An interesting direction (or perhaps rabbit hole) during my study into affect and embodiment involved some exploration on possibility spaces, and how they aid in engaging player of simulation games such as SimCity:

Simulation games can be seen as a culmination of these possibility spaces, rooted by their necessity of realising the possible. Conceptually, many games of this simulatory nature are in fact grounded in reality, as video games tend to represent processes that exist in the real world, such as war, sports and urban planning. In this simulacrum of urbanisation, the player is able to explore possibility spaces through the manipulation of its diegetic components within the world. These systems draw parallels to those that occur in real life, and from which the player can obtain similar context. They are a distillation of real-world experiences, if not incomplete, as information is inevitably lost during the translation and simplification from systems typically too complex to perfectly recreate.

The fact that many of these games are grounded in reality allows the player to create and visualise this narrative context without the actual embodiment or surrogacy of an individual character. Inside these spaces the player can come to understand and experiment with these cultural models and systems that reflect those of the real (Bogost, 2008). While seemingly trivial individually, the combination of these actions provide a multitude of possibilities and solutions in which each problem of urban development can be approached. By leveraging a small set of rules in order to create a multitude of combinations and variations in gameplay, a rule system can quickly become one of considerable possibility. Therefore these rules on their own are capable of creating fiction, as a substitute for story.

It may even be said that games such as SimCity do not embody a character so much as a the very experience of that which it simulates. Seen as a kind of ‘goal-directed simulations of embodied experience’ (Gee, 2008, p. 254), the player takes ownership of the experience or the ruleset itself.By controlling these interconnected elements of the city, the world itself becomes an embodiment of the player’s perspectives. It is a grand narrative about the very nature of humanity and urbanisation, just as Spore is similarly referential to astrobiology and evolution, and Animal Crossing of consumer capitalism.

Thus coming to an understanding of these rulesets create engagement with their respective discourses through the exploration of the almost-infinite possibilities. (Bogost, 2008). In the personalised cities of SimCity, the player has access to the construction of facilities, whether they be industrial, commercial or residential. Denizens of the player’s fictional city require utilities such as transport and power. The player explores and negotiates the boundaries of these rules through these systems, such as constructing a city or tearing it apart (Bogost, 2008). The game becomes a discussion of processes, in which the assembly of modular rulesets are used in creating incredible variety and in portraying rhetoric. The emergent stories that can be cultivated as a result from these rules are as proficient in creating meaning to the player as character embodiment or affect (Juul, 2011).

I hope you found that somewhat enlightening, or entertaining on some level. Look forward to next time!

References:

• Bogost, I. (2008). The rhetoric of video games. The ecology of games: Connecting youth, games, and learning, 117-140.
• Gee, J. (2008). Video games and embodiment. Games and Culture.
•  Juul, J. (2011). Half-real: Video games between real rules and fictional worlds. MIT press.

 

Originally released for the Dreamcast in 2001, Rez is an interesting game to observe in relation to affect, and it can be seen why it is used so much in this kind of discourse. It’s a game about feeling the music, and responding in kind. The plot and characters are expressed in rather abstract forms, evolving from a simple sphere to increasingly humanoid shapes. Any context that is  established simply tells us of a rogue A.I., and a hacker’s mission to shut it down.

Yet still, its experience as one of pure synaesthesia provides an example of the structured experience that systematically generates affective responses throughout each of its levels. The avatar is merely a placeholder to quite literally embodying these sensations on behalf of the player. When flying through each level, the abstract character built from lines and simple geometric shapes pulses in rhythm with the music, simulating the trance-like sensations of being at some kind of electronic dance concert or rave.

Demonstrated in the game’s music itself, the intensity of these sensations have greater affective impact on the body than the feeling or interpretation derived from it. Hence the sole focus of the game is less about hitting every target or achieving a high score than it is about simulating this synchronicity between aural and visual. It is less about attempting to communicate a particular meaning, and more about directly moving the player with intensities. Every action is denoted by the chime or beat of simulated music instruments As incoming obstacles and targets are acquired by the player, the player is cued with the crisp tap of a high-hat cymbal, while targets are destroyed in music harmony, creating myriads of visual and aural effects.

The gameplay experience then becomes an almost spontaneous exchange, focusing on how the game makes you feel rather than think. Hence the intensities gathered from the music experience is at the forefront of Rez’s design, while the embodiment of the character is used to reinforce these affects.

