of character I like the most because I like just your average person sometimes so you can relate.

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C: Some characters in fiction are superior to men and tend to be leaders; most of these types of characters are in dramas and war films. Tom Cruise tends to play this type of character convincingly in movies like Top Gun or A Few Good Men. Clint Eastwood and John Wayne are usually typecast as these types; Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich could be considered this type, King Arthurs knights, so could most of the alliance in the Star Wars saga. Can you name a few video game characters that you think would fall into this type of role? 5: Mortal Combat, because in the little booklet you can read about their stories. You have characters from other worlds who are obviously way superior. Then you have Sonya who are just human and got put into this world were they have to fight. Theyre just average people sort of but they have extraordinary power. Theyre like the hero type and youre rooting for them. 79. Theyre like you in sense but theyre a hero character and you want them to come out on top. Theyre not the machine or the creature type of characters who are just sort of average and you want them to win. (r) C: Why do you think that type of video game characters appeals to people? 5: The same as why we want the good guy to win in a movie, umm, you want the good guy to win and you see them as the good guy so you want them to be victorious which is why you want this person in a game to come out on top. C: If you didnt win would that make a game bad? 5: Not necessarily, it depends. C: But if you watched a movie and the bad guys won, would it be a bad movie? 5: Not necessarily, sometimes yes but sometimes that breaks up the monotony but for the most part you want the hero to come out on top. C: Does that type of character appeal to you when you play a video game?

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5: Sometimes, not always but yeah in some games like Mortal Combat but sometimes its more fun to play the big bad guy. C: Another type of character is superior to others AND is superior to nature. If you think of Superheroes such a s Spider-Man and his ability to spin webs or Neo in the Matrix and his ability to slow the world down in bullet time and see the computer codes in everything. What video game characters do you think fall into this type of category? 5: Umm, Im thinking, the Incredible Hulk, Metroid, Megaman. C: What do you think the appeal of a character like that is? 5: That 80. sometimes you can step outside of the box and you can do things that are pretty cool and to do things you cant do in real life like climb walls. Its fun to explore that and do stuff out of the ordinary. (r) C: Does that type of game character appeal to you? 5: Yeah on occasion, sometimes I dont want to because I feel like theyre too above their enemies and stuff. 81. I just want to be average but sometimes, yeah, its nice to step out and be above everybody else. (r) C: There is also a fifth type of hero in fiction. This category of character is godlike; Zeus, Aphrodite, or Apollo from Greek mythology, Superman or the Terminator could also be considered this type, basically indestructible and superior to mere mortals. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 5: Again 82. Mortal Combat, and Shang-Sun the big guy. Sometimes you get to play as him but if you play against him you are never going to win. It is fun to play as him. (M) Xena Warrior princess the Playstation game or Buffy the Vampire Slayer game. C: Buffy is indestructible?

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5: Pretty much. C: What is the appeal of that character? 5: Cause 83. you get to go out there and kick everybodys ass and thats nice (laughter). (M) Umm, sometimes just like with the simple characters you just want it to be a little easier. The indestructible characters do cool things too. Its like wow. C: Do you enjoy playing a character like that in a video game? 5: Yes but only if there is a humanistic quality about them. 84. I want them to be 3 dimensional, something about them that I can relate to on a human level. (m) Its fun to play those characters. C: Of the five types of characters weve discussed is there one type that is particularly appealing to you? 5: 85. The average everyday person is the one I find myself drawn to. (m) C: Is there one type you tend to play more than the others? 5: Yeah, I tend to play those games more the kind with the regular person. C: Have you ever thought of a reason why you do? 5: I dont know I guess sometimes they have better storylines; Im not sure why I think that. C: Do you think the type of character is related to the genre of a video game? 5: Yeah definitely, like horror youre going to get more of the Superior type of people like the kids kind of games you get more normal types of people so yeah I think it has something to do with what genre youre playing.

