Heavy Hero or Digital Dummy: multimodal player-avatar relations in FINAL FANTASY 7

demand/offer structures cannot be so simply separated. How do they work together;

and how are they multimodally realised?

The demand exercised by the text is realised in different ways by the different modes
combined within it. For instance, the music described by Rachel is specific to the
battle scenes; and she describes it accurately - the tempo does change (it speeds up);
and the rhythm changes to a regular 4/4 time, with the mix of midi voices including a
martial snare drum. The orientation of the music to the player, then, operates as a kind
of musical imperative - a call-to-arms, as it were. At the same time, the swirling
graphics which introduce the battle scene produce a giddy, disorientating sense, a
feeling of risk, of danger, in combination with the music. As the battle scene appears
on the screen, the player sees the characters lined up against the enemy, with the
battle statistics represented graphically at the bottom of the screen (Fig. 3). The
readiness of each character to attack is shown by a thermometer-style bar, which fills
up. This specific graphic operates, again, as a form of visual demand, effectively
instructing the player to wait, but get ready. When the bar fills up, a yellow triangle
appears above the head of the character, indicating that it can attack - a visual
imperative equivalent to “Attack now!”

[INSERT FIGURE 3 ABOUT HERE]

In ideational terms, the method of attack is very like the composition of a clause, in
strict sequential form. When the yellow arrow appears, clicking OK selects the
character - the Actor. The next choice is the means of attack, a specifying of the
process, which determines what the character will actually do - whether he will slash

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