Here’s a quick breakdown from what I’ve gathered about the Deleuzian approach to the virtual and the actual. It seems that the realm of the virtual exists in the area that is outside our perception. The virtual is that which has not occurred, which has yet to occur, or that which we simply have not seen to occur. It is a realm of potential, in which everything that is yet to be perceived has the capacity to affect and be affected.

The actual, on the other hand, is the perception that results from the virtual. It is the virtualities that which has been organised into some form of semantics. For every actual element in an artefact, there exists a plethora of virtual images that have not become, remaining as potential affects. To perceive an object is to actualise the virtual, and to create a snapshot of its current state and position in time and space. Actualising an object unleashes its affective potentials into intensities which continue to impact the perceiver. It is a limited process however, and it is in this subtraction of intensities that an excess of virtualities exist. Everything else that remains outside of that current perception remains virtual, in that it exists in infinite potentialities, of the past and future, simultaneously. When we cannot structure these multiplicities of virtuality into some kind of social organisation, we remain unable to actualise it, and thus we cannot be affected by that which we cannot perceive (Ellis & Tucker 2015). Hence affect can be seen as ‘synaesthetic, embodied perception’ (Shinkle, 2005, p. 3) – the result of the virtual becoming actualised.

In the context of the video game, the virtual behaves within each actualised frame of the game. For each frame that occurs, the arrangement of pixels on the screen produce an image, while the speakers emit aural sounds and cues. The player is transmitting manual input and commands into through the game through a controller. From this single frame, there is already a range of potential outcomes and actions that can occur, as well as potentialities of what it could have been at that point in time. It is the ‘simultaneous participation of the virtual in the actual and the actual in the virtual’ (Massumi, 2002, p. 35), where each actual state of the game has its own range of virtual properties. This infinite range of potential has the ability to further influence the actualisation of the experience (Bertelsen & Murphie, 2010).

The concept of the relation between virtual and actual can definitely be tricky, yet coming to understand them is crucial in exploring the affective relationship that exists between them and games. I hope I did the subject matter some justice!

References:

• Bertelsen, L., & Murphie, A. (2010). Félix Guattari on Affect and the Refrain. The affect theory reader, 138.
• Ellis, D., & Tucker, I. (2015). Social Psychology of Emotion. Sage.
• Massumi, B. (2002). The autonomy of affect. Cultural Critique, (31), 83-109.
• Shinkle, E. (2005). Feel it, don’t think: The significance of affect in the study of digital games.

One thing that sounds like it should be something rather obvious, yet somewhat elusive to find discussion on, is how the concept of affect fits into feelings and emotion. Upon explaining affect as best I can, a response is often something along the lines of ‘So, is it like feelings or emotion?’ Upon which my answer would be ‘Yes, kind of, but not quite’. After finding this article by Eric Shouse (2005) however, distinguishing between the three has now become exponentially easier to do. Hopefully I can do the topic some justice when I explain it below, alongside an example in relation to games.

Shouse (2005) describes this distinction in that ‘feelings are personal and biographical, emotions are social, and affects are prepersonal’. Therefore, whenever a player experiences any kind of event or interaction within a game, one does not simply feel or emote in response to it, but rather goes through a myriad of layers of reactions in order to arrive at a particular response. Not to be confused with feeling or emotion, affect is not a personal feeling, but rather a transition between a variety of experiential states. Such encounters occur between two bodies – namely that of the affected (such as the player) and the affected (such as the game).

As a feeling is influenced by previous experiences, each person has their own interpretations and labels of the same events. When a player receives intensities from a game, the objective implications are simply a collection of imagery and sounds. Perhaps a flash of colour streaks across the screen in front of them; perhaps they ears receive aural cues of sword clashes. The sound of metal clashing implies danger. The player’s ears may perk up, more alert to future intensities. Their pulse may quicken in the midst of this engagement. For the player, these feelings drawn from audiovisual cues are a result of their biography so far, with additional influence by previous and individual sensations. Without the player’s feelings to interpret these intensities that are projected from the game, the affect becomes inconsequential, and is instead left behind amongst the multitude of sensations that continuously impact the body.

Emotion is the outwards expression of such feelings. Unlike feelings however, we can choose to manipulate the way we emote, whether genuinely or not. It is up to the individual to determine their emotion, and whether to truly broadcast their true internal states, or whether to alter it in order to meet social expectations. For example, the player of a horror game may unintentionally influence their emotion given the social context they are playing the game in. When experiencing the horror game alone, they may find themselves unstimulated and hence somewhat placid. When playing the same game with peers however, social expectations may influence players to exhibit similar emotions to those around them.