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Informant six, 22 years old, male C: Can I get your name and age? 6: XXXXXXXXXXX, 22. C: In a given week, how many hours do you spend playing video games? 6: 20 to 30 hours a week, maybeId say 30 to 35 hours per week. C: Do you consider that an adequate amount of time? Too much time? Not Enough? 6: It doesnt run my life, I work, go to school. I do that instead of watch TV or play intramural sports. My girlfriend doesnt mind it too bad so yeah adequate. C: What is it that makes you enjoy a game? 6: Um, I think its that 86. I can live viscerally through the people in the game (r), like if it is a sports game I can be Tom Brady and throw for 400 yards and 5 touchdowns, if its an action adventure game I can run and steal the treasure. You know, 87. its like a break from reality for a little while I guess (r), its kind of mindless. C: What frustrates you about video games? 6: 88. I feel like the computer cheats (laughter) I swear sometimes the computer is against me. (i) C: Like the programmer? 6: Yeah, yeah, its the guy whoever sits there and writes the game. Like they dont want us to hit homeruns off certain pitches in baseball or they dont want us to be able to shoot certain guys in the head. C: What aspects of the stories that unfold while playing a game do you find interesting? 6: 89. I like uh shooter games, I like a little bit of violence, I really like these gangster games that are coming out like Grand Theft Auto. Like in San Andreas hes an African-American gangster living the urban life, its supposed to be Las Vegas or something like that, its pretty cool. (r) I

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like bringing together like little crews of people and taking on other crews of people. I guess its the mafia style, the gangster style of games that I enjoy. C: How can you change a story in a video game? 6: It depends some games allow you to do it like they give you options, go do a favor for a person and other people will treat you different throughout the game. Or you could do something and people will treat you negatively throughout the game. So certain games allow you to change the game. Theres also cheat codes that allow you to change the game, Im not really a fan of that. Really I think games are like a maze and that you are supposed to go one way. You are supposed to start here and finish in the same place as everybody else. Thats how you can exchange information between gamers because weve all done the same mission in the game. Unless the game allows you to change it its hard to change it. C: What type of characters in video games appeal to you? 6: Max Payne is like a trench coat wearing two 9mm toting kind of guy. 90. I like playing sports games but theyre based off real people. (m) To tell you the truth 91. I really like the Mario based game series a lot. I really enjoyed the kind of cartoony, its just a little playful and the music goes really well with the game (laughter). (r) Yeah Mario more resembles a person a character of someone. C: In works of fiction some main characters are inferior to us, if you think about slapstick comedy such as the Three Stooges or Harold and Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber these would be examples, have you ever played a video game where the character you control is inferior to a real human? 6: Um, oh yeah, the Road Runner games, the Looney Tunes game, all those. 92. I know a lot of people wont admit this but I play the Barbie game late at night and thats inferior to a human (i),

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so there are games out there, mostly older ones. Mostly now everyone is going off superhuman traits so it hard to be inferior to a human. There may be some in role playing games RPG that might have better character depth. C: What do you think the appeal of a character like that is? 6: Um, well, theres this game called Ghosts and Ghouls and you get this skinny little guy hes supposed to be the wimpy knight of the crew. His counterparts all lose so you have to take him through the game. Its really old and it used to be a television show on Nick Arcade. You run and jump and stab, basically its just 3 buttons but by the time your guys all build up an huge but 93. you start thinking hey I could do what this guy is doing and then at the end your thinking hes all big and strong and that could be you. (r) C: Does that type of game character appeal to you? 6: I love them, 94. Ill play that for hours and its real simple like its not even 3D its just a guy running and jumping and a ghost will come up. (i) Its really old and cheesy. C: Some characters in comedies or even horror movies are just like us, or at least they act that way, if you think of the characters in Old School, American Pie, or the campers in Friday the 13th thats the type Im talking about. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 6: I play some computer games as well as console games, I dont know if youre into finding out about those games as well? C: Yeah. 6: Well the Sims are the most real in personality traits that youll get in a game, every aspect like interactions with other people. Theres Sims business, Sims Roller Coaster Tycoons stuff, all kinds of different Sims games. Thats a really good one if youre trying to think of characters

