Digital games occupy a big position in today’s media culture. The early

Japanese culture of home digital games partly developed with content intended

to scare the player. The frightening experiences that are involved in playing

such games have been often talked about by the players, even if the games were

not necessarily of the horror genre. However, conventional Japanese digital

game studies cannot explain these social facts of the frightening experiences

sufficiently.

　　The purpose of this paper is to deal with the theoretical problem mentioned

above. By considering the frightening experiences in Japanese games

concretely, this paper submits a novel and effective theoretical and cultural

interpretation of the experience in digital games as media. It is a ‘fear not to

fade away’ arising from gaming practices that this paper notices in particular.

　　This paper is written with the following method and procedure. Firstly,

this paper checks the framework of the conventional theory of experiences in

digital games（ Section 1）. Secondly, the problem of this framework is examined

in detail by way of discussing the frightening experiences（ Section 2）. Then, in

order to manage this problem, this paper considers the concrete cases of playing

AVGs（Adventure Games） and RPGs（Role Playing Games） in the Japanese

game culture （Section 3）. Finally, conclusions are derived from the previous

discussion and considerations（ Section 4）.

　　The conclusions of this paper are as follows. Firstly, the media theory of

experiences in digital games should pay attention to the player’s mental, bodily

and sensorial self-transfer to the media. Secondly, in Japanese society around

1990, the cultural development of digital games with many narrative elements

（in particular in AVGs and RPGs） necessarily produced the possibilities of

“being shocked” experience.