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12.
INVASION OF THE MIND
Assumed in an examination
of gamer-game interaction, is a moment of disconnect. Physically,
it appears as though the player is detached from a game the moment
she presses pause or turns off the power to the console. As mentally
and physically present beings are what we are accustomed to interacting
with, we are quick to perceive that someone in a social setting
is "all there". Cyberpunk texts like Kathryn Bigelow's
Strange Days have suggested the movement toward a concealed
interface. In her example, a physical contraption is concealable
by a hat or wig but the evolution of these devices into the level
of nanotech implants is readily conceivable. Modern technology's
most defining developmental trait is a decrease in size: iPod
minis, PDAs and cellphones that function as personal computers,
the mini
PS2. Technology increases in scope as its occupation of physical
space dwindles away. But perhaps we are at a moment where the
actual presence of an interface is already unnecessary. I have
caught myself analyzing my surroundings from the point of view
of avatars I take-up in play. There is someone at a bar that I
don't want to speak to, don't want to make eye contact with. Without
the training of specific games, my instincts would be to look
down or turn my head so that I may negotiate my way out of the
situation unnoticed. Having recently become keen on the extremely
popular subgenre of action games that set up goals requiring an
enacting of stealth however, my options (for a fleetingly moment)
feel as though they have increased significantly. There's a dark
corner over there I can hide in. I could scale that wall and escape
the room. Tip-toeing, I could sneak up behind this person and
deliver a karate chop to their collar. The rules of gameplay invade
my consciousness in certain environments, yet I am able to realize
both the moral and physical capacity of my non-digital self. It
would seem as though I prefer to act in relation to my playing
mode. This is attributable to an emulation of real movement in
game design, and as such, it is alarming to consider the trend
towards an ever more immersive and realistic play scenario: one
in which the apparent disconnect will mean nothing; one in which
my ability to recognize these thoughts as the result of too much
gaming disappears. When only select individuals in a group become
hyperreal citizens allowing physical and virtual reality the appearance
of seamless intermingling10,
the potential for unification en masse is void.
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