[Commlist] New book: Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling

New open-access book publication:

/Video Game Characters and Transmedia Storytelling: The Dynamic Game 
Character /by Dr. Joleen Blom, published in late October 2023 with the 
Amsterdam University Press.

*Summary:*

Characters are a vital aspect of today’s transmedia practices. Combining 
theories on fictional persons from Japanese and Euro-American practices, 
this book discusses video game characters embedded in our popular media 
culture in which they are constantly produced and re-imagined.

This book introduces the dynamic game character, a type of game 
character with a development structure that consists of multiple 
outcomes in a game. Through their actions and choices, players can 
influence these game characters’ identities and affect their possible 
destinies.

Games subvert the idea that fictional persons must maintain a coherent 
identity. This book shows that dynamic game characters challenge 
strategies of top-down control through close readings of the Mass 
Effect series, Persona 5, Hades, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and more. 
It is directed to all scholars interested in the topics of transmedia 
storytelling, video games, characters, and Japanese narratology.

Please see the *table of contents:*

A brief note Japanese names and words
Chapter 1: Introducing the dynamic game character
Chapter 2: Characters in contemporary media
Chapter 3: How the dynamic game character develops
Chapter 4: Strategies to control a character’s transtextual identities
Chapter 5: Parasocial relationships with non-playable characters
Chapter 6: The construction of transmedia game characters
Chapter 7: The future of dynamic game characters
Glossary A brief typology on characters
Complete bibliography
Index

**

The book is available open access, for free, at the website of the 
Amsterdam University Press:

https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789048553495/video-game-characters-and-transmedia-storytelling 
<https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789048553495/video-game-characters-and-transmedia-storytelling>


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