Fictionally Flipping Tetrominoes? Defining the Fictionality of a Videogame Player’s Actions

Authors

  • Nele Van de Mosselaer University of Antwerp

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/jpg.6035

Abstract

In this paper, I use the case of player actions in Tetris to explore possible problems in existing descriptions of videogame actions as fictional actions. Both in the philosophy of computer games and videogame studies, authors often make use of Kendall Walton’s make-believe theory to describe videogame actions as fictional. According to the Waltonian description of fictional actions, however, the actions players perform when playing Tetris, such as flipping tetrominoes, would also be fictional. This is a counterintuitive idea, as players of Tetris seem to be really manipulating the graphical shapes in this game. I will thus discuss two other possible descriptions of fictional actions hinted at by Grant Tavinor (2009). Firstly, the (non-)fictional status of videogame actions might depend on the nature of the affordances to which they are reactions. Secondly, it might be the case that the player must take on a role in the fictional world for her action to be fictional. In the end, I will combine this second idea with a Waltonian description of fictional actions to form a new description of fictional actions that corresponds to and explains videogame players’ experiences.

Author Biography

Nele Van de Mosselaer, University of Antwerp

PhD Student
Department of Philosophy

References

Games

K Games (2007). Bioshock. PlayStation 3.

Rockstar Games (2008). Grand Theft Auto IV. PlayStation 3.

BioWare (2007). Mass Effect. Xbox 360.

Monolith Productions (2014). Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. PlayStation 4.

Pajitnov, Alexey and Gerasimov, Vadim (1985). Tetris. PC.

The Sims. 2000. Maxis, PC.

Naughty Dog (2007). Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. PlayStation 3.

Psygnosis (1995). WipeOut. PlayStation.

References

Bateman, C. (2011). Imaginary Games. John Hunt Publishing.

Juul, J. (2005). Half-Real: Videogames between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds. MIT press.

Matsunaga, S. (2016). Did You Really Get a Mushroom? Player’s Fictional Actions in Videogame Playing. Aesthetics, 20, 89-102.

Robson, J. and A. Meskin. (2012a). Videogames and the First Person. In Mimesis: Metaphysics, Cognition, Pragmatics, edited by G. Currie, P. Kotako, and M. Pokorny. College Publications.

—. (2012b). Fiction and Fictional Worlds in Videogames. In The Philosophy of Computer Games, edited by J. R. Sageng, H. Fossheim, and T. Mandt Larsen. Springer Science & Business Media.

—. (2016). Videogames as Self-Involving Interactive Fictions. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 74(2), 165-177.

Sageng, J. R. (2012). In-Game Action. In The Philosophy of Computer Games, edited by J. R. Sageng, H. Fossheim, and T. Mandt Larsen. Springer Science & Business Media.

Tavinor, G. (2005). Videogames and Interactive Fiction. Philosophy and Literature, 29(1), 24-40.

—. (2008). Definition of Videogames. Contemporary Aesthetics, 6. http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=492. Accessed on 20/02/2018.

—. (2009). The Art of Videogames. John Wiley & Sons.

Thabet, T. (2017). Game Studies All Over the Place: Video Games and Gamer Identities. SciELO - EDUEL.

Velleman, J. D. (2008). Bodies, selves. American Imago, 65(3), 405-426.

Walton, K. L. (1990). Mimesis as Make-Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts. Harvard University Press.

—. (2013). Fictionality and Imagination Reconsidered. In From Fictionalism to Realism, edited by C. Barbero, M. Ferraris, and A. Voltolini. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Downloads

Published

2018-12-30

Issue

Section

Articles