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that show every day guy traits. 95. Like maybe you interact with a secretary, its something everyone does or can do. (m) C: Why would somebody want to play that type of character? 6: It actually, a lot of people play that online so youre interacting with real people via the internet like youre really doing things, but youre sitting at home. 96. Like you can say things to people you wouldnt say in real life. Some people do vulgar things that you cant really do in real life (starts laughing). So its like a different, it puts a fairy tale twist on everyday activities. (r) C: Kind of hiding behind the avatar? 6: Yeah, 97. Its not hard to believe whats going on in a game if it looks like Joe Blow and Jane Doe. (m) C: Do you like to play a character like that? 6: Not really to tell you the truth, 98. Im into the beefed up superhuman type of guy, thats kind of what I like. (r) You know I can go talk to somebody in a office in real life or I can cuss at somebody, so its a waste of time. 99. So if Im playing a game, Id rather do something I cant do in real life. (r) C: Some characters in fiction are superior to other humans and tend to be leaders; most of these types of characters are in dramas and war films. Tom Cruise tends to play this type of character convincingly in movies like Top Gun or A Few Good Men. Clint Eastwood and John Wayne are usually typecast as these types; Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich could be considered this type, King Arthurs knights, so could most of the alliance in the Star Wars saga. Can you name a few video game characters that you think would fall into this type of role?

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6: Yeah they try to pull the cop game a lot, like you watch a 2 or 3 minute movie of a cops real life. 100. Like the one I really like is called Max Payne and he has a dog as a sidekick but hes supposed to be a regular guy and then all of this bad stuff happens to him, you know like in a movie? Then he starts going on a murderous rampage to find his wife or kids, I never even remember what even though Ive played the game. (r) Its supposed to be like just a regular guy and then he takes on this sort of super human task. Theres another one called Freedom Fighters where they turn into leaders, like the game is built around you ability to control the actions of the people around you. So you get to call up troops of like 4 or 5 guys to go and take on these infiltrating groups, I think theyre Russians in the game (starts laughing). C: So do you play that online? 6: You can through the internet or hook up a bunch of X-Boxes in your house. I have a 61 inch television in my house so we can play like 4 or 5 people on the same screen without much problem. C: Whats the appeal of playing that type of character? 6: If youre uh playing with other people its like the video game was the conversation you had sitting next to the person. Like a lot of times you can get a headset and talk to them through the internet like a telephone. C: What about being that character, like Max Payne, what is the appeal? 6: 101. Like Freedom Fighters, you get to control people. Who doesnt want to control people in real life? (l) In this video game you get to send them out and have them clean up your dirty work and you take all the glory. Why not? C: This type of character appeals to you?

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6: Oh yeah, I like that game a lot. I like any game where you control multiple characters. C: Another type of character is superior to others AND is superior to nature. If you think of Superheroes such a s Spider-Man and his ability to spin webs or Neo in the Matrix and his ability to slow the world down in bullet time and see the computer codes in everything. What video game characters do you think fall into this type of category? 6: Oh, there are all kinds. Theres a great role playing game called Fable which you build up all this positive or negative energy and you become this Neanderthal man and you can like, theres wizards and stuff and you can withstand everything. 102. I guess you can get this angry mode after youve built up so much positive and negative stuff and youre pretty much invincible thing and thats pretty cool. (M) 103. Then theres being able to defy nature all the X-Men games, all the characters can defy nature. (r) I use to play them on Sega that was a great series. 104. In Mario you can fly, I mean hey who can fly or jump in the water and swim without breathing forever. (M) C: What is the appeal of something like that? 6: 105. I guess it feeds the ego (laughter) like you can swim under water. (r) I know its required for the task at hand but just kind of play around with the game or just swim around with the game. 106. Fly around for no reason with a character that can fly because you cant fly in real life. (r) 107. I like to fly, for pretend with a video game because its the closest I can get. (r) I mean Ive flown in an airplane but that isnt really flying. C: Does this type of character appeal to you? 6: Oh yeah, see Im deriving all this information from Mario, this like, from Mario 3 it was a great character. It was one of the most ingenious games ever.

