Using Characterization Theory to Study the History of Video Game Characters

This paper proposes characterization theory, borrowed from literary studies, as a productive framework for tracing the history of video game characters (VGCs), encompassing both player-characters and non-playable characters. The authors argue that existing historical scholarship has concentrated largely on technological and filmic developments such as photorealism and voice acting, and that the ludic and narrative evolution of VGCs deserves comparable attention. Drawing on Rehak, Eder and Thon, and Lankoski, the paper identifies the growth of psychological complexity, detailed backstories, motivations, and carefully orchestrated character conflicts as hallmarks of contemporary games, in contrast to earlier titles that were often criticized for lacking such depth.

To illustrate this shift, the authors compare the original Final Fantasy VII with its remake, noting greater attention to inter-character relationships, more grounded settings, more distinct side characters, and a fleshed-out psychological portrait of the protagonist through visions and hallucinations. The paper also highlights how non-playable "stage characters" now react meaningfully to player actions, and how improvements in console haptics, such as controller vibrations during hallucination sequences, allow character traits and emotions to be conveyed physically.

The methodological core of the paper is a framework adapted from De Temmerman and van Emde Boas's model of literary characterization, which distinguishes name-giving, direct characterization, and indirect characterization, the last subdivided into metaphorical and metonymical forms. The authors are developing a video game version of this model whose metonymical devices include objects, voice acting, film arts, statistics, movement, controls, haptics, and interface, with some categories omitted for NPCs. The paper contends that such a framework can integrate fragmented insights into a coherent diachronic analysis, guiding questions about how PCs and NPCs have developed across different levels of character information. The authors explicitly clarify that "evolution" denotes chronological change rather than increasing sophistication.