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View Record: Horizon: Are Video Games Really That Bad? · BoB (learningonscreen.ac.uk)

https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/0AF70391?bcast=116536547#

Quotes i like!

Daniel Krupa (Video Games Journalist)

A video game asks you to become that character.

The narrative will shape around you

and you have agency in the world that you’re observing,

and I think that feels like, to me,

an art form for the 21st century.

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Bibliography so far

Bibliography

Barry, M. (2022) Personal communication, 10 February.

Barry, H. (2022) Personal communication, 16 March.

Rossi, M. (2022) 'The Importance of Character Customization', Blizzard Watch, 22 October. Available at: The Importance of Character Customization (blizzardwatch.com) (Accessed: 1 December 2021).

Kaya, B. (2016) 'Male Gamer, Female Avatar', Medium, 30 July. Available at: Male Gamer, Female Avatar. Playing as a female character and my… | by Brian Kaya | Medium (Accessed: 14 March 2022).

Kirkham, J. (2019) 'My Transgender Sister, Gwen, Found Solace In World Of Warcraft', Medium, 2 April. Available at: My Transgender Sister, Gwen, Found Solace In World Of Warcraft | Medium (Accessed: 14 March 2022).

KinkyNonBinary. (2019) 'Do you think wicked whims saved the Sims 4?', Lovers Lab, 21 July. Available at: Do you think Wicked Whims saved the Sims 4? - Page 4 - WickedWhims - LoversLab

Berthelson, B. (2020) 'Gacha Club: A SuperParent First Look', Super Parent, 17 August. Available at: Gacha Club: A SuperParent First Look | SuperParent (Accessed: 7 February 2022).

Sherman, C. (2019) ''I'm Trying to Erase Myself' - An Interview with Cindy Sherman'. Interview with Cindy Sherman. Interviewed by R. Wetzler for Apollo the International Arts Magazine, 27 June. Available at: An interview with Cindy Sherman | Apollo Magazine (apollo-magazine.com) (Accessed: 7 February 2022).

Image Bibliography

Games, V. (2021) The Alignment Wheel – Pathfinder Available at: https://tribunecontentagency.com/article/pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous-review-go-your-own-way/ (Accessed: 20 March 2022).

Barry, Hayleigh. (2022) Hayleigh Gacha 1 [Digital Gacha Club]. Wisbech Institution or collection that houses the work, city OR DOI or Available at: Contextual studies on Tumblr (Accessed: 20 March 2022).

Barry, Hayleigh. (2022) Hayleigh Gacha 2 [Digital Gacha Club]. Wisbech Institution or collection that houses the work, city OR DOI or Available at: Contextual studies on Tumblr (Accessed: 20 March 2022).

Barry, Hayleigh. (2022) Hayleigh Gacha 1 [Digital Gacha Club]. Wisbech Institution or collection that houses the work, city OR DOI or Available at: Contextual studies on Tumblr (Accessed: 20 March 2022).

Fallen Angels Title Shot (2022) [Screenshot]. Available at: (1) Contextual studies on Tumblr (Accessed: 16 March 2022).

Kirkham, J. (2019) meet-gwen-my-transgender-blood-elf-sister. Available at: My Transgender Sister, Gwen, Found Solace In World Of Warcraft | Medium (Accessed: 16 March 2022).

Guruihan. (2016) Lo6. Available at: Lara Croft at Fallout 4 Nexus - Mods and community (nexusmods.com) (Accessed: 14 March 2022).

Washko, A. (2012) The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioral Awareness in World of Warcraft. Available at: Why Talk Feminism in World of Warcraft? | Creative Time Reports (Accessed: 7 March 2022).

Kaya, B. (2016) You’ll be hard-pressed to find an identical twin of your character in Dragon’s Dogma. Available at: Male Gamer, Female Avatar. Playing as a female character and my… | by Brian Kaya | Medium (Accessed: 14 March 2022).

