Sunday, 20 July 2014

Post paratext to Brechtian Alienation

Hey all,

Hiatus x2. So far things have been working on further papers (like Brechtian Alienation in Games) and working on the regular literature review (which is much less interesting). There's also been a couple of articles up on VideAu which you can find here.

So in lieu of an actual post here's the abstract for the Brecht piece I've been working on.



A Brechtian Alienation Analysis of Video Games
The fourth wall is constantly being broken in video games via the intrusion of mechanics and features that cause no end of distraction, breaking the player’s immersion in both the game’s narrative (if it does have one) and in the gameplay (which is active). Yet these breaks are an integral part of games, whether through loading, saving or any other mechanical system that detracts from playing the core game, aren’t analysed as thoroughly as they could be. Bertolt Brecht’s “Verfremdungseffekt,” or distancing effect, provides a much needed foundation in the analysis of these sections within games that provoke a feeling of alienation.

More to come next week - new and original!

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