| dc.description.abstract | In this research master thesis, I attempt to further game literacy, by looking to established vocabularies
from other fields of study. Specifically, I transpose outside terms for describing movement systems in
specialized detail, to interpretations of video games. This adds to extant game studies works that look at
physical and conceptual spatial properties of games. Such works see players interpreting games spatially,
through meaningfully organized systems of movement. I chose to add to these works on the kinetic aspect
of games, with my own provisional and experimental transposition of terms taken from Erin Manning’s
philosophical and cultural studies efforts. Manning develops numerous concepts for describing motion
of all kinds, especially so for her interpretations of dance. She does this with a so-called process ontological
intent, which is to philosophically frame and describe all reality as interrelated, across all scales, and also to
describe all things as adaptive and moving, each in a meaningfully distinct way. Manning develops concepts
mainly through interpreting cultural artifacts, akin to my intent for this thesis. For this experiment, I transpose
eight terms developed in Manning’s interpretations of dance, to an extensive case study of the popular video
game Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Those eight terms of Manning deal most concretely with different
aspects of motion, at different levels of scale and complexity. Other theorists with interpretive concepts for motion
systems, for dance specifically, seemed less immediately applicable, comprehensive, or viable for this present
thesis. In eight paragraphs, I test the viability of eight of Manning’s concepts, with relevant supplementary concepts
explored in each paragraph. Broadly, this leads me to describe how players are meaningfully moved to act in
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and games more broadly. I also get at how this is meaningfully framed as involving
larger moving systems in such games. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a game in which most all elements are
overtly dynamic, adaptive, and interrelated. I therefore chose it as a case study to extensively try Manning’s concepts on.
Other video games provide counterexamples in each paragraph, to each interpretive use of one of Manning’s terms. | |