Berthelson, B. (2020) Source: Lunime. Available at: Gacha Club: A SuperParent First Look | SuperParent (Accessed: 7 February 2022).

Brown, M. (2015) fahrenheit-sex-scene-indigo-prophecy (1). Available at: Fahrenheit's iOS edition includes banned interactive sex scene (NSFW) | Pocket Gamer (Accessed: 20 March 2022).

Widyadhana, A. (2022) Tidus Final Fantasy X. Available at: Ten Most Popular Male Characters in Final Fantasy Series, Who Is the Number One on This List? | Dunia Games (Accessed: 20 March 2022).

Grixti, S. (2021) Cyberpunk-2077-Genitals. Available at: Cyberpunk 2077's Dick Physics And Genital Customisation Are Next Level (press-start.com.au) (Accessed: 20 March 2022).

Clark, M. (2021) Meg-Stocker-Funko-Pop-Collection Available at: Funatic of the Month – Meg Stocker | Funko (Accessed: 20 March 2022).

Sherman, C. (2016) Untitled #574 [Photograph]. Place of publication: The Artist and Metro Pictures, New York

Sherman, C. (2003) Untitled #414 [Photograph]. Place of publication: The Artist and Metro Pictures, New York

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Hayleigh Gacha (1/2/3) By Hayleigh Barry, my interviewee

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Fallen Angels Title Shot Screenshot

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Michael Barry quotes

Quotes “lets me be someone who I'm not. Live out my dark fantasies in a game where there’s no repercussions. You can also role play it. You don’t have to focus on quests and stuff. You can have like, a profession and live out a normal life but in a fantasy world. Human women. Because its the most opposite thing to me. I like to perv over them when I dress them up.

I always give them my nose and my underbite. Give them my bad features. Women are always attractive. Maybe im trying to make an attractive version of myself with my bad features. I’ve never played with a character that looks like me. (modding characters) You feel like you’ve got more of a part in it. You’ve got someone you care about. (if they don’t talk or act without reacting) If they don’t have a personality ….. you can make them a backstory. Good people that do bad things are more interesting. They never really do anything terrible. (in set character rpgs most of the time)

(things that would be good to have )Get married and have kids. That would be quite good.You;; relaly see how much you care for your characters. Youll relaly find out how much of a bastard you are. I don’t relaly think about real life when im playing games. I get lost in them (games). Put myself in their shoes. Id rather be in a game world than the real world. If its more realistic and engaging the more I get involved in it.

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my first character mod to help create my visual dissertation

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My transcription for interview

btw - it’s terrible. But it’s better than the other one I had which included words such as Christmas, carrots (multiple carrots) and parents

Unknown Speaker 0:00

Okay,

Unknown Speaker 0:03

but

Unknown Speaker 0:05

have I got your consent? Definitely not. Oh, come on, please. Yes. So yes.

Unknown Speaker 0:10

Yes. You have my consent there

Unknown Speaker 0:13

for

Unknown Speaker 0:15

use me for any making money, money making purposes. Fab.

Unknown Speaker 0:21

Okay.

Unknown Speaker 0:24

Well, your favourite things about

Unknown Speaker 0:27

creating your own characters in video games.

Unknown Speaker 0:31

What are my favourite things about making characters and video games? Yeah. Well, I think to really answer that question, we have to go back to envy again to create backing 60s That

Unknown Speaker 0:46

lets me be someone who I'm not do evil things and defend my dark fantasies in a game where there's no repercussions.

Unknown Speaker 0:58

Can you name some of the games that you've enjoyed making characters of your favourite ones? Like Fallout and

Unknown Speaker 1:05

Skyrim?

Unknown Speaker 1:09

For

Unknown Speaker 1:11

Pathfinder

Unknown Speaker 1:16

Pillars of Eternity

Unknown Speaker 1:19

that you like about the Skyrim? One?

Unknown Speaker 1:25

There's a lot for it to be anything you want that to be human. You can be judges.