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C: There is also a fifth type of hero in fiction. This category of character is godlike; Zeus, Aphrodite, or Apollo from Greek mythology, Superman or the Terminator could also be considered this type, basically indestructible and superior to mere mortals. What video games allow you to play a character like that? 6: 108. All video games allow you to be superior to mortals. (M) I like Street Fighter or Soul Caliber, where its just these guys who get weapons and powers where if you get good enough at playing the game the theory is you can never be beat. You are godlike, everyone who goes up against you gets killed, you never die, you know. Fighting games are a lot like that there are certain characters that come hidden at the end of the game that are I guess cant be damaged. But you have to beat the game to get that character I guess that would be the godlike character in that game. Neo in the Matrix is unbeatable. C: Why do you think somebody would want to play a character like that? 6: 109. Its the ability to control everything, the ability to be impervious to everything. (M) 110. Its got to be nice to just rampage through anything you want, do any task that is at hand, do anything you want really. (M) C: Do you enjoy playing a character like that in a video game? 6: Oh yeah, theres a game called Grand Theft Auto. 111. I play Grand Theft Auto a lot and that game allows you to rampage through for hours city wide, streets, cop stations, stores, you can just and eventually you build up enough armor that they cant kill you and you get so much weaponry that there is nothing anybody can do to you. Its pretty cool, its a free roam kind of game where if youre not doing the missions. (r) Thats what a lot of people do with that game, they dont do the missions to develop their characters they just roam around part of it and punch people. 112. The other people in the game are just drones and they cant react to you so you get

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to pick and choose who does what to you by hitting them with your car. (r) 113. If you want to mess with the cops, you run up to a cop and push him and I like that aspect of the game. (r) C: Of the five types of characters weve discussed is there one type that is particularly appealing to you? 6: 114. I like the guys that are more like us but a bit superior, there more like leaders. They arent superior to nature so they can be beaten by something. Its nice to be in a game and know your mortality otherwise it can be too easy. (l) 115. I want to still be a character that does things that I cant do, to be able to control other people in the game thats pretty cool. (r) C: Is there one of those types that you tend to play more than the others? 6: Um, you know really I probably play the leader, the more realistic leadership type character. 116. The guy, you know the gun toting games in the Army, you know the kind you said Tom Cruise plays in Top Gun. (l) There is actually a Top Gun game where you get to be at the controls of a fighter jet and lead a little squad and stuff and do the rebel stuff he does in the movie like freak out. C: Do you think the type of character is related to the genre of a video game? 6: Yeah, I think so. I think a lot of times with the role playing games they are long and they are based on a lot more fantasy types of things so they are a lot more godlike and superior to everything. A lot of the 1st person shooter games youre more related to an actual human but have more super human abilities. In sports games theyre going to try and make it as real as possible, I guess, I dont know. I think the character type correlates with the type of game. I think that is a good correlation, they uh, for some reason the games with more character development tends to be more superior and they tend to be the role playing games.

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Appendix C Table 2. Statement Classifications Made During Interviews. Fryes Conception of Communication Modes Ironic- the communication is inferior to the audience in terms of intelligence or the ability to control circumstances. Informants Self-Identification with a Communication Mode 15. In the multi-player games I play there are characters that are way down on the totem pole in abilities but eventually you get them either equal to everybody or above everybody else. 16. I guess in Warcraft I want my character to progress and I guess my character is inferior at the time but I dont know if it is the progression that I find enjoyable. 17. Its not like I pick out the character thinking hes inferior or anything like that. 73. I like simple characters, I think. 77. he just bounces from square to square. 88. I feel like the computer cheats (laughter), I swear sometimes the computer is against me. 92. I know a lot of people wont admit this but I play the Barbie game late at night and thats inferior to a human 94. Ill play that for hours and its real simple like its not even 3D its just a guy running and jumping and a ghost will come up. 5. Im looking for characters that are similar to me or superior to me in terms of intelligence and stuff like that. 11. Im always playing the guys who go around killing everybody, whoever had the biggest weapon usually wins so, the bigger weapon or whoever has explosives 12. in these multi-player games Im playing now Im always the warrior type characters. 13. Ive never been a big fan of magic abilities, that just doesnt buy it, but Ive always my whole life been a military person so Ive always had you know this respect for this warrior person. 14. Im always playing the warrior class,

Mimetic Mode- the communication is approximately equal to the audience in terms of intelligence and the ability to control circumstances.

