This article analyses the player?avatar relation in Final Fantasy 7, drawing
on multimodality theory to analyse textual structures both in the game and
in the discourse of player-interviews and fan writing. It argues that the
avatar is a two-part structure, partly designed in conventional narrative
terms as a protagonist of popular narrative, and partly as a vehicle for
interactive game-play. The former structure is replete with the traditions
and designs of Japanese popular narrative, oral formulaic narrative and
contemporary superhero narratives, and is presented to the player as an
offer act ? a declarative narrative statement. The latter is a construct of
evolving attributes and economies characteristic of role-playing games;
and is presented to the player as a demand act ? a rule-based command.
Though these two functions separate out in the grammar of player and fan
discourse, it is their integration which provides the pleasure of gameplay
and narrative engagement. |