“Is It Too Much to Ask That We’re Allowed to Win the Game?”: Character Attachment and Agency in theMass Effect 3Ending Controversy

Abstract

The interaction between the concepts of character attachment, agency, and choice in a video game narrative was investigated using BioWare’s Mass Effect trilogy. Posts on a BioWare forum discussing the depiction of their player characters in the ending sequences of Mass Effect 3, the final game in the trilogy, were downloaded and analyzed using thematic analysis. Players demonstrated emotional attachment for the characters and narrative and expected to see the consequences of their choices play out, as in the previous games. Furthermore, players conflated winning the game with achieving a narratively satisfactory ending for the game world and its characters indicating emotional consequences for players that developers should consider when designing games with a high degree of player choice and agency. However, for some players character attachment is incongruous as they described Shepard as “acting out of character,” which needs further research.

Game On: Designing and Analysing an RPG Educational Game for Compilers Algorithm Understanding in the Metaverse

“…Secondly this research aimed to demonstrate the evaluation of this game in class and analyse feedbacks given by students through thematic analysis. Thematic analysis enables a thorough examination of the feedback data (Braun & Clarke, 2006), and can be applied to various forms of qualitative data (Burgess & Jones, 2017). Researchers can acquire an in-depth understanding of the various elements of the game being discussed by participants by identifying and evaluating themes in the feedback (Burgess & Jones, 2017;Jones et al, 2023).…”

Some Assembly Required: Player Mental Models of Videogame Avatars

“…An autoethnographic account by de Wildt et al (2019) provides several examples of the interpersonal intimacy common for players engaging their avatars as authentic social Others. Burgess and Jones (2018) found evidence of players feeling that their avatar "broke character" during gameplay-that the avatar had a distinct personality from the player, but often times were forced to act "out of character" by either the player's or the game designers' hands.…”

Player-Character Relationship and Game Satisfaction in Narrative Game: Focus on Player Experience of Character Switch in The Last of Us Part II

“…While studies on the player-character relationship itself are lacking, there are several works that investigate particular variables of the player-character relationship, such as character attachment (Lewis et al, 2008 ; Burgess and Jones, 2017 ; Bopp et al, 2019 ) or identification (Shaw, 2011 ; Boudreau, 2012 ). In Lewis' work, a measurement of character attachment is introduced, encompassing the dimensions of identification/friendship, suspension of disbelief, control, and responsibility (Lewis et al, 2008 ).…”

“…An alterbiography describes how the players create their own narrative about the subject in the game through making sense of narrative clues and elements presented in the game (Calleja, 2009 ). Finally, Burgess and Jones ( 2017 )'s work is interesting as it investigated character attachment and agency in a specific game case study of a controversy surrounding the ending of Mass Effect 3 . They performed a thematic analysis of online reviews and the resulting themes point to the importance of the player-character relationship in the overall satisfaction of the game.…”

“…They performed a thematic analysis of online reviews and the resulting themes point to the importance of the player-character relationship in the overall satisfaction of the game. They additionally propose further work to address the found differences across players in character attachment (Burgess and Jones, 2017 ). While those approaches are valuable, they are limited to the variable in question and do not take into consideration the broader player experience.…”