“I Am Trying to Help You. And This ‘Game’ You’re Playing…” An Analysis of the Rhetoric behind Until Dawn’s Psychology

• Authors: Sven Dwulecki , Arras Khaledi

Title variants

PL

“I Am Trying to Help You. And This ‘Game’ You’re Playing…” An Analysis of the Rhetoric behind Until Dawn’s Psychology

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

PL

Video games can adjust their messages to the individual player. Based on the ancient ideal of aptum, the authors propose the principle of calibration. This new theoretical concept states that games need to adapt to the individual player in order to be most persuasive. Until Dawn exemplifies this through the element of reoccurring therapy sessions with psychological tests that serve as a hidden calibration mechanic to adjust fear stimuli to the player. The paper pursues an interdisciplinary approach that analyzes not only Until Dawn’s rhetoric, but also its depicted conduct of psychology. Therefore, the authors examine the in-game therapy with two different lenses: the first lens examines Dr. Hill’s methods as a representation of real-life treatment; while the second lens considers how mental illness is portrayed. Combining both perspectives allows to gain a better understanding of how Until Dawn creates powerful statement about psychology and the player’s character.

Keywords

PL

video games; individual player; conduct of psychology

EN

video games; individual player; conduct of psychology

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
• Journal: Śląskie Studia Polonistyczne
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 29-50

Dates

published

2017-06-30

Contributors

author

Sven Dwulecki

author

Arras Khaledi