Transcoding Action: Embodying the game Pedro Cardoso & Miguel Carvalhais ID+, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto, Portugal.
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[email protected] Abstract this performance that is monitored and interpreted by the While playing a video game, the player-machine interaction is not game system, registering very specific data that is solely characterised by constraints determined by which sensors subordinated to the diverse kinds of input devices that are and actuators are embedded in both parties, but also by how their in current use. actions are transcoded. This paper is focused on that transcoding, By operating those input devices the player interacts with on understanding the nuances found in the articulation between the game world. In some games, for the player to be able to the player's and the system's actions, that enable a communication feedback loop to be established through acts of gameplay. This act in the game world, she needs to control an actor, an communication process is established in two directions: 1) player agent that serves as her proxy. This proxy is her actions directed at the system and, 2) system actions aimed at the representation in the game world. It is not necessarily her player. For each of these we propose four modes of transcoding representation in the story of the game. The player’s proxy that portray how the player becomes increasingly embodied in the is the game element she directly controls, and with which system, up to the moment when the player's representation in the she puts her actions into effect.