Contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters

Characters in fighting videogames1 such as Street Fighter V and Tekken7 typically reveal a phenomenon that we define as virtual enfreakment: their bodies, costumes, and fighting styles are exaggerated (1) in a manner that emphasizes perceived exoticism and (2) to enable them to be easily visually an...

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Main Authors: Sengun, Sercan, Mawhorter, Peter, Bowie-Wilson, James, Audeh, Yusef, KWAK, Haewoon, Harrell, D. Fox
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Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/7171
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/8174/viewcontent/VirtualEnfreakmentFightingGame_pvoa.pdf
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spelling sg-smu-ink.sis_research-81742022-06-15T06:21:22Z Contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters Sengun, Sercan Mawhorter, Peter Bowie-Wilson, James Audeh, Yusef KWAK, Haewoon Harrell, D. Fox Characters in fighting videogames1 such as Street Fighter V and Tekken7 typically reveal a phenomenon that we define as virtual enfreakment: their bodies, costumes, and fighting styles are exaggerated (1) in a manner that emphasizes perceived exoticism and (2) to enable them to be easily visually and conceptually distinguishable from one another. Here, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, including crowd-sourced surveys and analyses of game mechanics, we report on the contours of virtual enfreakment in those games. We specifically examine differences in character design across gender, national-origin, and skin-color lines. Disappointingly but not surprisingly, we find racism and sexism manifest as stark differences in character design by gender and skin color. This has strong implications because taking on the roles of these characters can have impacts on users in the physical world, e.g., performance and engagement, behavior, and understandings of others (Lim and Harrell 2015; Sengun 2015; Yee et al. 2012, S,engun et al. 2022a; Harrell and Veeragoudar Harrell 2012; Kao and Harrell 2015; Sengun 2014; Kocur et al. 2020). Although the differences are not always straightforward, female characters and darker-skinned characters (typically, characters of color) are enfreaked differently than their light-skinned male counterparts. Our results also reveal the strategic use of "unknown" as a country of origin for villainous characters. Through our mixed-methods analysis, we examine in detail how virtual enfreakment is influenced by sexism and racism, and our findings are compatible with information about the development history of the Street Fighter and Tekken franchises. However, we also find that recent characters designed in dialogue with developers from their regions of origin are some of the least enfreaked and most positively portrayed-suggesting the possibility of designing and deploying such characters for implementing anti-bias character designs within popular videos.. 2022-07-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/7171 info:doi/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121707 https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/8174/viewcontent/VirtualEnfreakmentFightingGame_pvoa.pdf http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems eng Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University Videogames Digital games Fighting games Representation Gender Race Ethnicity Databases and Information Systems Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
institution Singapore Management University
building SMU Libraries
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider SMU Libraries
collection InK@SMU
language English
topic Videogames
Digital games
Fighting games
Representation
Gender
Race
Ethnicity
Databases and Information Systems
Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
spellingShingle Videogames
Digital games
Fighting games
Representation
Gender
Race
Ethnicity
Databases and Information Systems
Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing
Sengun, Sercan
Mawhorter, Peter
Bowie-Wilson, James
Audeh, Yusef
KWAK, Haewoon
Harrell, D. Fox
Contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters
description Characters in fighting videogames1 such as Street Fighter V and Tekken7 typically reveal a phenomenon that we define as virtual enfreakment: their bodies, costumes, and fighting styles are exaggerated (1) in a manner that emphasizes perceived exoticism and (2) to enable them to be easily visually and conceptually distinguishable from one another. Here, using both quantitative and qualitative methods, including crowd-sourced surveys and analyses of game mechanics, we report on the contours of virtual enfreakment in those games. We specifically examine differences in character design across gender, national-origin, and skin-color lines. Disappointingly but not surprisingly, we find racism and sexism manifest as stark differences in character design by gender and skin color. This has strong implications because taking on the roles of these characters can have impacts on users in the physical world, e.g., performance and engagement, behavior, and understandings of others (Lim and Harrell 2015; Sengun 2015; Yee et al. 2012, S,engun et al. 2022a; Harrell and Veeragoudar Harrell 2012; Kao and Harrell 2015; Sengun 2014; Kocur et al. 2020). Although the differences are not always straightforward, female characters and darker-skinned characters (typically, characters of color) are enfreaked differently than their light-skinned male counterparts. Our results also reveal the strategic use of "unknown" as a country of origin for villainous characters. Through our mixed-methods analysis, we examine in detail how virtual enfreakment is influenced by sexism and racism, and our findings are compatible with information about the development history of the Street Fighter and Tekken franchises. However, we also find that recent characters designed in dialogue with developers from their regions of origin are some of the least enfreaked and most positively portrayed-suggesting the possibility of designing and deploying such characters for implementing anti-bias character designs within popular videos..
format text
author Sengun, Sercan
Mawhorter, Peter
Bowie-Wilson, James
Audeh, Yusef
KWAK, Haewoon
Harrell, D. Fox
author_facet Sengun, Sercan
Mawhorter, Peter
Bowie-Wilson, James
Audeh, Yusef
KWAK, Haewoon
Harrell, D. Fox
author_sort Sengun, Sercan
title Contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters
title_short Contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters
title_full Contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters
title_fullStr Contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters
title_full_unstemmed Contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters
title_sort contours of virtual enfreakment in fighting game characters
publisher Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University
publishDate 2022
url https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/7171
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/8174/viewcontent/VirtualEnfreakmentFightingGame_pvoa.pdf
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