Análise da imagem do avatar em videogames

A game can be designed keeping in mind the type of aesthetic experience expected by the player when interacting with this system and its elements, including the avatar. As one of the visual elements of a videogame, the avatar has the potential to express game information’s to the player through your actions within this universe, being considered the heart of the interaction between the game and the player, In its turn, Rhetoric is a field of study whose resources, including figures of speech, allow information to be more effectively expressed. In this context, this work has as main objective to identify and describe the rhetoric linked to the avatar design to accentuate the expression of his behavior within the game for the player. This allows the avatar and other game characters design to be more compatible with the type of aesthetic experience sought by the game’s producers. This research is characterized as practical, because the developed knowledge aims to be applied both in game design and in the avatars in video games analysis. Since the goal is to find associations between two practices, rhetoric and character design, the objective is descriptive. As the object of this research requires an in-depth analysis that involves subjectivity and the interpretation of the results by the researcher, the approach is qualitative. Through the analysis of the avatar of two videogames, the rhetoric linked to the design of these characters was determined. Thus, this process is characterized as inductive. Through bibliographic research it was possible to understand which rhetoric tools are used to express information in digital games. Likewise, the fundamental elements of a digital game that are directly related to the avatar were delimited, as well as the specific characteristics, functions and definitions of the character in a general and specific approach to videogames. Thus, we selected what would be the avatar’s behavior and the constructive elements of the image that would be related from the perspective of rhetoric. With the results of the documental research, the games were selected for analysis. Through the adaptation of two image analysis models, it was possible to develop a Protocol called Anedima (Extended Image Analysis Protocol for the Avatar) of a Videogame. The application of the Protocol on the analysis of Journey and Horizon Zero Dawn videogames possible to determine the language of figures associated with the character of each game. In addition, the protocol used made it possible to make inferences about various aspects of the game, especially the avatar. Future studies, including more tests and evaluations of the protocol, may allow it to be improved and have the possibility of being transformed into a method.