Naslov
Fear and Anxiety in Louisiana: Affects and Immersion in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Autori
Bukač, Zlatko ; Musap, Emilia

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, ostalo, znanstveni

Skup
Culture at Play: Avatars, Players, and Others

Mjesto i datum
Freiburg, Njemačka, 10.03.2023. - 11.03.2023

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
fear, anxiety, videogames, immersion, Resident Evil

Sažetak
This paper focuses on the role of affect and how it is created in Capcom’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, primarily through the antagonistic characters within the game narrative and their house. The first-person perspective reinforces the player’s sense of subjectivity, or loss of it, in an environment that combines various forms of affective gameplay - most notably the sensations of anxiety and fear. However, what sets Biohazard apart from the rest of the Resident Evil franchise is the fact that it does not just rely on archetypal antagonistic characters, such as zombies or human bio-weapons called Tyrants, to create the aforementioned sensations. After an (un)pleasant, sepia-toned scene in which Ethan drives his car down an old road in search of his wife Mia, the player arrives at an old family estate. At this point, the player is introduced to two important elements of this immersive horror gameplay - the infected Baker family, who are the main antagonists of the game and who are depicted as predator-like figures that constantly pursue Ethan between the crumbling walls, and their dilapidated house that looks abandoned but is not. Following Dylan Trigg’s theory of the phenomenology of the uncanny (2012), this paper distinguishes between the sensations of anxiety and fear. In doing so, it argues that the former cannot be localized because players experience it throughout the course of the game, both inside and outside the house, while the latter can as it arises every time they encounter members of the Baker family. By emphasizing that the sensation of fear is more forceful out of the two, the paper underscores the importance of antagonistic characters for affective gameplay. It also argues that the only secure area is the “safe room” which is part of the house but exists, on an affective level, “outside” the house because it allows players to escape the Baker family and recover, if only temporarily, from an otherwise anxiety and fear-ridden atmosphere

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija, Interdisciplinarne humanističke znanosti

POVEZANOST RADA