Unknown Speaker 1:32

Yeah. And you could also be the sort of character you want. And you can also roleplay it, you have to replay the game. So roleplay just being

Unknown Speaker 1:43

a normal person.

Unknown Speaker 1:45

That makes sense. But you'd have to focus on questions and stuff, you can take up a profession, and just to have like, a normal life in the fantasy world.

Unknown Speaker 1:56

Enjoy. Yeah. And what characters do you tend to make? Is there like a specific type were human women, human women? Why do you make human women because it's the most opposite thing?

Unknown Speaker 2:07

Ah, okay. Why do you do that?

Unknown Speaker 2:11

Women usually have that wrong.

Unknown Speaker 2:14

already. Is there any sort of sexual element to it?

Unknown Speaker 2:25

Yeah, that's perfect for them.

Unknown Speaker 2:28

When I dress them up, but it's not the main reason, usually the female characters have been made a bit better.

Unknown Speaker 2:34

Just their best stories. Because men one they're usually quite

Unknown Speaker 2:39

straightforward. But you also said it's the opposite of you.

Unknown Speaker 2:43

female characters just literally opposite of you. Yeah, yeah. No, that's, that's the main part of it as well, like femur test is the opposite of me. So it's being someone that you can ever be. But it's just it's a combination of other things. Like, I want to be just a female storage. But most of the time, women are, the women are completely different.

Unknown Speaker 3:02

Consequences and things like that. And storylines are like the opposite of me. I never make characters like me, or they always give them my nose, and my underbite if I can, why is that?

Unknown Speaker 3:14

I don't know. I always do that. I can't remember why I think it's just meant to be about my bad features. So I get them my bad features. She said that represent how you feel about yourself. Because it's something bad things you tend to focus on. Maybe Yeah, it's interesting. Because the women are always attractive on American and always think I can give mine those in London. Or maybe that's why oh, maybe we've hit a deep meaning here. Maybe I'm trying to make an attractive version of myself with my bad leeches.

Unknown Speaker 3:44

Okay. It's interesting.

Unknown Speaker 3:47

And you wouldn't So my last question was, do you ever make yourself that you wouldn't? Would you? Say you wouldn't make yourself? No, I've never made myself I'll probably try myself once and twice just to see what looks like but I've never played with a character and it's like me.

Unknown Speaker 4:01

Do you play through games again, with other characters you've made deliberately so you do it just to play another character? No, you just play it once. When I plot they don't close times, but I was tendermint. Same thing might play a bit different. But when the character itself is same kind of set on your character.

Unknown Speaker 4:22

Okay.

Unknown Speaker 4:25

Really, unless it's a pre like main character, you can like if you can choose just different characters don't play different ones. But if you can make your own character their parents always, I'm always shocked in the same sort of thing.

Unknown Speaker 4:37

How does it make you feel when you can play as a unique character?

Unknown Speaker 4:41

What is it about? So when you have a character that you've made yourself, that's completely unique for you? What is it that's great about that compared to a game that's maybe got a set character because there's something special?

Unknown Speaker 4:54

feel like you've got more of a partner if you've got someone you care about because it's your main character?

Unknown Speaker 5:00

Got a connection to them? Firstly, if there's no like, a lot of characters don't talk. I can Skyrim for that, well, they talk but they respond to what you tell them to say. So you're making your own character up. So a lot of times they got personality, and they're just playing off you then you can, you can make the character from scratch so you can make up their own backstory and, and

Unknown Speaker 5:28

give them a sort of outcome. I always make my characters start off good. And then they eventually go evil. Because that's a role playing thing, isn't it? Yeah. It'd be there. Now that they've got the freedom do they want they realise they're actually quite nasty insides and they get to release that? Why do you think you do that? Because it makes an interesting character for you. You like it that way? I don't really like goody two shoes anymore. Like they're good in some games. But

Unknown Speaker 5:53

good people that do bad things are more interesting. So you could say that you do something that you think should be more prevalent in games where you have set characters this good to evil thing? I think there's not enough of that in the in the set character world. Um, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 6:14

I'm trying to think of games where you've actually got sick characters. No. Fancy is considered. Oh, yeah, even that's not really true shoes. Usually all good tissues, you might have like, a sort of moody badass character rumbling hero, like he's reluctant to do good stuff. But he was does do good stuff. He didn't they never really do feel terrible.

