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Crogan, P. The experience of information in computer games. Paper presented at 5th International Digital Arts and Culture Conference, RMIT, Melbourne. 
Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard (9/9/04, 9:14 PM)   
Resource type: Proceedings Article
BibTeX citation key: Crogan2003
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Categories: General
Keywords: Cybernetics, First Person Shooters
Creators: Crogan
Publisher: DAC (RMIT, Melbourne)
Collection: 5th International Digital Arts and Culture Conference
Views: 8/1071
Abstract
This paper responds to Espen Aarsethís
provocative proposition about the way First Person
Shooter games reveal a fundamental modality of human
experience by embodying a dialectic of ìaporia and
epiphany.î It is argued that if the First Person Shooter
Doom tells us something fundamental about living today,
then this is because of the programmatic nature of the
prevailing cybernetic world view of which Doom is an
elegant illustration. The military origins of this world
view are then examined. The logistical tendency to order
and control contingent events is discussed as a central
legacy of the military source of cybernetic thought
influencing contemporary technoculture. The concept of
information in the widespread notion of information
processing is cited as a key element of this legacy.
Information is examined in its initial mathematical
conception as a means for calculating future eventuality
in a cybernetic communication system. The experience
provided in the First Person Shooter is discussed as a
ludic variant of the logistical tendency to anticipate the
future by means of modelling and simulation. The ironic
or critical potential of the First Person Shooter as a game
which not only plays out but also plays with the
prevailing values of technoculture is discussed.
Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard  
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