Keyword – limited cognitive resources

Pólya, Tamás:

Videogames as narrative climbing frames and as media texts

Videogames are unlike traditional, non-digital media texts. They may offer a story but that is secondary with respect to their being a medium of simulation and interaction, which constitutes their essence. This paper inquires into whether videogames, being of said ergodic nature, may properly be analysed as media texts, if the latter are defined as mass-mediated constructs of reality to be construed along narrative and ideological lines. It submits a broad interpretation of ‘media text,’ and suggests that applying the concept of ‘reading’ to videogames is misleading in so far as many digital games resemble playground climbing frames or obstacle courses (or, in more complex cases, mathematical exercises to solve) more than a novel or a movie, and there seldom arises a need to interpret a climbing frame or a math problem from a narrative or an ideological point of view. Rather, they usually require some perceptual and physical (i.e. non-interpretative) activity on the part of the player. This paper considers some aspects of the climbing frame approach and the attentional shift of players from interpreting the narrative to the successful accomplishment of required action and attempts to refine the ergodic hermeneutics of videogames accordingly

Keywords: attention shift, computer games, concept of media text, ergodic texts, hermeneutics, limited cognitive resources, primary role of perceptual-motor actions, secondary role of narrative, simulation