Unknown Speaker 6:32

Like girl is probably like, Girl, because he's good. But he does do evil things for the greater good. That's, I think, a bad character. Because it's more realistic. Yeah. Yeah. No one's goody two shoe, no matter how good they think they are.

Unknown Speaker 6:49

So awesome. Okay, let me think of one more question to ask you.

Unknown Speaker 6:54

Is there anything in the character modification world that you think is missing? In games that you would like even if it seems impossible to make is something you would like in it or something perhaps that you would like to see more of?

Unknown Speaker 7:11

Missing, you know, like, some sort of special, like, maybe more to do with personality, or

Unknown Speaker 7:18

scars or something, anything?

Unknown Speaker 7:21

Really physically, because if you I mean, Cyberpunks got most of everything you've ever wanted even just a penis size, and vagina flaps. So I don't know maybe.

Unknown Speaker 7:40

10 feet more.

Unknown Speaker 7:47

Maybe ageing would be quite cool.

Unknown Speaker 7:51

People getting older.

Unknown Speaker 7:55

I maybe

Unknown Speaker 7:57

have more things you can do for character, like, get married and stuff and have kids? That'd be quite good. Bit like The Sims but bit more extreme? Yeah. Because then I think if you've got all that, then you're really see how much you care for your characters. Because if you have kids and a wife and stuff, and then something in the game could potentially happen to them, then you'll really know how you care. You refund that how much reposted your do you find playing characters that are really realistic and have quite relatable situations and relationships? Do you think that it's some way helping you go reality in real life? Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 8:36

Yeah. Can I explain how you feel?

Unknown Speaker 8:39

Just last question.

Unknown Speaker 8:43

Okay, because I get absorbed into games, I get lost in them. I don't. It's easy for me to just get absorbed into it and relate to the character and put myself in their shoes. So I don't really think about your life on the playing games. In the fantasy world, which is better, which is a better reality for me. I'd rather be in a game world in the real world. Yeah. So the more realistic sometimes the better in terms of characters development and

Unknown Speaker 9:06

see if it's more realistic can engage in the more I get involved with it. And the more I play it, the more I enjoy that. Yes. Thank you. That's very nice of you to do that with me.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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MY INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL BARRY

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So… this article is funny. It’s for parents to check out all about the gacha franchise.

despite me seeing this app nearly every day I’m with my kid, I didn’t even know it had a game element. The character customisation is ALL my kid does. It’s so I’m depth and so of the time, that it seems to be the most popular element.

kids also use their creations to make animations on YouTube and music videos. It’s incredibly creative and all based around the character element. It’s an rpg app and yet the rpg element is almost entirely focused on the look of the character and not on the gaming experience. this shows us just how significant character modification is in todays world of gaming.

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some great quotes in this article . good for discussing the connection between cindys characters and her relation to them. Also the isolation of creating her work is al about losing any pressure or inhibitions and I feel this could connect very well with the joy of character modification for players - a sense of personal and individual creation with a public show at the end (sometimes) when you’re happy with it. There is a sense of vulnerability when making a character as it reveals a lot about you - seeing the final thing is somewhat different… it’s more out there.. more in your face… more accepted as confidence not nitpicking - which making a character essentially is… nitpicking at something youre not happy with, or you wish to change…

having large breasts on a character is one thing, but to see rhe creator actually move the mouse along that line that increases their size is completely different. We judge them more As it happens.

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Setting up the interview with Michael Barry -

1) make sure we know who he is - his lifestyle/jobs/ gaming status etc

2) focus on asking points that reflect his uniqueness as a modder

3)date of birth too and home town etc