A handful of pixels of blood. Decoding early video game graphics with the FAVR ontology

What is the purpose of blood splattering onto the screen in a video game? Does it serve functional value, or is it simply intended to shock the user? Up to this day, little advance has been made in studying video game graphics’ material and structural conditions. They are not only narrative and aesthetic devices comparable to films but also hold functional information for players and are of an interactive nature (Fizek 2022; Gerling, Möring, and Mutiis 2023). Classical visual analysis struggles to encompass video game images because they focus on analogue or time-based visual media (Arsenault, Côté, and Larochelle 2015). How can blood spurting from a virtual body be analyzed? This research applies and extends the Framework for the Analysis of Visual Representation in Video Games (FAVR) to conduct and further adequate research on video game images.