Realism in Gameplay: Digital Fiction and Embodiment

Abstract

In this article we argue that digital simulations promote and explore complex relations between the player and the machines

cybernetic system with which it relates through gameplay, that is,

the real application of tactics and strategies used by participants as

they play the game. We plan to show that the realism of

simulation, together with the merger of artificial objects with the

real world, can generate interactive empathy between players and

their avatars. In this text, we intend to explore augmented reality

as a means to visualise interactive communication projects. With

ARToolkit, Virtools and 3ds Max applications, we aim to show

how to create a portable interactive platform that resorts to the

environment and markers for constructing the games scenario.

Many of the conventional functions of the human eye are being

replaced by techniques where images do not position themselves

in the traditional manner that we observe them (Crary, 1998), or

in the way we perceive the real world. The digitalization of the

real world to a new informational layer over objects, people or

environments, needs to be processed and mediated by tools that

amplify the natural human senses.