Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Group Hero

2016; IGI Global; Linguagem: Inglês

10.4018/978-1-4666-9891-8.ch009

2475-6679

Claudia Hall,

Digital Games and Media

The Group Hero is an emerging archetype of the Hero story that differs from lone hero stories in five specific ways. These are: 1) Heroism is about participation in the larger cause, 2) Heroism is team based, 3) Each team member is different and everyone's contributions are important, 4) The cause takes precedence over personality conflicts, and 5) Leadership is dynamic and team based. Using mass media examples of movies, comic books, and MMO games, this chapter explores each of these themes and how they differ from the presentation of heroism in more traditional lone hero stories. The Group Hero archetype template is then applied to the problem of school bullying, and the chapter ends by challenging digital storytellers of all kinds to apply the Group Hero archetype in new and creative ways to effect positive social changes.