ACTION AND COMMUNICATION IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD OF VIDEO GAMES

Abstract

The ambition of this paper is to discuss the possible ways of analysing one of the latest media of our times, the video games. By way of preliminary, we attempt to define the new media element that we call video game, followed by an investigation into the possibilities of narrative/discursive and medial analyses applied to video games. We deem our article necessary as video games define our present to a great extent, filling in a considerable amount of time in the life of young and middle-aged individuals alike – still, there are very few domestic analyses on the complex narrative structures, rhetorical practices, and intermedial relationships of computer games. News on the extreme ‘overuse of computer games’ take charge of public discourse, reporting – otherwise rightly – on cases featuring computer game users for whom these media served as sources of inspiration for their engagement in violent acts. But, at the same time, we often tend to overlook the fact that this new medium offers excellent new possibilities for ‘taking possession’ of complex virtual worlds, establishing new types of communication media, and creating first-class narratives.