Figures of the avatar: semi-autonomous agents, presence effects and interpellation in videogames

Abstract

In this article, we analyse the strategies that allow non-player characters to create the illusion that they are autonomous agents in the service of complex videogame worlds. We describe these characters as semi-autonomous agents, and approach them as mediation devices that can induce a presence effect and “interpellate” the players’ avatars in order to make them more emotionally present and involved in the videogame world. We proceed in two stages. First, we examine the immersive and simulative logics that foster the impression that these agents are part of an autonomous world, almost as though videogame worlds didn’t rely on the presence of the players’ avatars. Second, we probe these logics further using Althusser’s analysis of interpellation in order to approach videogame worlds as simulating both worlds and relationships to the world. We consider semi-autonomous agents as sophisticated “interpellators” that have been carefully programmed to capture the players’ attention and assign them a fixed role or function. However, interpellation is not a one-way way process because it fosters “counter-interpellations,” involving the players in the game, not just on the level of their performance, but also as subjects in the videogame world within which they feel they exist. We use concrete examples drawn from a comparative study of the interpellation and presence effect mechanisms that we have identified in two single-player videogames, namely Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) and The Last of Us 2 (2020), both of which have gained recognition for their character design and for the quality and depth of their diegetic universes.