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Part of
Narrative Absorption
Edited by Frank Hakemulder, Moniek M. Kuijpers, Ed S. Tan, Katalin Bálint and Miruna M. Doicaru
[Linguistic Approaches to Literature 27] 2017
► pp. 157–175

Chapter 8
Identifying with in-game characters

Exploring player articulations of identification and presence

| Utrecht University
| University of Waikato

This chapter explores the concepts of identification and presence in videogames by drawing on interview data from players playing a first- and third-person ‘violent’ game. Other than the more uniform relationships between perspective and identification claimed in game violence effect research, our data suggest that identification is a more complex and selective process. The third-person perspective allowed for an assessment of, and identification with, the character’s physical characteristics and fostered a greater interest in the game’s narrative unfolding (narrative involvement), while the first-person game allowed for identification with the character’s point-of-view encouraging players to adopt the character’s spatial position as their own (spatial presence). This chapter thus calls for a reassessment of the complex relationships between perspective, identification and presence.

Keywords: videogames, point-of-view, identification, presence, violence
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The need to reassess perspective in games
  • 3.A multi-method approach to gameplay experience
  • 4.Identification and presence in a first- and third-person game
  • 5.Identification as a selective process
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 9 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.27.09van
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