Jaroslav Švelch
ABSTRACT
This paper tries to analyze the modes of visual representation in digital games and introduces the idea of illusionism, a rhetorical position in a game text that asserts that there is nothing more to the fictional game world than a player can see. This is contrasted by illustrationism, an approach that lays bare the fact that the game world is not shown in its entirety. Based on this distinction, I present ways of partial and multi-modal representation of game worlds that have been and can be used to bypass the urge for unconditional illusionism. The article also makes point about the power of written or spoken language as a code underutilized in contemporary digital games.
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Index Terms
- What you can't see is what you don't get: paradigms of game world visualization
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