Are Computer Games Real?Patrick J. Coppock <patrick.coppock@unimore.it>Universityof Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy

Computer Games: Half-Real or Real?JesperJuul (2005) suggests computer games are “halfreal” because:Playing computer gamesis a real world activity people take part inPeople feelinvolvedwithgames and care aboutwhathappenswhenplayingthemGame-playinghas (or mayhave) negotiableconsequences in the real worldMyquestion: So why can wenot just saythat computer games are “real”?

Big Question:OK. Butwhat do weactuallymeanby “real”?Here: and first and foremost,”Cultural Units”

Material Cultural Artefacts

Intangible Cultural Artefacts

Mediated Cultural Artefacts

Tangible, Intangible & Mediated Cultural Artefacts

“Open” [Aesthetic] Works“Open works” are communicative strategies designed by authors with an active interpretational role for their readers in mind (Eco 1984) “An open text cannot be described as a communicative strategy if the role of its addressee (the reader in the case of verbal texts) has not been envisioned as at the moment of its generation” “The reader as an active principle of interpretation is a part of the picture of the generative process of the text.”

The Play ofIntention in Text

Transmediaremediation

SpeedRunsas Narrative Processeshttp://www.tv.com/uservideos/?search=speed+runs

Openness and NegotiationofConsequencesJuul (again): Itisnecessarytodescribe the relationshipbetween the game activity and the restof the world, e.g. between:Game rulesVariable and quantifiableoutcomesofgamesEmotionalattachmentsofplayerstovarioustypesofoutcomes

Key sources and issuesSources:Player ExperiencePlayer BiographiesPlayer MemoryIssues:Player conjecturesabout, conceptionsof, (past, present and future) actual and possibleconsequencesfor self and others.Narrower (more “local”) and broader (more “global”) pertinence and identityissues

Factuality and FictionThe actual world as a cultural construct (Eco):The experienced world as a “multitudeof world pictures or stateddescriptions […] epistemicworldsthat are frequentlymutuallyexclusive”Fictionalpossibleworlds:“Smallworlds”; “Handicappedworlds”; “Parasitical” on the actual world. “Constructedbyhumanminds and hands”.

Beyond Culture“Eventhough the real world is a cultural construct, onemightstillwonderabout the ontological status of the describeduniverse.

Self, Other and World asProcess

Past, Present, Future Possibility and Actuality

IntertwiningPast, Present, Future Possibility and ActualityPastActualitiesPresentActualities Future ActualitiesPastPossibilitiesPresentPossibilities Future Possibilities

Colin Powell Slides

Atom Egoyan

Orhan Pamuk

Elif Shahak

Kimveer Gill

Super Colombine Massacre RPG!

Dylan Klebold and Erik Harris

The Cultural RoleofFictionalPossibleWorldsFictionalcharacters live in a handicapped world. Whenweactuallyunderstandtheir fate, thenwe start to suspectthatwetoo, ascitizensof the actual world, frequentlyundergoourdestiny just becausewethinkofourworld in the same way asfictionalcharactersthinkoftheirown. Fiction suggeststhatperhapsourviewof the actual world isasimperfectasthatoffictionalcharacters.Thisis the way thatsuccessfulfictionalcharactersbecomeparamountexamplesof the “real” humancondition.(Umberto Eco)