Ghosts of the Present Past: Spectrality in the Video Game Object
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/jpg.2943Abstract
The aim of the article is to analyse the phenomenon of ghost characters in video games from the perspective of Jacques Derrida’s concept of hauntology, and to use this as the starting point for a hauntological engagement with the video game object’srelationship with its own past. The paper will investigateghostly figuresand their spectral status inside the video game environment, as well as their uncertain hauntological status as both fictional bygone souls and digital in-game objects.On the basis of this analysis of ghostly figures in video game environments, I draw a line between the past of the fictional world and the past of the game world, and examine what happens when they overlap.The dual status of the in-game ghost will thereby serve to metonymically anchor an investi-gation into the duality of the game as a whole, as both fiction and digital materiality, and of the dif-ferent dimensions of the past that exist in between these two levels of the game object.
References
Games
K Games. BioShock. PC, 2007.
Airtight Games, Murdered: Soul Suspect, 2014.
BioWare, Mass Effect(series).PC, 2007-2012.
BioWare, Dragon Age (series).PC,2009-2014.
Cardboard ComputerKentucky Route Zero. PC.CD Projekt RED,The Witcher (series).PC, 2013-2016.
CD Projekt RED,The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.PC, 2011.
From Software,Dark Souls. PC.2011.From Software.Dark Souls 2. PC.2014.
IO Interactive,Hitman: Contracts.PC.2004.Irrational Games, System Shock 2. PC.1999.
Maxis,The Sims 2. PC, 2004.Monolith Productions,F.E.A.R. (series).PC, 2005-2011.
Namco. Pac-Man. Arcade,1980.Night School.Studio Oxenfree.PC.2016.
Number NoneInc.,Braid.PC.2008.Quantic Dream,Beyond: Two Souls.Playstation 3, 2013.
The Chinese Room,Dear Esther, PC, 2012.
Ubisoft Montreal.Assassin's Creed: Revelations.PC, 2011.
Valve Corporation. Half-Life 2. PC, 2004.
References
Aarseth, E. “I Fought the Law: Transgressive Play and The Implied Player”. InProceedings of DiGRA International Conference: Situated Play, Tokyo, Japan, September 24–28, 2007.
Akutagawa, R. . Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories. New York: Penguin Classics, 2009.
Arsenault, D. & Perron, B. . “In the Frame of the Magic Cycle. The Circle(s) of Gameplay.”In The Video GameTheory Reader 2, edited by B. Perron and M.J.P. Wolf, New York: Routledge, 2009.
Barad, K. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.
Barad, K.“Quantum Entanglements andHauntological Relations of Inheritance: Dis/continuities, SpaceTime Enfoldings, and Justice-to-Come.” Derrida Today, 3(2), 240-268, 2010.
Barad, K. “Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart”. Parallax: Diffracted Worlds –Diffractive Readings: Onto-Epistemologies and the Critical Humanities, 20(3), 168-187, 2004.
Belting, H.Antropologia obrazu: Szkice nauki o obrazie.Krak w: TAiWPN Universitas, 2007.
Calleja, G. In-Game: From Immersion to Incorporation.Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2011.
Davis, C. “Hauntology, Spectres and Phantoms.” French Studies, 59(3), 373-379, 2005.
Derrida, J. Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International.New York: Routledge, 1994.
Epley, N., Waytz, A., & Cacioppo, J. T. “On Seeing Human: a Three-factor Theory of Anthropomorphism.”Psychological Review, 114 (4), 864-886, 2007.
Fernández-Vara, C.”Game Spaces Speak Volumes: Indexical Storytelling.” In Proceeding of DiGRA 2011 Conference: Think Design Play, Hilversum, The Netherlands, September 14-17, 2011.
Fisher, M.“What Is Hauntology?” Film Quarterly, 66 (1), 16-24, 2012.
Freud, S. The Uncanny.New York: Penguin Books, 2003.
Hägglund, M. Radical Atheism: Derrida and the Time of Life.Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008.
Heeter, C.“Being There: The Subjective Experience of Presence.” Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 1(2), 262–271, 1992.
Janik, J. Glitched Perception: Beyond the Transparency and Visibility of the Video Game Object. TransMissions:Journal of Filmand Media Studies, 2(2), 65-82, 2017.
Janik, J. Game/r -Play/er -Bio-Object. Exploring Posthuman Values in Video Game Research. In Proceedings of The Philosophy of Computer Games Conference,http://gameconference.itu.dk/papers/14%20-%20janik%20-%20gamer%20player%20bioobject.pdf ,date accessed 23 December 2019, Copenhagen, 2018.
Jenkins, H.“Game Design as Narrative Architecture.”In First Person : New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, edited by N. Wardrip-Fruin and P. Harrigan, 118-130. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT, 2004.
Jørgensen, K. GWI: “The Gameworld Interface”. In Proceedings of The Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, Bergen, Norway, October 2-4, 2013.
Kantor, T. ea r mier i: Teksty z lat, 1975-1984. Wrocław: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossoli skich, 2004.
Kłossowicz, J. Tadeusz Kantor -teatr.Warszawa:Pa stwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1991.
Kurosawa, A. Rashōmon, Daiei Film, Japan,1950.
Leino, O.T. „Death Loop as a Feature.”Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research, 12(2): http://gamestudies.org/1202/articles/death_loop_as_a_feature, date accessed 3 September 2017, 2012.
Löffler, P.“Ghosts of the City: A Spectrology of Cinematic Spaces. “ communication +1, 4(1): https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cpo/vol4/iss1/9 , date accessed 27 June 2018, 2015.
Marzec, A.Widmontologia. eoria filozofi zna i prak yka ar ys y zna ponowo zesno i. Warszawa: Fundacja Bęc Zmiana, 2015.
McCrea, C.“Gaming's Hauntology: Dead Media in Dead Rising, Siren and Michigan Report from Hell.”In Horror video games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play, edited by B. Perron. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2009.
Muniak, R.F. Efekt lalki: Lalka jako obraz i rzecz. Krak w: Universitas, 2010.
Pleśniarowicz, K. ea r mier i ade sza an ora. Chotom w: Verba, 1990.Reindau, D. “Son Races Deceased Father's Ghost in Xbox Racer, Makes Internet Cry.”Polygon: <https://www.polygon.com/2014/7/23/5929075/rallisport-challenge-ghost-son-races-father-xbox> ,date accessed 23 December 2019, 2014
Royle, N.The uncanny.New York: Routledge, 2003.
Ryan, M.-L.“Narrative and the Split Condition of Digital Textuality.”In Videogame, Player, Text. Edited by B. Atkins and T. Krzywinska, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005.
Shakespeare, W. Hamlet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Święcicki, K.Historia w teatrze Tadeusza Kantora.Pozna : Wydawnictwo Pozna skie, 2007
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright in their articles and grant the Journal of the Philosophy of Games (JPG) right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the following licence: Creative Commons Licence : CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. The licence allows others to share the work for non-commercial purposes with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal, but does not allow others to create derivative works based on the work without the author’s permission.
- Authors are allowed to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), provided that such distribution includes an acknowledgement of the article’s initial publication in JPG.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). Authors who distribute their work after its acceptance by JPG but prior to its publication agree to indicate on the manuscript that it will be published in JPG. Authors agree that they will not publish their work in any other journals, anthologies, or monographs before the date on which their work is published by JPG.
- Authors grant JPG a royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide license to create derivative works based on their articles and to publish their articles or any part of their articles in compilations and anthologies.
In special cases, it may be possible for the author to negotiate an open licence other than the CC BY-NC-ND.
