Video Game Design and the Influence on Players' Empathy : An Analysis of Shadow of the Colossus and The Last of Us Part II

Abstract

This paper looks into the correlation between video games and empathy via contextual analysis of two story-driven video games. Due to video games multimediality the references found throughout this paper will be either implemented by screenshots from said video games or via gameplay footage which can be viewed via the following link: https://bit.ly/2SyjHEv "To research the relation between empathy and video games some initial theoretical groundwork will be provided before the analyses are conducted. Since video games are essentially fictional narrative environments, it is initially necessary to discuss narrativity itself in order to later understand the uniqueness of narrativity in video games. A study about video games and empathy presupposes both concepts to be introduced. Therefore, a short historical introduction of video games as well as an explanation of the ludological and narratological approaches, which have significantly shaped the field of video games studies, will be provided. Furthermore, the concept of empathy will be properly defined to provide the reader with the necessary information about both research objects. Since this study will merely allow for a small insight into the versatility of video games (studies), further research opportunities will also be presented."