Communications in Humanities Research
- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences
Communications in Humanities Research
Vol. 20, 07 December 2023
Open
Access | Article
Chinese-style Horror in Gaming: The Most Terrifying and the Least Terrifying Topic
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
A horror game is a game genre that aims to create an intense and terrifying atmosphere among its players. However, the story of the game can sometimes be closely related to a certain culture. Chinese culture, as a typical example, includes enormous Chinese elements such as Chinese history and feudal superstitions. For individuals familiar with Chinese culture, this trait can enhance their gameplay experience and immersion. However, for those unfamiliar with Chinese culture, it might paradoxically impede their comprehension of the narrative, subsequently diminishing the sense of immersion during gameplay. In this case, the aim of this study is to find out the relationship between the cultural background of the player in a horror game and the flow experience of the player while playing. This paper primarily focuses on Chinese horror games, with “Devotion” at the forefront as the main subject of analysis. It categorizes the fear elements present within these games, explores the correlation between these elements and players’ cultural backgrounds, and concludes by employing questionnaire surveys and data analysis. The study shows that a relationship with a particular culture in a story-telling game can significantly affect the heart-flow experience that players have.
Keywords
horror game, culture background, Chinese culture, heart flow, game design
References
1. Howarth, J. (2023, August 10). How many gamers are there? (New 2023 statistics). Exploding Topics. https://explodingtopics.com/blog/number-of-gamers#gamer-demographics
2. Lukosch, H., Kurapati, S., Groen, D., & Verbraeck, A. (2017). Gender and Cultural Differences in Game — Based Learning Experiences. Electronic Journal of e-Learning, 15(4), pp310-319.
3. Zaharias, P., & Papargyris, A. (2009). The gamer experience: Investigating relationships between culture and usability in massively multiplayer online games. Computers in Entertainment (CIE), 7(2), 1-24.
4. Devotion. For Microsoft Windows, macOS, Red Candle Games, 2019.
5. Li, Y. (2021). Contemporary Chinese Horror Films: Genre, Censorship, Market. University of California, Davis.
6. Ntokos, K. (2018). Level of fear”: Analysis of fear spectrum into a tool to support horror game design for immersion and fear. An International Journal (CGDEIJ), 1(33-43).
7. Detention. 2019. For Windows, OS X, Linux, Red Candle Games.
8. Hanjun Xie, Ruizi Lin. What is “White Terror”?. WatchOut. [2022-10-31]. https://watchout.tw/forum/DHemKc4DG1V2OkyzjHBL
9. Chen, J. (2007). Flow in games (and everything else). Communications of the ACM, 50(4), 31-34.
10. Pyae, A. (2018). Understanding the role of culture and cultural attributes in digital game localization. Entertainment computing, 26, 105-116.
11. Kaufman, G. F., & Libby, L. K. (2012). Changing beliefs and behavior through experience-taking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(1), 1.
12. YouTube, YouTube, 26 Feb. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl6-lwoaLZs. Accessed 3 July 2023.
Data Availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open Access Instruction).
- Volume Title
- Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies
- ISBN (Print)
- 978-1-83558-183-4
- ISBN (Online)
- 978-1-83558-184-1
- Published Date
- 07 December 2023
- Series
- Communications in Humanities Research
- ISSN (Print)
- 2753-7064
- ISSN (Online)
- 2753-7072
- DOI
- 10.54254/2753-7064/20/20231287
- Copyright
- 07 December 2023
- Open Access
- This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited