Interactivity and interpassivity of gamers in video game practices
https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6355-2018-8-112-133
Abstract
This paper is dedicated to modern video game practices (idle games, achievement spam games, playbour) developed primarily in the segment of free-to-play games. over the course of the last several years the development of the video game industry facilitated the expansion of such concepts as “video game” or “video game practice” to the point of including some objects that may seem to contradict the traditional views regarding what a game is. As Illustrative examples there are self-playing games that require little to no action from a user (idle games), and also video games that suggest deliberately non-engaging and laborious tasks to the users with an intention to give them an incentive to pay extra for having these tasks done by the game itself (fee-to-pay games, playbour).
In order to give an explanation to the aforementioned phenomena, game scholars employed the concept of interpassivity developed by R. Pfaller and S. Žižek. By suggesting to regard the delegation of passivity to the other (suffering through the other) along with the delegation of activity (acting through the other) as mutually complement ways of constituting subjectivity Pfaller and Žižek established a language of description for an array of practices emerged during the digital era. By employing this concept in analyzing idlegames S. Fizek proved its applicability in the field of game studies. Based on her conclusions, in this paper we will make an attempt is made to employ the concept of interpassivity for explaining other modern video game practices.
About the Author
Maksim A. Podval’nyi
Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
postgraduate student;
bld. 6, Miusskaya sq., Moscow, 125993
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Review
For citations:
Podval’nyi M.A. Interactivity and interpassivity of gamers in video game practices. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2018;(8):112-133. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2073-6355-2018-8-112-133
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