The presentation outline-- Playing Games
'As We Become Machines: corporealized pleasures in video games' by Martti Lahti
-->The video games link players to entertainment technology in what is a ‘new cyborgian relationship’ which attempts to erase the boundary between the virtual and the real.
William Gibson: “sees the players as already being subsumed by the computer, already as a cyborg’.
Argument: The video games as a unique ‘paradigmatic site for producing, imaging and testing different kinds of relations between the body and technology in contemporary culture.’
--> far from being ‘meatless’
Two contentions:
1.) The aspiration of gaming technology is to ‘erase the boundary separating the player from the game world’
- the sense of physical immersion created by advances
- the use of techniques
--> fuses the players perspective with that of the games character, and creates the impression of a ‘limitless space opening behind the screen.’
2.) The games encourage a merger of perspectives and subjectivities with the onscreen world
- the video games simultaneously invite players to take pleasure in the visual representation of avatars onscreen.
- the pleasure from:
--> to control and construct the body we desire
--> to 'try on' different bodies
--> to 'trespass or toy with racial and sexual boundaries'
Conclusion: complex relations between the player and the machine's cybernetic system with which it relates through gameplay > the players are subsumed as a cyborg.
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After the tutorial discussion, I would like to have some supplementary here as I have focused less on the concept of ‘cyborg envy’. It is a notion formed by Allucquere Rosanne Stone, which she describes as the longing to ‘cross the human/machine boundary’ and to cease to be a subject in the tradition of modernity. In the video game, the players can select their gender and race in the games. Taking Tomb Raider as an example, the male players are invited to ‘merge’ with the female, Lara Croft. Martti Lahti pointed out that the games redraw the gendered boundary clearly. The games impose clear restrictions on our potential desire to toy with different bodies as its’ set limits to the mutability of the body.
ReplyDeleteKanus, I think you have given a clear presentation on Martti Lahti’s article about the relationship between the players and the virtual world as well as the arousal of pleasures. Another appreciation is that you have quoted some key points from the article, helping us to have a clearer understanding on it. Just what you have mentioned, you didn’t bring the concept of “cyborg envy” in detail. However, this is also important for studying the visual pleasure behind constructing self virtual identity. But overall, your presentation has raised other main points to explain the concept of corporealized pleasure in video games raised by Martti.
ReplyDeleteKanus, it is a nice presentation as the analysis of the reading of Martti Lahti’s article is very complex. The discussion on the relationship between bodies and technology is clearly illustrated based on video games. It can not deny that the separation of the players and the avatars in the game world could be breakthrough. So, the players are considered as cyborg is reinforced. You have given a clear concept of the pleasure from playing games; however, it would be in depth if you could mention the point of how the pleasure is come from male vision in which the gender stereotypes could then be demonstrated in the gameplay. As in the Lara Croft, the hero is a female, but it is not to breakthrough the gender stereotypes, however, it is to further highlight in the game with the male visual pleasure.
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