The Video Game as a Medium, Part III

In the previous part of this article, I took a closer look at the meaning of media-instances and tried to define the raw material of the video game medium. In this final part of the article, I will examine how this raw material is assembled and articulated in order to create a meaningful aesthetic experience for the user.


Simulated Representation:
The Articulation of Things Present

In its broadest sense, the video game can be seen as a simulated representation, mediated through an 'instance' of a computer-based medium. This simulated representation becomes possible through the strengths of one of the raw materials of the video game medium, the algorithm, which enables both reciprocity and articulation. Of course, a video game does not just consist of algorithm-based instructions or programs. It also draws back on a variety of stored data like images, animation, text files and sound, and also input, which must be articulated into the process as well. In that sense, video game as a software artifact consist then of three basic components, data, input and instructions. But it is the processes of assemblage and articulation that give presence to the simulated representation.

In order to understand how this assemblage and articulation takes place we can borrow a theory from Linguistics: The notion of ‘signification levels', developed as a model by French Linguist Emile Benveniste. This notion has later been also utilized by Roland Barthes in his study on the structure of narratives.

If we approach a video game from the perspective of this model, we can distinguish two layers of articulation in the process of the creation of meaning:

1)On one hand, there is a paradigmatic (or analytical) level, which contains a number of elements which are by themselves denoting nothing more than what they are: an image, a sound, an instruction.

2) On the other hand their is a syntagmatic (or synthetic) level, in which the neutral paradigmatic elements, as they climb up vertically, create new meanings. These are meaning that they alone would not be able to create.

In other words, if the elements on the horizontal axis are combined, they rise up onto a new level that produces meaning. Assemblage and Articulation are therefore the processes that create meaning.


Here, this article on the video game as a medium comes to an end. Thanks for the patience that you showed throughout the read. I hope you enjoyed all of it. Until another time, take care!


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