{"id":252,"date":"2022-10-28T10:53:13","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T10:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/?p=252"},"modified":"2022-10-28T10:53:13","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T10:53:13","slug":"theorizing-the-player-playable-figure-relationship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/research\/theorizing-the-player-playable-figure-relationship\/","title":{"rendered":"Theorizing the Player-Playable Figure Relationship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By Backe and Lankoski<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Published in Narrative 30(2)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Article available on <a href=\"https:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/855327\">https:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/855327<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Abstract<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The paper revisits a central question in the study of characters in digital games: Do players of, for example, a racing game steer the virtual car directly themselves, or are they controlling the body of a virtual driver? This seemingly technical question is shown to be primarily cognitive and conceptual: players draw on their real-life and fictional frames of reference in an ongoing epistemological process of situating themselves vis-\u00e0-vis gameworld and playable figure. The traditional metaphor for this relationship, that of a cyborg, neither captures the variety of relationships suggested by games, nor the range of interpretations open to players. To overcome this limitation, I propose six conceptual types, based on the significance that tools and vehicles have for the playable figure. I ask: is there a co-dependence between equipment and user, is it permanent, and do they have a metonymic relationship to each other? These abstract categories are shown to be connected to archetypical proto-narratives epitomized by characters from mythology and popular culture, which players implicitly refer to in conceptualizing their relationship to the gameworld. The essay, then, offers a framework for the conceptual variety of player-playable figure-relations, which, in drawing on cultural history, should be equally transparent to scholars of game studies and narratology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Backe and Lankoski Published in Narrative 30(2) Article available on https:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/855327. Abstract The paper revisits a central question in the study of characters in digital games: Do players of, for example, a racing game steer the virtual car directly themselves, or are they controlling the body of a virtual driver? This seemingly technical question [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blogg.sh.se\/game_research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}