Video Games and Embodiment

Abstract

In this article, the author discusses one way in which modern video games can illuminate the nature of human thinking and problem solving as situated and embodied. The author first discusses why, over the last several years, many people have become interested in video games as a site to study human thinking, problem solving, and learning. The author then discusses what he call the “projective stance,” a type of embodied thinking characteristic of many (but not all) video games, as well as a form of thinking that is also, but more subtly, pervasive in everyday life and social interaction as well.