In the realm of the game: The production and consumption of space in interactive media

Yi-Chien Lee, Purdue University

Abstract

Although in recent years interactive gaming has become a billion-dollar industry and a major cultural phenomenon in the U.S. and around the world, there has been little thought of attributing cultural or social value to it. Aimed at filling this gap, this study explicates the langue, i.e., the underlying logic, organizing principles, and baseline assumptions, of computer- and video games and the complex of technological developments, socio-cultural conditions, and financial institutions that make possible their consumption and production. Having analyzed the langue of more than 100 games developed and published in the United States during the period of 1989–1998, I find that (1) the central paradox of play, i.e., the coupling of the new and the old, the confirmative and the subversive, the reflective and the innovative, is embodied, and (2) the spatializing tendency in postmodernism is manifested, reinforced, and re-invented in three major aspects of interactive gameplay: time, space, and identity. Born out of the central paradox of play and the postmodern/interactive spatialism is a cultural kaleidoscope in which history, geography, and cultures are fragmented. However, my analysis of the development of games and its relationship with the world leads me to suggest that the complex of interactive forces (technological, social, cultural, economic, political, etc.) that made possible the fragmentation of time, space, and identity in the first place can also bring about new practices of gaming.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Rajagopal, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Mass media|Cultural anthropology

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