Description
Video games cast the player as protagonist in an unfolding narrative. Like actors in front of a camera, gamers' proprioception, or body awareness, can extend to onscreen characters, placing them ""physically"" within the virtual world. Sometimes players may even identify with the characters' ideological motivations. The author explores concepts central to the design and enjoyment of video games, including affect, immersion, liveness, presence, agency, narrative, ideology and the player's virtual surrogate - the avatar. Gamer and avatar are analyzed as a cybernetic coupling whose dynamics suggest a fulfillment of dramatist Atonin Artaud's vision of the ""body without organs.
About the Author
David Owen teaches at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. He has essays and articles on theater, digital performance, and videogames in such publications as The Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds and The Canadian Theatre Review.
Book Information
ISBN 9781476667195
Author David Owen
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint McFarland & Co Inc
Publisher McFarland & Co Inc
Weight(grams) 315g