온라인 게임 캐릭터에 나타난 신체와 복식의 표현 유형과 미적 특성

Abstract

This study is to examine the types of expression and aesthetic characteristics of on-line game characters by analyzing those game characters' body and their costume that appear in various domestic on-line game sites. It is shown in this study that types of the human bodies and costume expressed through the game characters are grouped into five categories such as exposure and tightness, enlargement and exaggeration, curtailment and simplification, gender stereotype and unification. Furthermore, there are four typical aesthetic characteristics resulting from those types of expressions; First, 'grotesque' is expressed in the form of extreme enlargement and exaggeration, extreme exposure and concealment, combined images among human, animal or machine, or monstrous devilish images. Second, in an effort to express 'eroticism', bodies are directly exposed, see-through costumes are used in order to emphasize the body lines or very tight designs are used. Third, 'futuristic' characteristics are shown through geometrical shape and silhouette, machine-like details, strong artificial colors or glossy hi-tech material. Lastly, 'pastiche' is expressed with reconciliation of variety of costumes of game characters. Various opposite or heterogeneous styles are combined or harmonized each other to show pastiche, of which examples are male and female, superior culture and inferior one, rich and poor, oriental and western, human and machine, human and nature or past and future, etc.