2019
Mäyrä, Frans
The Player as a Hybrid: Agency in Digital Game Cultures Journal Article
In: GAME: The Italian Journal of Game Studies, vol. 8, iss. 1, pp. 30-47, 2019, ISSN: 2280-7705.
Abstract | Links | Tags: Agency, Game controllers, Game culture, Phenomenology, Play, Power, Technology
@article{Mäyrä2019,
title = {The Player as a Hybrid: Agency in Digital Game Cultures},
author = {Frans Mäyrä},
url = {https://www.gamejournal.it/the-player-as-a-hybrid-agency-in-digital-game-cultures/},
issn = {2280-7705},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
journal = {GAME: The Italian Journal of Game Studies},
volume = {8},
issue = {1},
pages = {30-47},
abstract = {This article studies the player as a hybrid: a particular compound version of subjectivity that emerges from involvement with the contents, cultures and technologies of games. Drawing from both cultural studies of technology and phenomenology of game play, the article aims to connect key historical works in cultural technology studies with game and play studies to open perspectives into the tensions and potential conflicts that underlie the empowerment and expansion of gaming self. While engaging in game play provides us with novel opportunities for experiencing alternate realities and developing our abilities, our connections with games are also power relations that shape our hybrid, cultural agency in ways that we are not necessarily always aware of. The increasing intermingling of technology and play has consequences for players’ agency that are revealed to be simultaneously empowering and limiting. The multiple identified areas of tension in the constitution of hybrid player agency also suggest a non-essentialist approach to understanding games, players and playing.},
keywords = {Agency, Game controllers, Game culture, Phenomenology, Play, Power, Technology},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
This article studies the player as a hybrid: a particular compound version of subjectivity that emerges from involvement with the contents, cultures and technologies of games. Drawing from both cultural studies of technology and phenomenology of game play, the article aims to connect key historical works in cultural technology studies with game and play studies to open perspectives into the tensions and potential conflicts that underlie the empowerment and expansion of gaming self. While engaging in game play provides us with novel opportunities for experiencing alternate realities and developing our abilities, our connections with games are also power relations that shape our hybrid, cultural agency in ways that we are not necessarily always aware of. The increasing intermingling of technology and play has consequences for players’ agency that are revealed to be simultaneously empowering and limiting. The multiple identified areas of tension in the constitution of hybrid player agency also suggest a non-essentialist approach to understanding games, players and playing.