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Gaming Bodies : Video Game Corporeality in Characters, Players, and Representations

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GAMING BODIES : VIDEO GAME CORPOREALITY IN CHARACTERS, PLAYERS, AND REPRESENTATIONS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY SKY LARELL ANDERSON IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ADVISERS: JOHN H. LOGIE, PHD, and RONALD WALTER GREENE, PHD MAY 2016 © Sky LaRell Anderson 2016 Some Rights Reserved i Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge my parents for always encouraging me to further my education, the Communication Studies professors at Utah State University and Colorado State University for guiding me towards a doctoral degree, Dr. Jennifer Peeples for showing me the power of studying rhetoric, and the Communication professors at the University of Minnesota for giving me exactly what I needed to progress. I would like to recognize my wife, Katie, for keeping me sane and for letting me buy my “research” computer to engage with the games studied in this project. I would like to thank my colleagues Shelby Bell and Allison Prasch for their advice and encouragement. I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Sauman Chu, Dr. Arthur Walzer, and Dr. Gilbert Rodman, for their support and feedback. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge my advisers, Dr. John Logie and Dr. Ronald Walter Greene, for their invaluable guidance throughout this entire process. I would not be studying video games if I had not written a seminar paper on the topic for Dr. Logie or published my first solo- authored article under the guidance of Dr. Greene. My hope is that I may someday emulate their wit, talent, and intelligence. ii Dedication This dissertation, and all of the hours of work it represents, is dedicated to my wife, Katie. Finding her was the best thing to come out of my time here in Minnesota. iii Abstract This dissertation explores the concept of bodies as it arises in various sites of video game culture. It answers the implicit call found in game studies research to define, explore, and describe video game bodies, but the varied nature of bodies and games, and the inherent lack of a foundational theory of the subject to guide its exploration, necessitates the study of several possible sites of investigation in order to propose characteristics of video game bodies. To this end, I performed four case studies within a diverse range of sites of video game culture in order to discover what video game bodies mean in these particular instances. The sites of investigation include: third-person character bodies in action video games, the game streaming website Twitch.tv, the exercise game Wii Fit U , and the gaming habits of mobile game players. The guiding methodologies of each case study vary depending on the site of analysis, and the variety of methods speaks to the diversity of the subject matter. However, each case study followed a similar research plan: I formed a research question aimed at focusing on the nature and role of video game bodies in the given site of analysis, and I followed a method appropriate for the question at hand. For the most part, the methods are humanistic with an emphasis on qualitative content analysis, interviews, and grounded theory. My findings suggest four preliminary characteristics of gaming corporeality, or the nature of bodies in/of video games, which share several similarities that I discuss in the conclusion. The characteristics are as follows: the aesthetics game characters’ bodies, strategies of drawing awareness to game players’ bodies, the gamification of game players’ bodies, and the temporal/spatial agency of players’ bodies. Ultimately, I argue that the four sites and characteristics of video game bodies share three commonalities, which I call the three I’s of digital viscera: immersion, interactivity, and intuition. iv Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Review of Literature ..........................................................................................9 Chapter 2: Aesthetics of Video Game Characters’ Bodies ................................................35 Chapter 3: Awareness of Players’ and Viewers’ Bodies on Twitch.tv ..............................73 Chapter 4: Gamifying Players’ Bodies and Wii Fit U .....................................................108 Chapter 5: Temporal and Spatial Agency and Mobile Game Players .............................143 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................170 Endnotes ...........................................................................................................................187 v List of Figures Introduction Figure 1: Screenshot from Portal 2 .....................................................................................1 Figure 2: Screenshot from Portal 2 .....................................................................................2 Figure 3: Screenshot from Portal 2 .....................................................................................3 Figure 4: Chell from Portal 2 and Alésia Glidewell............................................................4 Chapter 1 Figure 5: Screenshot from Haunting Ground ....................................................................25 Figure 6: Screenshot from America’s Army .......................................................................29 Chapter 2 Figure 7: Screenshot from Fallout: New Vegas .................................................................36 Figure 8: Screenshot from Dark Souls ...............................................................................46 Figure 9: Screenshot from Dark Souls ...............................................................................55 Figure 10: Screenshot from Dark Souls II .........................................................................56 Figure 11: Screenshot from Saint’s Row IV .......................................................................58 Figure 12: Screenshot from Grand Theft Auto V ...............................................................60 Figure 13: Screenshot from Grand Theft Auto V ...............................................................61 Figure 14: Screenshot from Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor ........................................67 Chapter 3 Figure 15: Screenshot from Twitch.tv ...............................................................................81 Figure 16: Screenshot from Twitch.tv ...............................................................................86 Figure 17: Screenshot from Twitch.tv ...............................................................................93 Figure 18: Screenshot from Twitch.tv ...............................................................................95 Figure 19: Screenshot from Twitch.tv ...............................................................................95 Figure 20: Screenshot from Twitch.tv ...............................................................................97 Figure 21: Screenshot from Twitch.tv ...............................................................................98 Figure 22: Screenshots from YouTube.com and Twitch.tv .............................................104 Chapter 4 Figure 23: Screenshot from Nike Running .......................................................................109 Figure 24: Screenshot from Wii Fit U ..............................................................................116 Figure 25: Wii U GamePad ..............................................................................................118 Figure 26: Wii U Balance Board .....................................................................................122 Figure 27: Wii U My Fit Meter........................................................................................126 Figure 28: Screenshot from Wii Fit U ..............................................................................131 Figure 29: Screenshot from Wii Fit U ..............................................................................132 Figure 30: Screenshot from Wii Fit U ..............................................................................135 Chapter 5 Figure 31: Screenshot from Hungry Shark Evolution ......................................................154 Conclusion Figure 32: Screenshot from Grand Theft Auto V .............................................................170 1 INTRODUCTION The 2011 video game Portal 2 is a puzzle game with a twist. Unlike many other puzzle games, such as Bejeweled or Tetris , Portal 2 requires players to experience a digital, three-dimensional environment through the eyes of the protagonist. Through the use of a first-person perspective, players explore various rooms, each containing a series of puzzles in order to progress. In order to solve these puzzles, players use a portal gun which connects two points in space (see fig. 1). Figure 1: A typical screenshot of an early puzzle room in Portal 2 . As seen in the image, players can create a blue portal and an orange portal, and what goes through one comes out of the other. This particular game mechanic requires a firm understanding of the room’s space, dimensions, and the character’s body position and aim. The first-person perspective lets players inhabit
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