Mechanisms of the Soul - Tackling the Human Condition in Videogames

Focusing on games’ specific affective, procedural and metaphorical potential, this paper is going to explore three devices for the purposeful design of games that tackle the human condition. Device I “Fictional Alignment” matches game structures to fictional themes in order to expand games’ emotional palette through leveraging the affective strength of game emotions and shaping their meaning through fictional contextualization. Device II, “Procedurality”, discusses the potential and limits of procedural expression to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms inherent to the human condition. Device III, “Experiential Metaphor”, investigates the metaphorical potential of game aesthetics and how it can help to make abstract experiences such as emotional processes and mental states emotionally tangible. Since these devices are based on characteristics that coexist in games, they are not mutually exclusive. However, discussing them separately should facilitate their deliberate use.