Once more thinking about how to outline what I’m interested in. Digital games are software, and I’m interested in the translation of electric signals into light particles and of intention intio semiosis. The thing is also getting utterly messy and I believe that the concept of Assemblage is a fruitful approach of capturing video games.

materiality — from electric signals to particles of light

• Digital games are a bunch of electric signals running on some electronics
• Digital games are a cybernetic loop between player, hard- and software
• Video games are manifested through the images that are projected into the eyes of the player

meaning — from developer intentions to player experiences

• Digital games encode the intentions of the developers
• Digital games are the phenomenological experience of the player

Now, not all software is made equal. All texts are written with signs, but some of them become fiction, some of them how-to guides. Similarly, a video game is not a spread-sheet application. Somewhere, these two axes cross, and at that point there are patterns in place that sort the electric signals into a specific logic, deciding if their comming-together will ermerge as a game or as an office application (a differentiation that can be played with).