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not so much the support Im the hand to hand kind of fighter guy. 17. Its not like I pick out the character thinking hes inferior or anything like that. 19. The character is so much like you, you might even name the character after yourself. 20. even in first person shooter games Ill have a particular call sign so you kind of get this embodied feeling where thats you in the game. 21. Especially in World of Warcraft, I think maybe thats when you want the character to be equal to you and you want the character to progress. 22. I mean there are a lot of other games out there like Final Fantasy or games similar to that where you jump into a character thats normal like in Resident Evil, you jump into a random guy that just kind of happens into a situation and try to overcome an enemy thats presented because of this unusual circumstance. 23. I dont know maybe its kind of like similar to people playing inferior characters to make themselves feel better. You know playing some kind of random Joe Schmo so that youre tied into the experience more. 24. I mean had fun playing the Sims but I dont know if it was the character development that I was all about. I mean maybe it kind of was because you know Id worry about the job and money and then Id look at my situation about getting a job or money. Maybe there are a lot more parallels along those lines but I dont think that consciously think that picking a character is me and then its all about me. 25. I can see that as being a driving force for someone to try and improve your own situation and you can do it a lot easier in a game than you can in real life. 31. Even now I play multi player games so its hard to say that its the character that drove me to it, I mean youre just kind of creating yourself and a level of equals.

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Leader-centered Mode- the communication is slightly superior to the audience in terms of intelligence, normally through some type of training but the ability to control circumstances is generally the same as the audience.

44. Id have to go along with the character thats the same level Im at or the games that you create this avatar to play as yourself so, I guess because Im more goal oriented I guess I kind of like to grab on to a character were I could be that character and accomplish those goals because its kind of easier to accomplish these goals in a computer world like making money or fighting or something like that 45. I think Im more of the level of characters that are equal to me Ive created the character to specifically be me or at least be like me. 47. It just seems like all the games I like are the kind were youre the normal average type of character. 50. I guess you could see yourself in those characters as they snowboard down the hill. 71. The common theme of most every 1st person shooter game is that you are a common everyday person that you have to overcome certain situations. 78. Its appealing to just be an average person sometimes. 84. I want them to be 3 dimensional, something about them that I can relate to on a human level. 85. The average everyday person is the one I find myself drawn to. 90. I like playing sports games but theyre based off real people. 95. Like maybe you interact with a secretary, its something everyone does or can do. 97. Its not hard to believe whats going on in a game if it looks like Joe Blow and Jane Doe. 1. I like the heroes, in Halo the Master Chief character, the ones that are standing up for good and fighting evil. 4. I like to develop some strategy, not the brute force going around smashing things 7. the common soldier as opposed to the leader and oddly enough I dont find those as enjoyable as the games where youre the

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leader or anything like that. 8. The ability to act and make decisions in a video game that I think in our life were forced not to act in order to survive, were forced not to tell our boss hes an idiot because we need our jobs to pay the electric company, to pay our rent but uh, so, a lot of things in real life is learning when not to react or tolerate situations. But as a leader in a video game you dont have to tolerate any of that, you can take care of that, a more active role somewhat. 10. You know leading a charge or whatever you know I really enjoy that. 26. I use to play Call of Duty a lot and the multiplayer game everyone is on an equal footing but if you play the single player version its just like Saving Private Ryan or even A Band of Brothers where the game parallels that same storyline. 27. you start out as some great and eventually through succeeding you move up through the ranks and I mean not like a super human soldier but you do become an elite soldier. 55. sometimes I game just because I need to shoot something. 56. If Im playing a 1st person shooter I just care about shooting guys. 57. My other favorites genres of games are car racing games or like Sim City which is actually something very constructive. 60. Sometimes, even games as simplistic as Pac-Man are just ways of ranting, virtual ranting thats what it is. 61. maybe the World War two shooter games are kind of like regular characters, maybe not someone Ive encountered in real life but it has really happened to somebody at some time. 64. you are the Mayor and you lead, you create everything that goes on in that city. 66. I enjoy the task of having to manage so many things at one time, something that is functional and hopefully successful. 70. I like the Bond games, and the Bond

