著者

鍵本 優

出版者

日本マス・コミュニケーション学会

雑誌

マス・コミュニケーション研究

巻号頁・発行日

vol.92, pp.105-123, 2018

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<p> Digital games occupy a big position in today's media culture. The early</p><p>Japanese culture of home digital games partly developed with content intended</p><p>to scare the player. The frightening experiences that are involved in playing</p><p>such games have been often talked about by the players, even if the games were</p><p>not necessarily of the horror genre. However, conventional Japanese digital</p><p>game studies cannot explain these social facts of the frightening experiences</p><p>sufficiently.</p><p> The purpose of this paper is to deal with the theoretical problem mentioned</p><p>above. By considering the frightening experiences in Japanese games</p><p>concretely, this paper submits a novel and effective theoretical and cultural</p><p>interpretation of the experience in digital games as media. It is a 'fear not to</p><p>fade away' arising from gaming practices that this paper notices in particular.</p><p> This paper is written with the following method and procedure. Firstly,</p><p>this paper checks the framework of the conventional theory of experiences in</p><p>digital games( Section 1). Secondly, the problem of this framework is examined</p><p>in detail by way of discussing the frightening experiences( Section 2). Then, in</p><p>order to manage this problem, this paper considers the concrete cases of playing</p><p>AVGs(Adventure Games) and RPGs(Role Playing Games) in the Japanese</p><p>game culture (Section 3). Finally, conclusions are derived from the previous</p><p>discussion and considerations( Section 4).</p><p> The conclusions of this paper are as follows. Firstly, the media theory of</p><p>experiences in digital games should pay attention to the player's mental, bodily</p><p>and sensorial self-transfer to the media. Secondly, in Japanese society around</p><p>1990, the cultural development of digital games with many narrative elements</p><p>(in particular in AVGs and RPGs) necessarily produced the possibilities of</p><p>"being shocked" experience.</p>