The Monster as a Paradigm of Otherness: The Videogame Sagas Dragon Age (2009-2014) and The Witcher (2007-2015)

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Francisco David García Martín
Universidad de Salamanca
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0216-5066
María Fernández Rodríguez
Instituto Politécnico de Bragança
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9865-8200

Monsters, as folkloric or fantastical creatures inherent in the fictions of yesterday and today, have come to constitute a metaphor of otherness. As repositories of all our fears and suspicions, the truth is that various historical discourses, not necessarily truthful, projected from the interests of the elites of certain in-groups, have shaped them to perpetuate ideas of discrimination, rejection, and hatred, in order to maintain a social regime that favors the supremacy of one race or ethnicity over others and condemns difference and deviation. This perspective is precisely what underpins the videogame sagas Dragon Age (2009-2014) and The Witcher (2007-2025). Through the significant possibilities afforded by ludonarrative, as well as the structural and discursive parameters of the role-playing genre, both titles succeed in placing the player in various moral dilemmas that lead them to question some of these discourses.

Keywords
Memory, Monster, Otherness, Ludic genres, Ludonarrative, Videogames

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How to Cite
García Martín, Francisco David; Fernández Rodríguez, María. “The Monster as a Paradigm of Otherness: The Videogame Sagas Dragon Age (2009-2014) and The Witcher (2007-2015)”. 2024. Hipertext.net, 2024, no. 29, pp. 51-61, doi:10.31009/hipertext.net.2024.i29.04.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

(c) Francisco David García Martín, María Fernández Rodríguez, 2024


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Author Biographies

Francisco David García Martín, Universidad de Salamanca

Francisco David García Martín. Graduated in Hispanic Philology at University of Salamanca, in Geography and History and Law from the National University of Distance Education. Postdoctoral researcher in the Area of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at the University of Salamanca, and formerly a doctoral fellow of the José Luis de Oriol – Catalina de Urquijo Research Promotion Foundation. His main line of research focuses on the relationship between literature and history as observed in the texts from the final months of the Spanish Civil War, around the coup d'état by General Segismundo Casado. His other line of research centers on the capacity of Spanish and Latin American science fiction as a genre to project many of the problems and dilemmas faced by our current society.

María Fernández Rodríguez, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança

María Fernández Rodríguez. Graduated in Hispanic Philology at University of Salamanca, and PhD in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature from the same university, with a doctoral thesis graded cum laude in 2021. The research conducted focuses on the diachronic and synchronic evolution of literary myths and popular narrative genres, as well as the intermedial relationships between literature and other media such as film, comics, television, and videogames. Currently, she is a visiting professor at the Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, where she teaches various courses related to Spanish literature and comparative literature. Her research lines continue the path of her doctoral thesis, with special emphasis on the transmedial expansion of popular narrative genres and interartistic encounters.

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