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Romantic Mode- the communication is slightly superior to the audience in terms of intelligence and the ability to control circumstances.

games are a lot about leadership so I should have brought that up. 101. Like Freedom Fighters, you get to control people. Who doesnt want to control people in real life? 114. I like the guys that are more like us but a bit superior, there more like leaders. They arent superior to nature so they can be beaten by something. Its nice to be in a game and know your mortality otherwise it can be too easy. 116. The guy, you know the gun toting games in the Army, you know the kind you said Tom Cruise plays in Top Gun. 9. a sense of experimentation, what would happen if I did this, or let me see if I can get this done or whatever, somebody that has a lot of curiosity. 28. even like the Mario games, even in Donkey Kong, he has to overcome certain obstacles. 29. in Zelda he gets to parts where he has way super human abilities. 30. I just think a lot of people like that dominating role they step right into a game and you are in a position to lead. 32. I think when it comes to super human abilities, it comes down to wouldnt it be cool to have super human abilities and just kind of fun to play a character that can do these kind of things. 33. I kind of wish, especially with super heroes, theres kind of a background before the game built around this character thats then generated in the game. 34. They were characters from movies so then instead of just watching the characters and thinking how cool it was. You then get to do those cool things in a virtual environment because humans dont have the force and that cant make things levitate. 35. You can watch it on the silver screen and think its cool but then you can actually play it out and then you can that much more attachment on the screen.

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36. Like theres also some characters out there with super human abilities like say Sonic the Hedgehog, I dont know he doesnt have that many powers so maybe he would have been cooler if he had been in a movie first before becoming a computer game. 38. Sim City you kind of have this god character because you get to do whatever you want and you kind of control them to an extent, you can cause stuff to happen, or take stuff away. 39. I mean in Sim City, Ive played my fair share of that game and you can cause natural disasters to happen at will just to shake up the game and see how you can handle it with whatever fire department you created and stuff like that. 42. its fun to play Sim City and take over and have complete control or you can do at will whatever you want to do. I mean there are limitations in the game that you can do but there are a lot of things set aside that you can do to really mix things up. I mean thats a really fun driving kind of factor for that. 46. in sports games Ill create myself in the game and then Im obviously not going to create myself as a quarterback in a game with My quarterback abilities. Then Id be riding 4th string on the bench, so Ill create him a little bit better than me and Ill still kind of have this feeling that its me and its on an even playing field. 48. Then you make them better than the average character. 49. They enjoymaybe they wish they could be more like that character. 53. If I make it myself, Ill make it to be a little brunette girl but Ill put tattoos all over myself so its super me. 54. Its a way to be detached from my existing reality. 58. I like a variety where I can choose my course and have a different story every single time.

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59. Thats like asking a teenager that question, no distinct preference per say. 62. games do give you the opportunity of leading lives you never would think of whether theyre however far fetched they may be 63. Im never going to find myself in a situation like that so games are a way for me to experience that you know? However much of a character issue that might be, it gives me the chance to see something I wouldnt normally see. 67. car racing games can defy nature, you can crash into a wall a thousand times and youre still playing 68. you take out as many cars as possible, you ram into them or one of the different modes in that game that you have um, you start from a point and you have to run into an intersection full of cars and the idea is how much money, how much damage did you cause in money. 69. its far from reality and you need that sometimes, especially if the moment is not the best you need something to keep you away from it. 72. I like the Harry Potter games and throughout the game you get more spells and build on what youve got at the beginning of the game and it gets more and more challenging. 74. I like the Harry Potter characters 75. I also like fighting games like in Mortal Combat Radon, the lightning character. 76. like the old Street Fighter games, like the character Eh Honga would do a lighting kick, if they do an interesting move, I like that. 79. Theyre like you in sense but theyre a hero character and you want them to come out on top. Theyre not the machine or the creature type of characters who are just sort of average and you want them to win. 80. sometimes you can step outside of the box and you can do things that are pretty cool and to do things you cant do in real

