The Enduring Encrustation in Digital Games: an Archaeogamer’s Excavation
This research addresses the game as a medium with its own memory; as a form (a way of being and acting) which thinks and is product and producer of an audiovisual technoculture. As it thinks and acts, its memory can be excavated by the archaeogamer. Each game, before telling us something about its genre, visual elements, gameplay, mechanics and other characteristics commonly associated with the medium, tells us about itself. Each game, therefore, allows us to think of a state-game. Dubois (2014) proposes the state-video as a form which thinks image and device, all in one; thus, the video is not an object, but a state. From such perspective, it is possible to understand that the game doesn’t only activate gameplay commands between user and device, but also something which lasts: its encrustation ability. Such capacity is meant as the encrustation of the past in the present. From an archaeological attitude standpoint and with an archaeogamer mindset it is possible to excavate the surface of games. In doing so, a diversity of elements which allow us to think in terms of layers of such encrustation can be identified. Using an archaeological attitude in the game Diablo, excavation and map creation schemes were developed, aiming to authenticate, organize, map and understand the encrustation ability. These revealed four layers which emerged for games within games: technoaesthetic, recursive, technostalgic and of déjà vu. Employing tensioning of theories, methodological applications and empiricism, we aspire to answer how the encrustation ability, from an audiovisual technoculture perspective, updates itself. Besides, we aim to understand how it makes other games encrusted in the one being played visible through archeology, which is done by tribute, self-reference, nostalgia, affection, déjà vu, recursivity, and interface, among others; thus, taking us to a state-game.
Key-words: Encrustation. Digital games. Archaeogaming. State-game. Communication.
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This is the abstract of my master’s thesis, defended on March 2, 2020. It is in Portuguese, I hope it will be productive for you to practice a new language! The complete work is available on the UNISINOS digital repository at: http://www.repositorio.jesuita.org.br/handle/UNISINOS/9110
I created a kind of collection that contains all the images, maps and videos produced during the research. Link: http://camiladeavila.com.br/?page_id=168
