Modeling the Semiotic Structure of Game Characters

Daniel Vella's "Modeling the Semiotic Structure of Game Characters" argues that game studies has largely overlooked the ontology of the character itself, concentrating instead on the relationship between player and avatar. Vella proposes a double-layered understanding of the player-character as both a possible individual and a semiotic construction, adapting Uri Margolin's narratological model of character signification. He grounds this framework in close analyses of The Last of Us and Gone Home, with the latter serving as a minimally specified contrast case, and positions it against Lankoski, Heliö, and Ekman's earlier game-character model, which he finds insufficiently engaged with literary theory.

The paper's central analytical move is to identify the elements through which player-characters acquire traits. Static mimetic elements include name, appearance, costume, voice, and animation; contextual elements include possessions, environment, and role; and ludic elements include capabilities and limitations, which operate through a mediality specific to games. Vella contends that characters can remain static in these elements while still undergoing development, challenging Frasca's claim that most videogame characters are flat. Further analysis extends to passivities such as vulnerabilities, goals, and dynamic actions, which are read as semiotic signs within a diegetic frame. The paper distinguishes character actions, performed without player input as in cutscenes or self-initiated refusals, from player actions, which depend on input. Katie's and Joel's character actions are highlighted as particularly revealing of their traits.

The analysis concludes that the player-character is a semiotic structure that becomes fully realized only through the player's configurative engagement, rather than a fixed entity. Each playthrough actualizes the character differently, so characterization remains incomplete until enacted. The reference list, which draws on narratology, philosophy of games, and game studies from Margolin (1986) through Vella (2013), situates the work within these interdisciplinary traditions.