The Amnotic Sac - Intersubjectivity and Affect in Computer Games

Abstract

Presently, academic criticism of games approaches them either as vehicles for the expression of narrative, or as ‘ludic’ experiences where any aspects of traditional narratives are purely incidental to playing the game itself. Drawing on current critical work on videogames, theories of immersion, varying perspectives on narrative in games and on what games are, I argue that narrative theory is insufficient to deal with gaming. The interest of this thesis lies in the way that games enable narratives which are different in kind from narratives in other media, and in what gaming may have to teach us about more traditional forms of narrative. I use elements of actor-network theory and cybernetic studies in two case studies, Planescape: Torment and System Shock 2, to explain how narratives function in games through the ‘mechanical constitution’ of the subject or agent of the game. I argue that computer games achieve a different affect than other media by establishing a different relationship with their users through the mechanical constitution of a hybrid identity. Because of this different affect, games enable narratives which cannot be duplicated in other media without severe alteration to suit those media. The recombinant logic found in the hybrid causes the loss of the subjective element as a hybrid is created, hence narrative-theory cannot be usefully applied to games. I offer an alternative approach to narrative-theory, called the amniotic sac, which consolidates previous critical theories of the experience of gaming. In linking the immersive amniotic sac to previous studies of affect, such as those found in Reader-Response theory, I suggest that games are entering a post-narrativist space where affect replaces narrative in relevance.