Realizing the Real: The Evolution of Immersion in Videogames.

摘要

Through the work of Jean Baudrillard this thesis proposes a poststructuralist argument to conceptualize and understand immersion in videogames. Looking towards areas that have been openly described by leading games scholars as underrepresented, the project engages in a thorough dissection of videogames as a unique medium with unique concerns. Tracing the medium's evolution, several critical junctures are identified and examined. These junctures are compared to Baudrillard's three orders of simulation and demonstrate that Baudrillard's work, in particular his work as a response to Ferdinand de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics, exhibits interesting parallels with how videogames developed and function. The significance of Baudrillard's commentary on signs and simulation is most clear when conceptualizing new augmented reality videogames. These hyperreal videogames, incongruous with structuralist binaries of oppositional difference, reaffirm the need for a postructural exposition.