Interactive fiction video games as cyborg theatre. A postphenomenological approach

Abstract

Parker-Starbuck's (2011) notion of the cyborg theatre for performance art, through the incorporation of bodies and technologies, indicates an interesting field of research for video games, and specifically for the contemporary, real-time, 3D and avatar-based interactive fiction (IF) genre. In order to establish a framework of analysis for video games and IF as a type of cyborg theatre, the current article suggests postphenomenology as the relevant theoretical and methodological research vehicle. This article investigates the basic concepts of postphenomenology and how they apply to IF, introducing postphenomenology as an appropriate methodology for game design, gaming as a type of (virtual) performance, and game analysis. The present discussion serves as an analytical, postphenomenological specialisation of Parker-Starbuck's cyborg theatre notion for IF.