research-article

An investigation of Vladimir Propp's 31 functions and 8 broad character types and how they apply to the analysis of video games

Authors:

Andrew Brusentsev,

Michael Hitchens,

Deborah RichardsAuthors Info & Claims

IE '12: Proceedings of The 8th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Playing the System

Article No.: 2, Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/2336727.2336729

Published: 21 July 2012 Publication History

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Abstract

This paper is concerned with answering the following question: "Is Vladimir Propp's Model (31 Functions and 8 Broad Character Types) a valid model with which to analyse games from a variety of gaming genres?" More specifically what genres of games can be analysed by this model and in what terms? Can the model only be used to analyse the story arcs of games or can it also be used for analysis of level narrative and even perhaps for dialogue between the player character and computer controlled characters? In this paper, Propp's Model will be used to analyse selected games from a variety of genres in terms of character archetypes, story arc, level narrative and character dialogue. The ability of the model to cope with in-game player decisions will also be examined. The validity of the model as a video game analysis tool is assessed and recommendations given on which video game genres the model is most applicable.

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Harris SCaldwell N(2023)A Transfiguration Paradigm for Quest DesignGames and Culture10.1177/1555412023117015219:4(493-512)Online publication date: 7-May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231170152
Hansen D(2022)Formalisations du jeu vidéo : la métaphore langagière du jeu mise à l’épreuve au travers du concept de ludèmeVideo Games as Formal Systems: (Re)Assessing the Conceptualization of Games as a Language through the Notion of LudemesSciences du jeu10.4000/sdj.3975Online publication date: 13-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.4000/sdj.3975
T. Meza LThue D(2021)The Applicability of Greimassian Semiotics to Meaningful Procedural Quest GenerationInteractive Storytelling10.1007/978-3-030-92300-6_25(266-279)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92300-6_25
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Index Terms

An investigation of Vladimir Propp's 31 functions and 8 broad character types and how they apply to the analysis of video games
1. Software and its engineering

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Information

Published In

IE '12: Proceedings of The 8th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Playing the System

July 2012

182 pages

ISBN:9781450314107

DOI:10.1145/2336727

Conference Chairs:
Daniel Cermak-Sassenrath
Auckland University of Technology
,
Charles Walker
Auckland University of Technology
,
Program Chair:
Chek Tien Tan
University of Technology, Sydney

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 21 July 2012

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IE '12

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University of Technology, Sydney

IE '12: The 8th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment

July 21 - 22, 2012

Auckland, New Zealand

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Overall Acceptance Rate 64 of 148 submissions, 43%

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Cited By

View all

Harris SCaldwell N(2023)A Transfiguration Paradigm for Quest DesignGames and Culture10.1177/1555412023117015219:4(493-512)Online publication date: 7-May-2023
https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231170152
Hansen D(2022)Formalisations du jeu vidéo : la métaphore langagière du jeu mise à l’épreuve au travers du concept de ludèmeVideo Games as Formal Systems: (Re)Assessing the Conceptualization of Games as a Language through the Notion of LudemesSciences du jeu10.4000/sdj.3975Online publication date: 13-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.4000/sdj.3975
T. Meza LThue D(2021)The Applicability of Greimassian Semiotics to Meaningful Procedural Quest GenerationInteractive Storytelling10.1007/978-3-030-92300-6_25(266-279)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92300-6_25
Green DHargood CCharles FAtzenbeck CRubart JMillard D(2019)Novella 2.0: A Hypertextual Architecture for Interactive Narrative in GamesProceedings of the 30th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media10.1145/3342220.3343655(77-86)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3342220.3343655
Green D(2018)Novella: An Authoring Tool for Interactive Storytelling in GamesInteractive Storytelling10.1007/978-3-030-04028-4_66(556-559)Online publication date: 21-Nov-2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04028-4_66
Anil ARamakrishnan C(2015)Games as nonliterary narratives: A temporal view of Aarseth's ontic dimensions2015 International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI)10.1109/ICACCI.2015.7275853(1667-1671)Online publication date: Aug-2015
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICACCI.2015.7275853

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