Fictive affinities in Final Fantasy XI: complicit and critical play in fantastic nations

William Huber

Fictive affinities in Final Fantasy XI: complicit and critical play in fantastic nations

William Huber

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Like many massively-multiplayer role-playing games, Final Fantasy XI is a persistent world with a heroic fantasy setting. This paper discusses fictive player identities, and describes specific visual and ludological tropes of race and nationality, and the techniques by which the game engineers the complicity of the player in the problematics it represents. Some of these are coherent with themes and structures developed in earlier (single-player) iterations of the Final Fantasy franchise; others are original to the multiplayer title. This treatment of the game-as-text is offered as an exercise in critical close-play, and as an example of a necessarily hybrid approach to the study of game genres.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	DiGRA '05
Subtitle of host publication	proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA international conference: changing views: worlds in play
Editors	Suzanne de Castell, Jennifer Jenson
Publisher	DiGRA
Number of pages	7
Publication status	Published - 2005
Event	DiGRA 2005: Changing Views: Worlds in Play, 2005 International Conference - Vancouver, Canada Duration: 16 Jun 2005 → 20 Jun 2005 Conference number: 2

Publication series

Name
Publisher	DiGRA
Volume	3
ISSN (Print)	2342-9666

Conference

Conference	DiGRA 2005
Country/Territory	Canada
City	Vancouver
Period	16/06/05 → 20/06/05

Keywords

Fantasy
Genre
Ideology
Japan
MMORPG

Access to Document

http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/fictive-affinities-in-final-fantasy-xi-complicit-and-critical-play-in-fantastic-nations/

Cite this

Huber, W. (2005). Fictive affinities in Final Fantasy XI: complicit and critical play in fantastic nations. In S. de Castell, & J. Jenson (Eds.), DiGRA '05: proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA international conference: changing views: worlds in play DiGRA. http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/fictive-affinities-in-final-fantasy-xi-complicit-and-critical-play-in-fantastic-nations/

@inproceedings{352fc3d41a1e49cab0ebf223f3d34617,

title = "Fictive affinities in Final Fantasy XI: complicit and critical play in fantastic nations",

abstract = "Like many massively-multiplayer role-playing games, Final Fantasy XI is a persistent world with a heroic fantasy setting. This paper discusses fictive player identities, and describes specific visual and ludological tropes of race and nationality, and the techniques by which the game engineers the complicity of the player in the problematics it represents. Some of these are coherent with themes and structures developed in earlier (single-player) iterations of the Final Fantasy franchise; others are original to the multiplayer title. This treatment of the game-as-text is offered as an exercise in critical close-play, and as an example of a necessarily hybrid approach to the study of game genres.",

author = "William Huber",

year = "2005",

language = "English",

publisher = "DiGRA",

editor = "\{de Castell\}, Suzanne and Jennifer Jenson",

booktitle = "DiGRA '05",

note = "DiGRA 2005 : Changing Views: Worlds in Play, 2005 International Conference ; Conference date: 16-06-2005 Through 20-06-2005",

}

Huber, W 2005, Fictive affinities in Final Fantasy XI: complicit and critical play in fantastic nations. in S de Castell & J Jenson (eds), DiGRA '05: proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA international conference: changing views: worlds in play. DiGRA, DiGRA 2005, Vancouver, Canada, 16/06/05. <http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/fictive-affinities-in-final-fantasy-xi-complicit-and-critical-play-in-fantastic-nations/>

TY - GEN

T1 - Fictive affinities in Final Fantasy XI

T2 - DiGRA 2005

AU - Huber, William

N1 - Conference code: 2

PY - 2005

Y1 - 2005

N2 - Like many massively-multiplayer role-playing games, Final Fantasy XI is a persistent world with a heroic fantasy setting. This paper discusses fictive player identities, and describes specific visual and ludological tropes of race and nationality, and the techniques by which the game engineers the complicity of the player in the problematics it represents. Some of these are coherent with themes and structures developed in earlier (single-player) iterations of the Final Fantasy franchise; others are original to the multiplayer title. This treatment of the game-as-text is offered as an exercise in critical close-play, and as an example of a necessarily hybrid approach to the study of game genres.

AB - Like many massively-multiplayer role-playing games, Final Fantasy XI is a persistent world with a heroic fantasy setting. This paper discusses fictive player identities, and describes specific visual and ludological tropes of race and nationality, and the techniques by which the game engineers the complicity of the player in the problematics it represents. Some of these are coherent with themes and structures developed in earlier (single-player) iterations of the Final Fantasy franchise; others are original to the multiplayer title. This treatment of the game-as-text is offered as an exercise in critical close-play, and as an example of a necessarily hybrid approach to the study of game genres.

M3 - Conference contribution

BT - DiGRA '05

A2 - de Castell, Suzanne

A2 - Jenson, Jennifer

PB - DiGRA

Y2 - 16 June 2005 through 20 June 2005

ER -

Fictive affinities in Final Fantasy XI: complicit and critical play in fantastic nations

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

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