![]() Meanwhile Hawreliak focuses on Aristotle’s ethics in terms of the kind of heroes we find our games populated with (2013). use Aristotle as a springboard to wrestle with the diegetic and extradiegetic meanings of choice in videogames (2014). ![]() Owen discusses the Poetics mandate of unity of time and place in relation to 2k’s Bioshock (2010 2K, 2007). Aristotle in Videogame DiscourseĪristotle is already present in our current discussion of videogame narratives. This will be explored below via an in-depth exploration of key terms found in the Poetics, and their correlates in academic games studies, illustrated by an application to Ninja Theory’s award-winning title Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory, 2017). This is particularly true when we take our guiding light to be the process of cognitive illumination that the Poetics describes - a process that unifies the player and the diegetic player character in the gameworld. This suggests that utilising Poetics for a reading of a games semantic layer may in fact offer a unity to particular processes. Furthermore, this essay will show that there is an important overlap between the insights accessible via Poetics and other videogame scholarship. It is not being forwarded to challenge other videogame narrative tools but rather as another lens to access and articulate successful narratives. The goal of this paper is to examine how the processes identified in Poetics apply to narrative focused videogames. As Schaper puts it, a successful narrative calls for “constructive and creative responses, calling upon the entire person to transform emotions through understanding” (1968, p. Though we access the tragedy via our emotions this is a cognitive process our emotions are not separate from our reason and the journey that we go on when engaging with a successful narrative (whether a book, film, or videogame), utilises and capitalises on that relationship. These emotions are conjured by the work in a way that mimic life but, through their separation from life, take difficult or even harrowing events and make them “transparent and articulate” (Schaper, 1968, p. That is, rather than the pervasive contemporary use of the term tragedy - where an event ends in death and despair - tragedy is actually “the emotions it evokes in the spectator” (Kaufmann, 1992, p. ![]() For Aristotle tragedy is teleologically conceived (Kruse, 1979). The central tenet of Aristotle’s Poetics is that narrative mediums leverage the materials of their construction to an effect on the audience. Keywords: videogames, aristotle, narrative, narrative design, catharsis, mimesis, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, poetics, aporia, epiphany Introduction This process is illustrated using contemporary videogame discourse as well as Ninja Theory’s award-winning title Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (2017). This structure conforms to an arc of knowledge acquisition for both the player and player character. Moreover, using detailed definitions of key terms such as mimesis, catharsis and hamartia offer a useful lens for understanding narrative arcs in a medium that inherently confounds the structure of other narrative forms. They can be used to highlight the unique ways that games can create meaning both in their narrative structure and generated by gameplay. “Understanding” Narrative Applying Poetics to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice by Eoghain Meakin, Brian Vaughan, Charlie Cullen AbstractWhile allusions to Aristotle’s Poetics have been contentious in videogame discourse this paper seeks to show that there is immense value in using the conceptual terms and mechanisms that Aristotle introduced in his Poetics. He has patented and licensed research IP and is currently writing books on Audio Electronics. He has been principal investigator on over €20M of competitively funded Irish, European, UK and industrial projects. Charlie Cullen is an Assistant Head of School for Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Technological University Dublin. His current research work focuses on social signal processing and VR and AR interaction.īrian.vaughan at tudublin.ie Charlie Cullenĭr. He lectures across a range of domains including Digital Storytelling, Digital Media Tools and Game Audio. His research interests are narrative design, semiotics and meaning-making processes in videogames.ĭr Vaughan is a Senior Lecturer at Technological University Dublin in the school of media where he runs an applied VR research lab. Eoghain Meakin is a PhD Researcher and Assistant Lecturer in Game Design at Technological University Dublin.
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