An examination of the possible limits to embodiment within digital worlds which uses Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology as a critical framework. Three important aspects of primordial subjectivity are identified: touchant/touche; virtual polymorphism and intersubjective lifeworlds.

1. ‘In the game’? Embodied
Subjectivity in Gaming
Environments
Dr. Robert Farrow
The Philosophy of Computer Games Conference,
Madrid, January 2012

2. The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

3. Tendencies in Games Design
• Digital interactions are increasingly using more/all of the
body as a control device
• Human-computer interaction increasingly based on natural or
mimetic forms of movement
• Increasing accessibility by lowering learning threshold
• Convergence between everyday bodily actions and activity
within digital environments
The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

4. The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology

5. Whole Body Interaction
• Motion sensors
• Gesture recognition Should we use the
• Natural user interface language of
• Facial/vocal recognition ‘embodiment?’
• Touchless interfaces
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6. ‘Embodied’ Interactions
• “Offer control devices that allow for a more natural type of
interaction”
• Guitar Hero “facilitates the feeling of presence in the digital
environment” and helps provide a “stronger affective
experience”
Bianchi-Berthouze, Kim and Patel (2007:102)
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7. Presence, Habit & Learning
• The anti-representational (i.e. anti-Cartesian) turn (Dourish,
2001; Dreyfus 1996)
• Dreyfus (1998; 2001) argues that we can only progress beyond
rote learning in digital environments when we experience ‘full-
bodied presence’
• Is presence is what makes us care about success/failure?
• Action as habit, acquired through experience of the world:
knowledge in the hands” (Merleau-Ponty, 1962)
• Better games, better learning within and through games
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8. Embodiment: Perspectives
• During play, we employ virtual, surrogate bodies, “taking a projective
stance” (Gee, 2008)
• “Total immersion is presence” (Brown and Cairns, 2004)
• Immersion, engagement or presence? (McMahan, 2003)
• Bayliss (2007:5) argues “though the sense of ‘being there’ may seem to
be a direct experience of the game-world for the sufficiently competent
player, it is intrinsically mediated by the complex relationship between
the player and their locus of manipulation, a relationship based on the
distinction between embodiment as a state of being and embodying as
an act.” .
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9. Embodiment: Incorporation
• The “metaphor of immersion as deep absorption *has
become] conflated with a metaphor of immersion as
traversable space habitation”. We should speak of
incorporation as a precondition for the sense of inhabiting a
digital world
• Incorporation: “the subjective experience of inhabiting a
virtual environment facilitated by the potential to act
meaningfully within it while being present to others.”
(Calleja, 2007; 2011)
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10. Examples

11. Half Life (1998)
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12. Medal of Honor (1999/2010)
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13. The Legend of Zelda:
Skyward Sword (2011)
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14. Ōkami (2008)

15. Rez (2001)
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16. Flower (2009)
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17. Avatars and Digital Worlds
• Talk of embodiment is more plausible when dealing with
certain kinds of games
– 3D games with avatars
– Virtual Reality
• Some avatars are more ‘human’ than others
• Some games don’t have avatars at all
• Are there limits to digital embodiment? If so, what are they?
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18. Thesis
• We need better ways of understanding and describing the
experience of game play and activity within digital worlds
• This line of thought is developed here with reference to
Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception (nb. Dourish,
2001; Crick, 2011; Calleja, 2011)
– Touching and being-touched
– Virtual Polymorphism
– Intersubjectivity/Lebenswelt
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19. Phenomenology of Perception (i/iv)
Why Merleau-Ponty?
• Many theorists in both HCI and games research have used
Merleau-Ponty to explore issues around embodiment
• Emphasis on the centrality of the body and the embodied
nature of human experience
• The sensory information we receive from the body enables us
to place ourselves in “a world of implicit relations and
movements”
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20. Phenomenology of Perception (ii/iv)
Touchant-touché
• We cannot touch ourselves or others without becoming
aware of our own corporeality, our capacity to be touched
• The dual-aspect of touching and being touched is part of the
primordial experience of human subjectivity
• Bodies within game worlds cannot conform to this duality
• Asymmetrical relationship between the touch of the game
player and the digital world
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21. Phenomenology of Perception (iii/iv)
Virtual Polymorphism
• Incorporation of technology into the perception of the body
(Grosz, 1994; Murray, 1999)
• Mimetic game interfaces are designed to facilitate this sense
of polymorphism through incorporation of controllers and
avatars into the phenomenological body
• Contra Crick (2011) embodiment is a necessary feature of all
human activity: implied distinction between
embodied/cerebral experiences is unsafe
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22. Phenomenology of Perception (iv/iv)
Intersubjective Lifeworlds
• Action and perception are intertwined with one’s existential
condition (nb. Stimmung)
• Embodiment is bound up with practical context
• Embodiment is also a source of meaning
• Tetris might present a visually coherent representation of
space, but there’s no intrinsic meaning in destroying blocks
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23. LA Noire (2011)
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24. • Convincing characters
• Compelling narratives
• Moral ambiguity
Heavy Rain - image of bodily movements
• Mimicry
Heavy Rain (2010)
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25. Mass Effect 2 (2011)
• Lasting consequences to choices
• Detailed worlds, cultures
Mass Effect - image
• Investment
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26. I finally realized the problem I was having with Skyrim: It felt
soulless. I may as well have killed Agnis and taken her stuff,
because what did it matter whether she was there or not? I
suspected that nothing I did would ever matter,and that has
been my experience as I’ve progressed through the game.
Skyrim is a huge world drawn with a level of detail that entices
us to lose ourselves there, and is filled with things to do,
enough to keep us occupied probably for years. But it also
feels empty and pointless.
Skyrim (2011) Scimea (2011)
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27. Dark Souls profoundly understands online play’s defining
feature: humanity. Though there’s an in-game mechanic that
Dark Souls (Graphic)
shares the name (a typically deft touch, blending concept and
lore), the focus is always on others. Dark Souls’ multiplayer
runs alongside its single player, but not always in parallel:
asynchronous messages left for you offer hints or tricks, while
bloodstains and ghosts flicker in and out of reality. The key is
its tightly controlled feature set: with no voice chat and no
friends, this lonely world is kept permanently lonely.
Dark Souls (2011) Edge, Best Online Experience 2011
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28. Shadow of the Colossus (2005)
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29. Conclusion
• Technologies and interfaces which promote using more of
the body than just the hands to interact with digital worlds
do not necessarily promote a sense of ‘embodiment’
• There is more to authentic embodiment in a game world than
an autogenic, mimetic or intuitive user interface
• One limit to digital embodiment may be the non-reflexive
nature of touch in game worlds
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30. Conclusion
• A more immersive or authentic sense of embodiment within
digital worlds may be more to do with a convincing,
meaningful world within which the player has a sense of
choice and responsibility
• Digital forms of embodiment are never primordial, and are
predicated on physical embodiment
• Phenomenological descriptions based on the concept of
embodiment can inform the design of gaming and virtual
learning environments
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31. Robert Farrow
r.j.farrow@open.ac.uk
flavors.me/philosopher1978
Jo Iacovides
i.iacovides@open.ac.uk
joiacovides.blogspot.com

32. Institute of Educational Technology
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
www.open.ac.uk/iet