Finding words for how video games move us:Interpreting games as motion systems in Erin Manning’s process ontology terms
Year: 2018
Type: dissertation
Abstract: In this research master thesis, I attempt to further game literacy, by looking to established vocabularies\nfrom other fields of study. Specifically, I transpose outside terms for describing movement systems in\nspecialized detail, to interpretations of video games. This adds to extant game studies works that look at\nphysical and conceptual spatial properties of games. Such works see players interpreting games spatially,\nthrough meaningfully organized systems of movement. I chose to add to these works on the kinetic aspect\nof games, with my own provisional and experimental transposition of terms taken from Erin Manning’s\nphilosophical and cultural studies efforts. Manning develops numerous concepts for describing motion\nof all kinds, especially so for her interpretations of dance. She does this with a so-called process ontological\nintent, which is to philosophically frame and describe all reality as interrelated, across all scales, and also to\ndescribe all things as adaptive and moving, each in a meaningfully distinct way. Manning develops concepts\nmainly through interpreting cultural artifacts, akin to my intent for this thesis. For this experiment, I transpose \neight terms developed in Manning’s interpretations of dance, to an extensive case study of the popular video \ngame Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Those eight terms of Manning deal most concretely with different \naspects of motion, at different levels of scale and complexity. Other theorists with interpretive concepts for motion\nsystems, for dance specifically, seemed less immediately applicable, comprehensive, or viable for this present\nthesis. In eight paragraphs, I test the viability of eight of Manning’s concepts, with relevant supplementary concepts \nexplored in each paragraph. Broadly, this leads me to describe how players are meaningfully moved to act in \nMiddle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and games more broadly. I also get at how this is meaningfully framed as involving \nlarger moving systems in such games. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a game in which most all elements are \novertly dynamic, adaptive, and interrelated. I therefore chose it as a case study to extensively try Manning’s concepts on. \nOther video games provide counterexamples in each paragraph, to each interpretive use of one of Manning’s terms.
Author: M.W.J.K. Ottens
Language: English
Topic: Digital Games and Media
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2896114518