As We Become Machines: Corporealised Pleasures in Video Games

This article traces the background through video game history of the subjectivity of the video game experience. Mariti Lahti, the author, argues for the increasing and overt intention of making the experience seem "real" and immersive to the player, and that, in unifying the machine and the human, video games become a cyborg experience even as the player remains physically unchanged.

Lahti also argues that video games in which the player is represented by an avatar, presenting as they do the opportunity to explore a wide range of desires and personifications, commodify those things and also place artificial limits on human exploration, through the way a player, though given the illusion of free choice in avatar selection, is prevented from true choice by the limited matrix of options.

Lahti also makes the relevant point that while the surface appearance of a character may be changed, games do not bring with them the social and political realities of the alternatives being explored. Perhaps the only thing really missing from the article are certain related concepts which have arisen from more recent developments in the gaming world, which I hope to discuss at tomorrow's tutorial.