Interpretace herní zkušenosti s fikčními světy : když hráči dovolí příšerám být součástí jejich vlastních příběhů
| Title in English | Interpretation of the gaming experience with fictional worlds: when players allow monsters to be part of their own stories |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The concept of monsters has a long-standing tradition in human culture, spanning from religious stories and myths to contemporary digital media. This contribution explores how video game monsters are incorporated into internalized and evolving “stories of the self” — that is, the stories people create to make sense of and give meaning to their lives or specific experiences. The research focuses on an adult gaming audience. It seeks to answer the question of why certain game monsters become meaningful to players within particular gaming experiences, while they remain unmeaningful to other players. The paper presents the results of a thematic analysis of three pilot interviews and data from a pilot questionnaire completed by 70 respondents. Preliminary findings from this qualitative research suggest that gaming experiences involving fictional narratives of monsters can take on the character of “authentic” experiences. These experiences transcend the boundaries of the game world and become personally significant events that shape a player’s imagination, beliefs, or perception of the surrounding world. Fictional stories involving video game monsters can deepen our understanding of how media that primarily offer entertainment influence, challenge, or reshape human imagination, norms, and individual perception in contemporary society. At the same time, this contributes to the field of religious studies by providing insight into how beliefs can be formed and sustained within the context of imaginative culture. |
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