Therefore affect acts as the underlying component of this relationship – it is the intensity that is felt first and foremost, while feeling and emotion are driven off the qualification of these particular intensities. Feeling does not fit neatly into either intensity or qualification, but perhaps exists at some point in between.

As I obtain a better grasp on each concept of affect, the rabbit hole continues to grow and grow. Look forward to seeing the next blog post before I delve in too deep!

Upon some further digging and research into the topic of affect, it seems that I’ve definitely gone down the rabbit hole of research. Whereas I initially had a focus on embodiment, the almost obsessive nature in which I decided to tackle the concept of affect has left it to almost swallow everything else in this thesis. At this rate, embodiment may just become the secondary topic of this research! As a result, the overall structure of this paper has definitely evolved over this past month. Here is another quick breakdown of how it is looking so far:

Firstly, I plan to an overview of the subject of affect, and how it relates to games in general. As a case study, I will also refer to affective games such as the 2001 game Rez in order to have some point of reference when trying to discuss something as abstract as affect.

In addition I will need to explain its impact on the body as a biological imprint, explaining the aforementioned concepts of intensities and qualifications – the impact and the acknowledgement

In previous attempts to explain the idea, I have found that I will need to better explain the manner in which affect distinguishes itself from emotion, and the subconscious level at which it tends to operate. In relation to games, I may also need to refer to the reciprocal nature of this constant ‘intensity manufacturing’ between the player and the game.

Secondly, I will explore and try to draw links between player embodiment and affect, determining what classifies as embodiment, and how games such as thatgamecompany’s Journey could be seen to affect the player with and without the presence of an avatar or player character.

Lastly, I thought it would be important to address games that seem to have no embodiment at first sight. In these cases, one could say that it could be more about the agency than it is about embodiment. Embodiment may be a factor in this conversation, but it may be tough to decide whether it has a causal relationship to the affective experience. I don’t plan to find a definite answer so much as just explore the topic.

Overall I am finding this to become a somewhat tough subject, due to the subjectivity and abstract nature of this topic. I definitely strived for a challenge when deciding on this topic, and it seems that I have found it!

I also feel that this challenge would be remiss without some kind of supplementary artefact. It might be worth creating something to aid in a reader’s understanding of affect, especially when it is difficult enough trying to explain affect in words! I hope to make it part visual breakdown of the essay and part demonstration of concepts. If anything, making game-like exhibits of affect will help improve my understanding of the topic at hand (not to mention my sanity)!

 

 

 

Recently I have been starting to dig a bit into Massumi’s theory of affect, and attempting to peel back the many layers which comprise this theory. Here’s a quick breakdown of some of his ideas.

Massumi (1995) discusses that there are two such levels of image reception – a multi-layered reaction that occurs when we experience such phenomena, labelling them as intensity and qualification.

Intensity is manifested in the ‘autonomic’ reactions that occur on a pre-cognitive, anatomical level, beneath the skin and without our awareness or acknowledgement. It remains beneath consciousness, and will never be a conscious process.

Qualification reactions, however, occur as soon as the player becomes aware of these functions. Autonomic functions such as a heartbeat and breathing. As soon as the player realises their heartbeat, the expectation of its implications result in the player aligning themselves with the narrative. Acknowledgement of the already felt state then serves to re-register or amplify the feeling.

For example, when a player is navigating a horror game, and they notice their heart rate increasing, they then correlate that reaction to that of the narrative context – their heartbeat has risen, and therefore they construe it as fear.

There are several ways this can be translated into gameplay:

Firstly, and perhaps quite obviously, it can be seen that the amount of necessary text required for creating emotional reactions is quite minimal. Implicit and ambiguous signposting, and even the context of a situation alone is rather capable of eliciting emotion.

Secondly, letting the player fill the gaps in understanding a situation. This is important to affect, as these ‘autonomic’ reactions impacted emotion on a much more physiological level than purely cognitive exercises. The player does always have to be given an answer.

Massumi nicely sums it up: ‘Matter-of-factness dampens intensity’ (p. 3). In many ways, the cognitive noise that occurs when the viewer would have to interpret words alongside the images hindered the impact of the images themselves. Massumi even describes it as a ‘doubling of the sequence of images’, as voiceover and the images produce separate narratives in the mind of the viewer: images that while aiming for the same goal, can produce very different results.

That’s a quick summation of ideas that I may utilise throughout the thesis – stay tuned for next time!