Exploring Game Aesthetics

This paper explores an approach to understanding player experience and immersion through aesthetic theory. It should be noted that the paper limits itself to a consideration of single­player, avatar­based games with a narrative element. This paper will argue that the experience of immersion is intrinsically tied in with the body and its spatio­temporal positioning within a fictional or constructed space. Seeing immersion from the point of view of the body makes it possible to see a dichotomous relationship between text­ based and audiovisual media. When a reader is immersed in fiction, the 'transportation' from one space to another is purely cognitive ­the readers body is still and the construction of the fictional world takes place in the readers mind. For a player of games to experience immersion, various technologies exist that act directly upon the player's perceptive systems in order to create an experience. Any paper looking at computer games from the point of view of aesthetics quickly faces the problem of justifying its object of study as being worthy of such treatment. For the benefit of the intended audience of this paper, I will not do so here. As Alexander Galloway challenges in the introduction to his collection of essays on game culture; " Our generation needs to shrug off the contributions of those who view this as all so new and shocking. They came from somewhere else and are still slightly unnerved by digital technology. We were born here and love it. Short attention spans, cultural fragmentation, the speeding up of life ... ­these are neuroses in the imagination of the doctor, not the life of the patient. " [9] There is perhaps a danger in using theories of aesthetics and artistic practice to understand a medium that is usually seen as having no artistic value, left out of most discourse on contemporary digital culture and digital art. Any analysis may seem forced, and determined to push computer games into a category of 'worthy' cultural production. Is not my intention here to 'prove' that computer games can be 'art'. If we adhere to Bourdieu's notion of art as social and cultural category and construction, such a venture would be inherently meaningless anyway. Computer games are currently not recognized as art, and thus, they are currently not art. Nevertheless, I contend that computer games are objects of expression, storytelling and imagery. An understanding of the aesthetics of computer games …