IDEA OF TRANSFORMATION AS BASIC METAPHOR OF VIRTUAL WORLD (SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF THE COMPUTER GAME «LITTLE MISFORTUNE»)

Chezybaeva Natalya Vladimirovna

The article represents a semiotic analysis of the video game «Little Misfortune» by the independent Swedish developer-studio «Killmonday Games». The process of virtualism is focused on: the intertwined gloomy and non-childish themes (mixing of the creepy with the cute) have been considered from a child’s position. The concept of virtual reality is based on the idea of development, transformation, and constant change of correlated categories. Transformation is a basic metaphor for the virtual world, as it allows to transform and interpret the attributes of the real world in a new prospect. Metaphors are the generalized images of reality; in terms of content, they are virtual ones as they convey abstract ideas of reality. The «TRANSFORMATION» archetype correlates with the concept of «COURAGE» within a single conceptual space.

Keywords:video game, semiotic analysis, basic metaphor, virtual reality, courage, transformation