Download pdf
The Use of Game Elements in Hollywood Science Fiction Films, Taking Ready Player One and Free Guy as Examples
- 1 College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Film and game integration is a new phenomenon in today's multimedia era, and Hollywood science fiction films become a good carrier for the use of game elements with advanced production technology and virtual visual presentation. Based on current research, this paper uses the method of image analysis to explore the use of game rule elements and goal elements in two representative science fiction films, namely, Ready Player One and Free Guy. It looks into the formulaic effect of the rule elements on films’ world construction and their innovativeness in terms of humanistic worldviews. Furthermore, it considers the set of layered characteristics of the goal elements in the films’ narrative structures, especially the infinite narrative. Finally, by analyzing the individual cases of the two films and reflecting critically on the presentation of the films, it is concluded that in order to realize the integration of film, game and audience, the wide dissemination of the game spirit, and the subversion and reconstruction of the video world, it is necessary to make trade-offs and innovations. Directly using game elements gives positive inspiration for the creation of future film-game fusion works.
Keywords
Film gamification, Game rule element, Game goal element, Ready Player One, Free Guy.
[1]. Levi-Strauss, C., The savage mind, University of Chicago Press, 1966.
[2]. Stahl, I., Operational gaming : an international approach, Pergamon Press, 1983.
[3]. Stenros, J. The game definition game: A review, Games and culture 12(6) (2017) 499-520. DOI: 10.1177/1555412016655679
[4]. Caillois, R., Man, play, and games, University of Illinois press, 2001.
[5]. Carse, J., Finite and infinite games, Simon and Schuster, 2011.
[6]. Stahl, I., Operational gaming: an international approach, Pergamon Press, 1983.
[7]. Spielberg, S., director. Ready Player One. Warner Bros Pictures, 2018. 2 hr., 20 min. https://www.iqiyi.com/v_19rreck3v4.html?vfm=2008_aldbd&fc=828fb30b722f3164&fv=p_02_01
[8]. Shawn, L., director. Free Guy. Twentieth Century Fox, 2021. 1 hr., 55 min. https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/movies/free-guy/3qBd6ESjzQOm
[9]. Wang, Y.L., The "community" of imagination: the distance between film and metaverse, New Films (01) (2022) 73-78.
[10]. Sonvilla-Weiss, S., VISIBLE-Learning to Act in the Metaverse, Springer Wien New York, 2008.
[11]. Liu, H.W., Zheng, Z.K., Implications of the Construction of "Meta-Universe" in "Free Guy" for the Development of Chinese Science Fiction Films – Interview with Professor Hanwen Liu from the School of Communication, Fujian Normal University, Advanced Motion Picture Technology (03) (2022) 37-42.
[12]. Wu, G.W., An Axial Moment in the History of World Literature? – The "story within a story" in Hamlet, Don Quixote and Journey to the West, Fudan Journal: Social Sciences Edition 59(2) (2017) 12. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.0257-0289.2017.02.006.
Cite this article
Xiong,R. (2023). The Use of Game Elements in Hollywood Science Fiction Films, Taking Ready Player One and Free Guy as Examples. Communications in Humanities Research,3,426-433.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies (ICIHCS 2022), Part 1
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 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 policy for details).