On Videogame Form

Abstract

In this chapter, we focus on the notion of form as distinct from material and intertwined with content. Following Russian Formalism and Neoformalism, we first discuss how considering the work as a machine enables a shift from focusing on authorial intent to a focus on how the work evokes an aesthetic experience in the player through the defamiliarization of form. In this broader aesthetic response meaning is put on equal footing with other formal devices, all of which work together in different motivational categories to form the dominant, the organizing principle underlying the work. To get to this dominant, we stress the importance of context which allows the critic to see where the work challenges not just technical and cultural norms, but also social, political, and/or economic norms.