Representation and virtuality in computer games

Abstract

In this article, I discuss the nature of participatory real-time graphical environments, which is the general form that enables a wide range of genres of action games. By adopting a positive definition of virtuality, I argue that the notion of virtual aptly accounts for the ontological status of these environments. I begin the argument by presenting how the opposition between action and representation leads the concept of virtuality to a dead end and proceed to explore other possible approaches. This exploration culminates in the conclusion that, unlike the abstract and concrete models of non-computerized mimetic play, the simulation of physical reality in games is capable of constituting its own irreducible ground of perception and action. When evaluated from an objective outside view, the spatio-visual graphical models of computer games are second-order models. However, from the phenomenal perspective, the subject is able to, and indeed required to, engage with them as first-order models, as if they were concrete objects and environments, not informational ones. From the participant's point of view, real-time participatory graphical simulations not only simulate a separate ontology, but creates it.