Art of illusion second life5/26/2023 ![]() ![]() Most of these studies, albeit being related in concept, hail from different fields. McMahan, 2003 Tamborini & Bowman, 2010 Tamborini & Skalski, 2006 Weibel & Wissmath, 2011). Minsky, 1980 Steuer, 1992 Biocca, 1997 Lombard & Ditton, 1997 Wirth et al., 2003 Lee, 2004), and more recently, applied to digital games (see e.g. The concept of the feeling of presence vis–à–vis virtual technologies has been widely discussed over a number of years (see e.g. Presence / Self-Presence, Immersion and Illusion This will act as a springboard to an informal analysis of the design decisions taken in the game vis-a-vis the intentions outlined. The second section of the paper will provide a general introduction to the submitted game Illusion Master, briefly discussing its main plot and features in relation to the concepts outlined in the first section. Building upon these two theories, the paper will then propose an extension of the concept of self-presence, entitled objective self-presence. These will then be challenged particularly vis-à-vis the double-consciousness model introduced by Katie Salen & Eric Zimmermann in Rules of Play (2003), as well as Daniel Vella’s player-figure relation model (2014). ![]() The first section will look at the related theories of presence / self-presence, immersion, and unconscious illusion in digital games. It is for this reason that this paper aims to not only elaborate on the intentions, but also provide an academic grounding, as well as informally relate these intentions vis-a-vis the design of the game. Indeed, the game is designed in a way that remains playable (and possibly enjoyable) if players do not grasp the academic intentions of the artefact. ![]() Instead, the experience is meant to be elicited through conventional gameplay and ludic conventions. The intentions of the designed game are not made explicit through any form of information screen in the game’s menu system. For this reason, I suggest that readers do not read further than this introduction if they haven’t yet played the game. The game, which was created before this issue’s call for papers and originally meant for exhibition purposes in a contemporary art space, was originally designed as a standalone playable reflexive artefact on the mentioned concepts in game studies. The game, along with this corresponding paper, aim to challenge the definitions of the related concepts of unconscious illusion, presence / self-presence, and immersion in the players’ experience of digital games, proposing instead that when players are deeply involved in a game, they always remain aware of themselves as players outside the game, irrespective of their level of immersion within the game. The aim of this paper is to support, and elaborate on the intentions behind the designed game artifact Illusion Master. Objective self-presence, presence, self-presence, immersion, illusion, flow In this paper, it is argued that self-presence can also manifest itself through a double-consciousness where a player is both engrossed in the game, while remaining conscious of him/herself as a human being engaging with a game outside the game world. In games studies, this definition of presence is very much linked to the concept of immersion, which looks at how a player is surrounded by an immersive new reality. It is argued that self-presence need not necessarily involve a situation where players feel as if their virtual self is their actual self. The design process of the submitted game Illusion Master is used as a case study to show how the related concepts of presence and immersion can be addressed in a different manner in and through digital games. This paper provides an extension of the definition of the concept of self-presence (named Objective self-presence) in digital games, and in doing so, challenges the traditional concepts of immersion and presence / self-presence in games. The videogame discussed in this essay is freely available here.
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