Ocularization

In video game studies, ocularization “describes the player’s visual positioning regarding his access to the implied game environment” (Arsenault et al., 2015, p. 109)

François Jost’s (1983) concept of ocularization, which describes dynamics between vision, space and fiction, frames the question from the mechanical act of visual perception, rather than a passive, finalized display of results, or a psychologically-oriented act from the spectator.

Ocularization indicates the relation between what the camera shows and what a character sees. INTERNAL OCULARIZATION would refer to those shots where the camera appears to take the place of the character’s eye. EXTERNAL OCULARIZATION (or ZERO OCULARIZATION) would indicate those shots where the field of vision is located outside a character’s own. (Stam, Burgoyne & Flitterman-Lewis, 1992)