Japanese terms

  • amae
    • a uniquely Japanese need to be in good favor with, and be able to depend on, the people around oneself.
    • examples include behaving childishly in the assumption that parents will indulge you (Doi 2001, p.16)
    • values the parent-child relationship as the ideal, suggesting all other relationships should strive for this degree of closeness (Doi 2001, p.39)
  • fushigi
    • strange, wonder, mystery, marvel
    • word with positive nuance meaning ‘strange’ with a sense of oddness, mystery and intrigue (Hutchinson 2019, p.23)
  • jikka
    • one’s birthplace or ancestral home (Hutchinson 2019, p.29)
  • Kojiki
    • “Records of Ancient Matters”
    • an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, songs, genealogies, oral traditions and semi-historical accounts.
  • monogatari
    • tale, story
  • mukokuseki
    • ‘culturally odourless’
    • lacking visual or linguistic signifiers that point obviously to the country of origin (Iwabuchi 2002)
  • okashii
    • funny and odd (dual meaning)
  • Tokonoma
    • a recessed space in a Japanese-style reception room, in which items for artistic appreciation are displayed.

 

Game Studies terms

  • Goal rules
    • what must be achieved to finish the game or make progress in the main story (Gonzola Frasca 2003)
  • Manipulation rules
    • govern what can and can’t be done by the player in the game
    • affect every player

(Gonzola Frasca 2003)

  • Theoptic game
    • a game that offers the player ” ‘the experience of “divine as avatar,’ though it must be noted that such games can rarely be understood as engaging the divine … [t]hese games are largely opportunities to engage with ideas about religion, rather than with religious experience itself ’ (Anthony 2014, p.43).
Anthony, Jason (2014) ‘Dreidels to Dante’s Inferno: Toward a Typology of Religious Games,’ in Playing with Religion in Digital Games, ed. Heidi A. Campbell and Gregory Price Grieve, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 25–46.