E-mail: nordragon@mail.ru Tel.: +7 (8362) 68-80-02
1, Lenina sq., Yoshkar-Ola, Mari El Republic, 424000, Russian Federation
PhD (Philology), associate professor, Mari State University
The paper focuses on the issue of folklorism in computer games. The author studies a variety of ways in which mythological and folk content is used in video role-playing games, and examines how an amount of mythological allusions depends on the genre of video games. The author pays special attention to their characters and tracks down their transformation from slow breaking with original mythological images to acquiring typical features of a computer game character. A character’s features can be altered by developers if players express such a wish directly or implicitly in the community’s folklore, like anecdotes and narratives.
Also, the paper regards Roman Papsuev’s art. His characters emulate traditional heroes of video games but are based on the images of Slavic and Russian mythological and fairy-tale characters. The artist suggests a diff erent way of creating a character when a hero is selected from the range of Russian mythological characters to fi t in the traditional system of a fantasy role-playing massive online game with multiple users. Examples of such characters and their functions are presented in the paper. To sum up, conclusions concern gradual transformation of traditional mythological characters within a computer game. R. Papsuev’s creative output is a unique way of folklorism which aims at updating the Slavic and Russian mythological and folk tradition, making it popular among foreign and Russian gamers.
(2006) Kartina mira v molodezhnoy kul’ture [World outlook in youth culture]. Yoshkar-Ola. In Russian.
Efimova N. I. (2016) Mif i skazka v “tekste” komp’yuternoy igry [Myth and fairy-tale in the ‘text’ of the computer game]. In: Natsional’nye kody v evropeiskoy literature XIX–XXI vekov. [National codes in European literature of 19th — 21st centuries]. Nizhny Novgorod. Pp. 645–651. In Russian.
Efimova N. I., Zolotova T. A. (2010) Literaturnye i folklornye allyuzii v komp’yuternoy igre [Literary and folklore allusions in computer games]. In: Sb. v chest’ M. P. Cherednikovoy. [Coll. papers in honor of M. P. Cherednikova]. Moscow. Pp. 58–64. In Russian.
Efimova N. I., Zolotova T. A. (2016) K voprosu o folklornoy osnove obrazov ‘antigeroev’ v sovremennoy angliyskoy massovoy literature [To the question of folklore basis of “antiheroes” in contemporary English literature]. In: Demonologiya i narodnye verovaniya. [Demonology and folk beliefs]. Moscow. Pp. 330–343. In Russian.
Efimova N. I., Zolotova T. A. (2009) “Chelovek igrayushchiy”: kartina mira v subkul’ture geymerov [“Homo ludens”: world outlook in gamers’ community]. In: Internet i fol’klor [Internet and folklore]. Moscow. Pp. 202–208. In Russian.
Kazachenko A. A. (2016) Virtual’niy mir komp’yuternyh igr kak novaya mifologicheskaya sreda [Virtual world of computer games as a new mythological environment]. Istoricheskie, fi losofskie, politicheskie i yuridicheskie nauki, kul’turologia i iskusstvovedenie. Voprosy teorii i praktiki [Historic, philosophic, political and law sciences, culture studies and art history. Issues of theory and practice]. Tambov. No. 12–3 (74). Pp. 75–77. In Russian.
Potapova O. S. (2010) Komp’yuternaya igra v prostranstve kul’tury [Computer game in cultural space]. Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo universiteta im. N. I. Lobachevskogo [Herald of Nizhny Novgorod Lobachevsky university]. 2010. Issue 4 (1). Pp. 349–353. In Russian.
Samoylova E. O. (2011) Simvolicheskiy aspect komp’yuternyh igr. [Symbolic aspect of computer games]. Filosofskie problemy informatsionnyh tehnologiy i kiberprostranstva. Kul’tura. Kul’turologiya [Philosophic problems of information technologies and cyberspace. Culture. Culture studies]. 2011. Issue 2. Pp. 231–237. In Russian.
Starkova A. V. (2011) “Geroicheskoe puteshestvie” v virtual’ny mir. Voploshchenie monomifa v komp’yuternoy igre. [“Heroic adventure” to virtual world. Manifestation of monomyth in the comput er game]. Analitika kul’turologii [Analytics of culture studies]. Issue 20. Pp. 224–229. In Russian.
Vasilyeva N. I., Rukomoinikova V. P. (2006) Molodezh’ v setevom sotsyume: novye vozmozhnosti kommunikatsii i subkul’turnogo bytiya. [Youth in web society: new opportunities of communication and subcultural life]. Yoshkar-Ola. Pp. 43–47. In Russian.
Vasilyeva N. I. (2005) Fol’klornye arhetipy v sovremennoy massovoy literature: romany Rowling i ikh interpretatsiya v molodezhnoy subkul’ture. [Folkloric archetypes in modern mass literature: J. Rowling’s novels and their interpretation in youth subculture]. PhD thesis (Philology). Nizhny Novgorod. In Russian.