Category: The Semiotics of Video Games

Can we feel empathy in a video game? In his essay Adamant Bodies. The Avatar-Body and the Problem of Autoempathy, Adriano D’Aloia argues that we hardly can, because of the relationship we need to maintain with our game avatar. Read the rest

Where does the video game end and real life begin? With the arrival of simulators, augmented reality, and social networking games, borders becomes harder to define, and so is the magic circle that separates the fantasy world from the outside world. Read the rest

Text by Mathias Jansson How old is Super Mario and how long is a life in video games? Mario Gerosa and Jennifer Grace-Dawson’s paper, Chronology and Historicization in Virtual Worlds and Video Games, begins with what seems to be an obvious statement: “Time in virtual worlds is not the same as in real life: in virtual worlds there is a different experience of time.”  Read the rest

What is the essence of a game? Its set of rules or the story it tells? This is, put in simple terms, the academic debate that pits ludologists against narratologists. Most video games have both rules and a narrative. Read the rest

Text by Mathias Jansson In the paper The Collapse and Reconstitution of the Cinematic Narrative: Interactivity vs. Immersion in Game Worlds, Otto Lehto wonders what a game is and comes up with the following observation: “The game narrative needs to be ‘written’ (played) before it can be ‘read’ (interpreted). Read the rest

How can we make sense of a video game? In his essay, Manic Miner under the Shadow of the Colussus: a Semiotic Analysis of the Spatial Dimension in Platform Video Games, Joaquin Siabra-Fraile argues that it is thanks to a “pragmatic net of objects”. Read the rest

Text by Mathias Jansson A key characteristic of a video game could be that it has rules. You have to follow certain rules to succeed in the game. The rules could be as simple as “hit the ball” in Pong, or as complex as in Civilization, where you build an empire from scratch. Read the rest

Text by Dario Compagno, Ph.D. in Semiotics at the University of Siena, Italy This is the introduction of an annex discussion to the Semiotics of Video Games exhibition. It was led by Dario Compagno on Facebook in October 2010. Read the rest

Text by Gabriele Ferri, PhD student in Semiotics at the University of Bologna, Italy This is the introduction of an annex discussion to the Semiotics of Video Games exhibition. It was led by Gabriele Ferri on Facebook in September 2010. Read the rest