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There were several additional questions that I asked my participants because I felt they could provide some broader contextualisation around gaming and the way people relate to games. These provide further insight into elements of narrative and game design which may help to build better empathy and engagement.

Meaningful Characters

One question I asked participants was what characters or storylines they had experienced in games which were of significance for them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the participants expressed an enjoyment of characters who were well written – sometimes even when they were the villain.

“I suppose that’s when that empathy [for the character] comes in, when they’ve been given that depth into their character, so even though you know they’re different [to you] and you might not agree with what decisions they’re making, if you can see it from their perspective, I think that’s the thing that will pull [your empathy] through.”

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Several participants talked about while there were some characters they’ve played where their own sense of self had blurred with the characters’, even characters they felt distinct from they felt they could engage with if they were well developed narratively.

Villainous characters such as GLaDOS from the Portal (Valve Corporation 2005-2011) series (a megalomaniacal murderous AI) and Sylvanas Windrunner from World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004-2016) were both well-loved characters of Juliette. In my own experience, one of my most-enjoyed characters is Yuna, from Final Fantasy X and X-2 (Square 2001). In particular, what I enjoy about her is that she’s very feminine and agreeable at first glance, but as the game progresses we see she has a spine of steel and she will even stand up against her own religion in the pursuit of justice. What appeals to me about her is how cleverly she develops in the narrative and how unexpected her personality progression is: she is presented as a stereotype, but steps out of that role completely. She is also a ‘strong’ female character without being coded with ‘male values’, as per (Kennedy 2002) and (Paaßen et al. 2016).

Notably – Amelia was very fond of the player-character Master Chief from the Halo series. This is particularly interesting because this character is a near-silent protagonist (and thus has almost no personality). However, Amelia laughingly admitted that while playing the game she and her friend would jokingly role-play as Master Chief’s voice, providing him with a different name, narrative and personality (in part as the co-op of this game allows for both players to play as two Master Chiefs, which inherently breaks the narrative logic). Thus they created a voice for their ‘silent’ character.

Overall, what these responses indicate is that characters which catch the imagination by being non-stereotypical, and who have unique and believable emotional journeys (even if they are the antagonist) are often the ones which have the greatest impact.

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[On what he’d like to see more of in game characters] “Someone who is a little bit more complicated. So maybe they’re not all good and over time they reveal certain things like certain stories or elements to their character that you [might not expect]. And that you make your assumptions about them, then they are kind of challenged in that way. Where they actually make rational decisions – there’s some thought process to them that’s based on them as a character. And having a bit more emotional depth.”

(Max)

While characters with more depth having more impact is a reasonably unsurprising

observation, it does help to confirm that games too are subject to what we already know from the study of character and story in other mediums, that having characters with complexity, personality and narratively justified decision-making are likely going to be more effective in their ability to create lasting emotive connection with the player, than, for example, a ‘blank slate’ character would be.

Becoming and Staying a Gamer – Sociality

One interesting theme which ran through almost all of the personal narratives which other gamers shared with me, was that of social invitation which drew in, and often shaped the most significant link the participants had with games. Almost everyone was introduced to games by another person – invited in and taught about games by others; my participants all first got into games as children through being shown and participating with family members: Amelia started out by watching her brother play games, Juliette was introduced by her mother, Max got into playing games at his cousin’s place, Harry while playing with his sister.

Sociality was not just the first step into games, but was often what kept players playing, or what made the experience of gaming significant. Amelia discussed how she and a close female friend would go to video game ‘cafés’ late at night when no one else was around and play

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Halo. This for them this was a core social event. Juliette discussed how one of her earliest game experiences was her mother playing Tomb Raider (Eidos Interactive 1996), and later in life it was flatting with gamer friends which shaped her gaming experience. Sharing of games is still one of her core gaming drivers.

Most of the games I enjoy are with people. [Solo games] have to be really good; I just don’t enjoy them otherwise.

Juliette

Possibly the most intriguing example of how gamers use video games in a social way, is what I call, ‘Single Player Together’, a phenomenon – mentioned by all my participants – where people will play a single-player game, but with company. Sometimes the playing will be shared – with the controls being passed back and forth – other times, one person will play and another/others will ‘participate’ through watching and communicating with the player.

This process, participating without ‘playing’ is fascinating on a number of levels – both for how it impacts game design, and what it tells us about sociality and games, and I believe warrants further study. Though outside of scope for this project, it would be worth examining if there are ways to further enable this Single Player Together playstyle in game design, and

investigate what it does to the process of players being immersed in the characters and game.

Overall, even from this small sample of participants, we can see how important it is that we consider how complex and significant the social aspect of gaming is, both in the design of these games and also in attempts to understand players and their communities. Sociality can be seen to be a significant motivator for playing games (and is one of the ‘player types’ or motivators seen in the literature (Klug and Schell 2006; Sweetser et al. 2017; LeBlanc 2004)), and so when seeking to make change to the community, it is worth considering how best to enable it within my own game.

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As a body of responses, this field work indicates that while people of all genders are playing and engaged with games, some do face more restrictions and less acknowledgement of their presence within the gaming world. With the perspectives of these players around gender, sexism and gaming, and the characters they want to see and find meaningful, I was able to start fleshing out the game narrative.

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