FILLING IN THE GAPS: ‘SHELL’ PLAYABLE CHARACTERS IN GAMES

Abstract

Much of the understanding of the player-character relationship in the game-world has been explained by academics in terms of how players perceive themselves as becoming ‘one’ with the player character. This perception occurs as the result of players’ self-representation through avatars or identification with the character’s salient personality traits. As a result, much emphasis has been placed during game design on how choices allow players to feel that they have had an impact on the game, and thus are influential in the game-world as the player character. However, a potential disconnect is apparent due to the possible conflict between telling the story as intended by the designers, and giving players what appears to be full control over the story. In contrast, a new type of player character, which I call ‘shell’ playable characters, appears to address this issue as it approaches the player-character relationship from a different angle, focusing on enabling players control via freedom in interpreting the meaning of the game and the character rather than through character-defining choices. This thesis seeks to explore and preliminarily define what a ‘shell’ playable character is through comparative close readings of three games: INSIDE, Emporium, and The Stanley Parable. This thesis attempts to understand this potential new character type using the concepts of Jenkin’s spatial storytelling, Iser’s leerstellen, and ambiguity. Close readings suggested that the concept of a ‘shell’ player character could be linked to the idea of the character having more to them than is revealed by the game, and an implication that the player and player character are distinct entities and not the traditional fused ‘oneness’ of the player-character relationship. As such, this thesis argues that ‘shell’ playable characters are characters that allow players to derive their own personalised meanings of the character, enabled through a series of gaps and ambiguities that allow players the space to insert their interpretations, ‘filling’ up the character with who the character could be as a separate entity rather than simply an extension of the player themselves.