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life like climb walls. Its fun to explore that and do stuff out of the ordinary. 81. I just want to be average but sometimes, yeah, its nice to step out and be above everybody else. 86. I can live viscerally through the people in the game 87. its like a break from reality for a little while I guess 89. I like uh shooter games, I like a little bit of violence, I really like these gangster games that are coming out like Grand Theft Auto. Like in San Andreas hes an African-American gangster living the urban life, its supposed to be Las Vegas or something like that, its pretty cool. 91. I really like the Mario based game series a lot. I really enjoyed the kind of cartoony, its just a little playful and the music goes really well with the game (laughter). 93. you start thinking hey I could do what this guy is doing and then at the end your thinking hes all big and strong and that could be you. 96. Like you can say things to people you wouldnt say in real life. Some people do vulgar things that you cant really do in real life (starts laughing). So its like a different, it puts a fairy tale twist on everyday activities. 98. Im into the beefed up superhuman type of guy, thats kind of what I like. 99. So if Im playing a game, Id rather do something I cant do in real life. 100. Like the one I really like is called Max Payne and he has a dog as a sidekick but hes supposed to be a regular guy and then all of this bad stuff happens to him, you know like in a movie? Then he starts going on a murderous rampage to find his wife or kids, I never even remember what even though Ive played the game. 103. Then theres being able to defy nature all the X-Men games, all the characters can defy nature.

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Mythical Mode- the character is superior to the audience in terms of intelligence and the ability to control circumstances.

105. I guess it feeds the ego (laughter) like you can swim under water. 106. Fly around for no reason with a character that can fly because you cant fly in real life. 107. I like to fly, for pretend with a video game because its the closest I can get. 111. I play Grand Theft Auto a lot and that game allows you to rampage through for hours city wide, streets, cop stations, stores, you can just and eventually you build up enough armor that they cant kill you and you get so much weaponry that there is nothing anybody can do to you. Its pretty cool, its a free roam kind of game where if youre not doing the missions. 112. The other people in the game are just drones and they cant react to you so you get to pick and choose who does what to you by hitting them with your car. 113. If you want to mess with the cops, you run up to a cop and push him and I like that aspect of the game. 115. I want to still be a character that does things that I cant do, to be able to control other people in the game thats pretty cool. 2. when I play as Chewbacca or a Wookie, or an alien, sometimes I feel that the characterization for that hasnt been you know tweaked enough to have enough empathy for that character. 3. I liked being Godzilla because you can stomp around and kick cars and punch buildings and stuff like that it was pretty fun. 6. I think people play the Sims because they want to be god and have control over something because they dont have control over their lives so they must feel like they can have control. 37. along that god line there was a game that came out called the God of War and the Mark of Kri, where you played these warriors types that could profusely beat up on hundreds of peons.

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40. I dont know its kind of fun to cause a riot then get the police out there and kick a bunch of rioters asses. 41. Most of the games like that its usually cool to play a guy like that and its the game play thats the driving force but as far as the character is concerned some could get attached to the character and enjoy that type of wiping out a bunch of peon fighters. 43. even in first person shooter games were there is a cheat mode thats called godlike and you are unstoppable. In World War 2 you can run out of the trenches you can shot by 50 Germans all at once, or you can get hit by tank for Christs sake and youll be fine. 51. You control almost everything. 52. I like in Tony Hawk how you create the character, and I like the Sims because you create this world. 65. I think I am the character essentially; I am the character in that game. There is not some virtual persona of me in the game, it is me controlling everything. 82. Mortal Combat, and Shang-Sun the big guy. Sometimes you get to play as him but if you play against him you are never going to win. It is fun to play as him. 83. you get to go out there and kick everybodys ass and thats nice (laughter). 102. I guess you can get this angry mode after youve built up so much positive and negative stuff and youre pretty much invincible thing and thats pretty cool. 104. In Mario you can fly, I mean hey who can fly or jump in the water and swim without breathing forever. 108. All video games allow you to be superior to mortals. 109. Its the ability to control everything, the ability to be impervious to everything. 110. Its got to be nice to just rampage through anything you want, do any task that is at hand, do anything you want really.

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