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Playing with nonhumans: digital games as technocultural form

Giddings, Seth

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Authors

Seth Giddings



Contributors

Suzanne de Castell
Editor

Jennifer Jenson
Editor

Abstract

Game studies has yet to engage with a sustained debate on the implications of its fundamentally technologically based foundation – i.e. the ‘digitality’ of digital games. This essay calls for such a debate and offers some initial thoughts on issues and directions.
The humanities and social sciences are founded on the principle that historical and cultural agency reside solely in the human and the social. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies, Actor-Network Theory and cybercultural studies, this essay argues that a full understanding of both the playing of digital games, and the wider techno-cultural context of this play, is only possible through a recognition and theorisation of technological agency.
Taking the Gameboy Advance game Advance Wars 2 as a case study, the essay explores the implications for game studies of attention to non-human agency – specifically the agency of simulation and artificial life software - in digital game play.

Citation

Giddings, S. (2007). Playing with nonhumans: digital games as technocultural form. In S. de Castell, & J. Jenson (Eds.), Worlds in Play: International Perspectives on Digital Games Research. New York: Peter Lang

Publication Date Jan 1, 2007
Deposit Date Nov 9, 2010
Publicly Available Date Dec 2, 2016
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume Volume
Series Title New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies
Book Title Worlds in Play: International Perspectives on Digital Games Research
ISBN 978-0-8204-8643-7
Keywords videogames, digital games, actor-network theory, science and technology studies, game studies, automata
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1032776

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