Can we make true statements about the world through videogames? An indirect realist account of Alexander Galloway’s notion of social realism in gaming

Authors

  • Francisco Ricardo Bezerra Fonseca Núcleo de Gestão/CAA/PROPAD/UFPE http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0938-463X
  • Debora Coutinho Paschoal Dourado Departamento de Ciências Administrativas/Programa de Pós-Gradução em Administração/Centro de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas/Universidade Federal de Pernambuco http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8316-8551

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19132/1807-8583202152.99344

Keywords:

Videogames, Alexander Galloway, Social Realism, Indirect Realism

Abstract

In recent years, game-related scholars have claimed that the study of videogames can reveal important insights for understanding and challenging the concept of realism advocated by previous theories of visual culture. In fact, videogames have increasingly been acknowledged as a valuable site for opening up new ways of interrogating traditional theories of realism. Drawing upon Alexander Galloway’s seminal work Social realism in gaming, the argument we seek to advance here is that: his theorizations of social realism in gaming alongside the notion of “congruence requirement” are largely grounded on indirect realist assumptions. In order to provide support to our claim, we assumed that his theory of realism is suggestive of an indirect form of correspondence between the fidelity of gamers’ ordinary world, their derivative actions within the gaming-world and the modes of representation of objective reality depicted in videogames

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Author Biographies

Francisco Ricardo Bezerra Fonseca, Núcleo de Gestão/CAA/PROPAD/UFPE

Professor Assistente do Núcleo de Gestão do Centro Acadêmico do Agreste da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Mestre em Administração pelo PROPAD/UFPE. Doutorando do PROPAD/UFPE. Os interesses de pesquisa incluem temas relacionados a domesticação de teoria, teorias de justiça nas organizações e videogames.

Debora Coutinho Paschoal Dourado, Departamento de Ciências Administrativas/Programa de Pós-Gradução em Administração/Centro de Ciências Sociais Aplicadas/Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

Doutora em Administração pela Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Professora Adjunta do Departamento de Ciências Administrativas e do Programa de Pós-Gradução em Administração da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Os interesses de pesquisa incluem temas relacionados ao indivíduo na organização, relações de poder, trabalho e precarização, além do sentido do trabalho para os indivíduos..

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Published

2021-05-19

How to Cite

Fonseca, F. R. B., and D. C. P. Dourado. “Can We Make True Statements about the World through Videogames? An Indirect Realist Account of Alexander Galloway’s Notion of Social Realism in Gaming”. Intexto, no. 52, May 2021, p. 99344, doi:10.19132/1807-8583202152.99344.

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Section

Essay