Subjectivity, simulation, and signal bleeding : playing with reality in the remedy connected universe

Abstract

This dissertation is a rhetorical and phenomenological interrogation of subjective experience in digital simulations, including but not limited to digital games. It is an attempt to articulate how the digital makes possible the feeling of presence or passage between real and virtual worlds and account for the blurring of the perceptual boundary that separates them. The term signal bleeding is introduced as a conceptual metaphor to describe how real and virtual “signals” bleed into one output or representation of reality. To account for the subject, the self is first conceptualized as an amalgamation of information organized by narrative, a linguistic product that allows the body to attend to itself and coordinate action. The “I” is a virtual operator or ghost in the machine, data organized into a story for the purposes of identification. Humans as informational organisms are mutually constituted by their representational models, figurations based on data profiles, preferences, and histories online. A symbiotic interdependent relationship with computers has developed through everyday interaction with information and communication technologies (ICTs). Digital subjectivity is interrogated at the point of interaction between human-computer and human-data as well as gamic conceptions of player through an ontology of play and avatar embodiment. Simulation is first introduced with Baudrillard’s conception of hyperreality or signs that no longer have referents, by which he argues that what we conceive of as reality is simulation. Later in the work, digital simulation is addressed as code, procedure, and narrative. Future narratives and storyplaying are also discussed as the means by which movement through digital simulations is possible. The rhetorical gameworld model (RGM) is created for the purpose of analyzing world construction and experience in digital simulations. The model is then applied to the Remedy Connected Universe, a narrative web that connects four digital games developed by Remedy Entertainment: Alan Wake, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, Control, and Alan Wake 2. The RGM serves as the framework for analysis of subjectivity, simulation, and signal bleeding across the games. Points of overlap between the real and the virtual are identified and discussed before finally sketching broader applications of the model.Communication Studie