Abilene Christian University Digital Commons @ ACU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-2016 The Texts We Play: Avatar Creation and Racial Invisibility in Role- Playing Video Games Daniel L. Archer Abilene Christian University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons, and the Other Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Archer, Daniel L., "The Texts We Play: Avatar Creation and Racial Invisibility in Role-Playing Video Games" (2016). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 27. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at Digital Commons @ ACU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ ACU. ABSTRACT This project sets out to address problems of racial inequalities in role-playing video games as part of a growing field of video game studies in literary criticism. As these games are an increasingly popular form of entertainment in contemporary culture, their potential effects on players cannot be ignored. If these games continue to reflect society in a way that perpetuates racist stereotypes, social progress will halt. In order to study these games from a literary perspective, then, this project combines both narratological and ludological approaches to video game studies in order to bring about new insight from two strong perspectives. This method results in an in-depth analysis of selected role-playing games as texts as well as a survey of college students and how they approach the avatar creation process in video games as well as whether or not they perceive any racial imbalances. The study finds that most players do not consciously experience any racial imbalances and that roughly a third of the players surveyed have a conscious attachment to the avatars they create. In addition, the games analyzed are found to contain racially problematic elements, though some of these are more blatantly displayed in some games than in others. Overall, this project sets out to bring together two different approaches to game studies in order to legitimize projects like these for future use in the English discipline. The Texts We Play: Avatar Creation and Racial Invisibility in Role-Playing Video Games A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School of English Abilene Christian University In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts English By Daniel Luis Archer May 2016 To mom, dad, and Andrea. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the English and Digital Entertainment Technology faculty at ACU for supporting me through six years of education. Thank you for being the mentors I needed to become the person I am today. Thank you also for being the friends I needed in order to know that even when I did not believe in myself there were those of you that never doubted me for a moment. There are too many of you to name in this short section by name, which itself is telling of how blessed I am by all of you. I would like to thank my closest friends and colleagues in my graduate cohort. The five of you have been integral to my success, invaluable to my experiences these last two years, and will forever be irreplaceable in my heart and in my memories. Thank you for seeing me mostly at my worst and rarely—if ever—at my best and still pushing me to keep trying, to keep laughing, and to keep being the best I could be. Thank you for the fellowship and the treasured memories. Thank you for making me dread graduation if only because it means saying goodbye to the lot of you. I would like to thank my parents for being immovable sources of encouragement and understanding. Thank you for the support over the years that cannot be put into words. Thank you, most importantly, for teaching me the value of play that I now want to pass on to others. Finally, I would like to thank my gamer friends whose friendship has far surpassed the games we play together and whose support has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. Thank you for the community you have shown me. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... iv I. INTRODUCTION: STUDY DESIGN AND REVIEW OF LITERATURE ......... 1 Necessity of Case Study.......................................................................................... 1 Purpose of Study ..................................................................................................... 2 Design and Procedures ............................................................................................ 3 Review of Literature ............................................................................................... 3 Film vs. Video Games................................................................................. 4 Narratology vs. Ludology ........................................................................... 9 Critical Race Theory ................................................................................. 12 Thesis Outline ....................................................................................................... 16 II. THE GAMES WE PLAY: PROBLEMATIC AVATAR CREATION AND ROLE-PLAY IN VIDEO GAMES ....................................................................... 20 Purpose .................................................................................................................. 20 Theoretical Framework ......................................................................................... 21 Importance of Popular Culture .................................................................. 21 Critical Race Theory ................................................................................. 27 Approaches to Game Studies .................................................................... 34 Video Game Genres .................................................................................. 37 Video Games as Texts .............................................................................. 39 Analysis of Role-Playing Video Games ............................................................... 40 World of Warcraft ..................................................................................... 41 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim ...................................................................... 50 Grand Theft Auto ...................................................................................... 58 III. METHODOLOGY OF ROLE-PLAYING AVATARS AND GAMING CASE STUDY ................................................................................................................. 64 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 64 Problem and Purpose Overview............................................................................ 65 Research Questions ............................................................................................... 66 Population and Sample ......................................................................................... 66 Rationale for Case Study ...................................................................................... 67 Data Collection ..................................................................................................... 68 Data Analysis ............................................................................................ 68 Summary ................................................................................................... 69 IV. PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA OF ROLE-PLAYING AVATARS AND GAMING CASE STUDY ....................................................... 70 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 70 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................ 71 Population and Sample ............................................................................. 71 Data Collection Instruments ..................................................................... 71 Survey ........................................................................................... 71 Interview Protocol ........................................................................ 71 Research Questions ............................................................................................... 72 Summary ............................................................................................................... 77 V. ROLE-PLAYING AVATARS AND GAMING: SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................................................................... 78 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 78 Purpose of Study ................................................................................................... 79 Design and Procedures .......................................................................................... 79 Findings of the Study ............................................................................................ 80 Limitations ...........................................................................................................