The material production of virtuality: trials of explication in the design and development of computer games

Abstract

Abstract: This article seeks to contribute to the development of a relationship between digital game studies and science and technology studies by studying the design and development of computer games at three leading UK studios in the light of what MacKenzie refers to "the material production of virtuality" (MacKenzie 2007). The article examines the common ground in treatment of 'the virtual' and 'virtuality' in science and technology studies and studies of material culture and the importance placed in the relationship between 'virtuality' and 'materiality' as "a dialectical process of imagination followed by its realisation&quot