Mod Installation as Reclaiming Representational Diversity: The Role of Aesthetic Agency in Starde...
summary
Claims that installing aesthetic mods lets players reclaim representation by reshaping characters and narratives, supported by a content analysis plus triangulation via personal use of Stardew Valley mods drawn from nexus Mods; dataset covers April 2016–Dec 2023 starting from nearly 10,000 mods and narrowed to 548 aesthetic Mods that exclude gameplay changes. Mods cluster into four concrete categories — sex/intimacy, gender/sexuality, race/ethnicity, body diversity — and the work proposes design guidelines: ontological security, aesthetic alignment, and intentional malleability for easier mod installation.
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