Embodiment in skateboarding videogames

This article analyses the avatar in action games as both object of perception and instrument of action and perception. This allows for a picture to emerge of the way in which avatars in 3D action games serve as a kind of commentary on what it is to have a body in space. Two skateboarding games are a...

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Main Author: Martin, Paul
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Online (Routledge) 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47811/
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author Martin, Paul
author_facet Martin, Paul
author_sort Martin, Paul
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This article analyses the avatar in action games as both object of perception and instrument of action and perception. This allows for a picture to emerge of the way in which avatars in 3D action games serve as a kind of commentary on what it is to have a body in space. Two skateboarding games are analysed primarily through the lens of Martin Heidegger’s exposition of equipmentality in Being and Time. These skating games are chosen since they are examples of games which on the one hand provide spectacular images of the body in performance and on the other allow the player to feel in a heightened, focused and distorted way what it feels like to skate. By attending to the formal characteristics of the avatar as object of perception and instrument of perception and action and placing these within the context of the games’ different ideological positionings and assertions, it is possible to unpack some of the ways in which these games investigate embodiment as a culturally constituted phenomenon.
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spelling nottingham-478112020-05-04T16:40:28Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47811/ Embodiment in skateboarding videogames Martin, Paul This article analyses the avatar in action games as both object of perception and instrument of action and perception. This allows for a picture to emerge of the way in which avatars in 3D action games serve as a kind of commentary on what it is to have a body in space. Two skateboarding games are analysed primarily through the lens of Martin Heidegger’s exposition of equipmentality in Being and Time. These skating games are chosen since they are examples of games which on the one hand provide spectacular images of the body in performance and on the other allow the player to feel in a heightened, focused and distorted way what it feels like to skate. By attending to the formal characteristics of the avatar as object of perception and instrument of perception and action and placing these within the context of the games’ different ideological positionings and assertions, it is possible to unpack some of the ways in which these games investigate embodiment as a culturally constituted phenomenon. Taylor & Francis Online (Routledge) 2013-12-31 Article PeerReviewed Martin, Paul (2013) Embodiment in skateboarding videogames. International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, 9 (2). pp. 315-327. ISSN 1479-4713 videogames; Heidegger; empathy; game studies; skateboarding http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1386/padm.9.2.315_1 doi:10.1386/padm.9.2.315_1 doi:10.1386/padm.9.2.315_1
spellingShingle videogames; Heidegger; empathy; game studies; skateboarding
Martin, Paul
Embodiment in skateboarding videogames
title Embodiment in skateboarding videogames
title_full Embodiment in skateboarding videogames
title_fullStr Embodiment in skateboarding videogames
title_full_unstemmed Embodiment in skateboarding videogames
title_short Embodiment in skateboarding videogames
title_sort embodiment in skateboarding videogames
topic videogames; Heidegger; empathy; game studies; skateboarding
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47811/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47811/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47811/