We were tasked to create a presentation in our groups, the task was to take two games 'worlds' and try and identify 'spheres of action' that were linked to the work of Vladimir Propp, Propp studied fairy stories and noticed that they all had similar themes to them, to which he called Spheres or action, each action he gave a name such as.
- The Villain - this usually the challenge or main threat to a story, doesn't have to be a person, but is always a looming threat.
- The Donor - is usually an item that helps the character out, again doesn't always have to be a object, can be a person, sometimes the princess (see below) is the donor, but to help better, the Donor would be something like, The one ring, the Master sword or dragon balls.
- The Helper- Just like it suggests, the Helper assists the main character in some shape or form.
- The Hero- The hero is the star of the book, usually the person who puts everything right, or the person who you follow, there can be many heroes to a tale.
- The Princess, and her father- Is usually seen as the prize for the hero, the end goal they have been striving towards, as such the Princess is not always a human, it could be the house or home they are trying to save or perhaps a goal in life.
- The Dispatcher- The person who usually sends the hero off on a quest, be a person a god, or some kind a chance of fate.
- False Hero- The false hero is usually as the title says a person who is either believed to be a hero or pretends to play the part, a ruse his or herself or the world.
After we we're sure, our group went about thinking how to decided what the best two game worlds would be to search for Spheres of action in, we decided to stick primarily to worlds that we were more or less all too familiar with, so we didn't go looking at skull girls like as Sam had never played the game and made last task a bit difficult.
We decided to focus primarily on FF7 and Crash Bandicoot, thinking their different play styles and overall genre would make for an interesting talk.
---Final Fantasy 7----------------------------------------------------------------
The Hero-
Zak's sword is more than just a weapon in the game, it becomes a symbol to the character and helps guides them to their end goal, later it becomes historical land point in the games film Sequel.
The Villain-
The North Crater is a very important location in the game series, it is both the start and end of all problems and things that lead up to this moment.
The North Crater is where Jenova crashed to earth and where you ultimately face her 'son' Sephiroth.
The Donor-
The Lifestream is many things with in the game as it is mostly everything in creation, in this sense it is the crystallized version of it that help increase the players power, this is called Materia.
The Princess, and her father-
The Earth, in the game there are many things that seek to damage, harm and ultimately destroy the earth itself and it is up to the player to stop them and SAVE THE WORLD.
The Helper-
The life stream is the very life force of every living being on the planet. As such the life force can be a helper in many regards, but one that is crucial that comes to mind is when it tries to save the planet by stopping an oncoming meteorite.
False Hero-
The Shinra Corpiration power company offer power and energy to all of Midgar, so they see themselves providing a service making them heroes, but they are actually tapping into the life stream and ultimately killing the planet, As well as they enforce their roles of power using genetically enhanced soldiers.
The Dispatcher-
The train of Midgar transports [dispatches] the player to locations all over Midgar, it's also the first place you start the game.
---Crash Bandicoot---------------------------------------------------------------
The Hero-
A bit of a obscure as Crystals help you progress through out the games, but there was very little that we could actually match up to the Hero title.
The Villain-
Boss levels, for one they are the levels where you fight a major villain and two, in Crash Bandicoot's case they are usually the most frustrating and difficult parts of the game, I can recall many a time I have pulled my hair in frustration at trying to complete one of these levels.
The Donor-
The crates of crash Bandicoot can always be considered a donor as each create can hold a unique item that can help the place, either it be Wompa fruit to help increase your score, Lives so you can retry levels more or even the Aku Aku mask which can allow you to take damage, or gain invincibility.
The Princess, and her father-
The Home of Crash, Crunch, Co-Co and Aku-Aku, this planet is the man focus of conquest for Neo.Cortex and Uka-Uka and thus the player must stop them to save their home.
The Helper-
Mostly due to the fact that you can never get 100% True ending unless the players collects ALL the emeralds, so with out them, the player can never the satisfaction of a true ending.
False Hero-
The levels themselves serve as a really good false hero, often tricking the player to take one desired path or making them feel they have come across a secret which leads to something less that enjoyable.
The Dispatcher-
The dispatcher in this case, is the portals and lifts that carry you around the hub world of Crash Bandicoot, with out them, the player has no means of transportation.
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Crash was defiantly the weaker of the two games we choose, with FF7 being much stronger in comparison, this said, I'm glad we still choose it in the end as it made us think a little bit harder when assigning actions to things in games and made us consider what is defiantly an action.
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