Video Games as an Enhancement of Human Communication: The Case of Documentary Video Games
In: Cultural Perspectives of Video Games: From Desiger to PlayerSearch for other papers by Melita Zajc in
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Controversies relating to games such as Super Columbine Massacre, from 2005, and 9-11 Survivor, from 2003, point towards a particular discontent regarding games within society. When games are celebrated for their realism, this is typically a reference to their visual verisimilitude rather than an association with actual events. As new works, sometimes called ‘documentary’ or ‘serious’ games, attempt to make more tangible connections to the living world, new issues emerge concerning the appropriateness of doing so within a form commonly used for entertainment. In this chapter, I analyse documentary games from two angles. From the perspective of documentary genre understood not as a transmission but as a representation and interpretation of reality, and from the perspective of the particular role of the player. The effect of the uncanny, caused by serious games, results from that relationship between game and player that demands inclusion, previously unknown to mediated communication. Games not only deliver messages, but also simulate experiences. Applying the concept of the dispositive as initially developed for the cinema, I explain the particular mode of the address and the transformation of the role of the viewer into that of the player. These features enable an unprecedented form of user involvement and are also a major potential for games to enhance human communication.