Capa: Herlander Elias (2009) First Person Shooter: The Subjective Cyberspace. Communication  +  Philosophy  +  Humanities. .
First Person Shooter: The Subjective Cyberspace

by Herlander Elias

Collection: Ars
Year of edition: 2009
ISBN: 978-989-654-019-7
Price of the print edition: € 15   Order


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Synopsis

Two decades ago videogames were just moving sprites flashing on arcade games’ screens. A decade later videogames became a common household appliance and families began playing with these electronic games. As the personal computer developed, the Internet came up. Gaming consoles turned out to be pretty much desired and affordable. Nowadays, multimedia language evolved and the mobile age of the Internet is upon us. There’s only one videogame genre enabling a new form of interaction. It’s the First Person Shooter, a videogame genre that has surpassed cyberspace visionaries’ theories and it is acclaimed worldwide due to its online gaming capabilities.
The future begins here, as the FPS becomes an interface model for new media products to come. No longer is enough to see things from the outside, the user-player wants to get inside cyberspace, to become the character. In this way we prefer playing to be “there”, on the virtual ground, left to fate. Either we’re armed or outgunned, outnumbered or betrayed, but in the end, as most of the researches point out: in FPS videogames, players actually become much more space-oriented and fit for survival. The Subjective Cyberspace provided by the FPS is our new media ground, and it will inevitably surpass the borders of gaming.



Index

FOREWORD

1

INTRODUCTION

3

AUTHOR’S NOTE: MIRROR’S EDGE

9

1 THE CONCEPT OF FPS

9

1.1 WHAT IS A FPS?

1.2 IN YOUR FACE

1.3 THE SCREEN AS MASK

1.4 SUBJECTIVE SHOOTER

1.5 GRAPHIC ENGINE

1.6 A REAL VIRTUALITY

1.7 THE TARGET-IMAGE

1.8 PERSPECTIVE DEVICE

1.9 TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE

1.10 NEW CULTURE, NEW GAMING

 

2 INSIDE CYBERSPACE 

53

2.1 SLICED REALITY

2.2 CYBERSPACE – A VEHICULATION SPACE

2.3 TRON: THE ELECTRONIC WORLD

2.4 UNCHARTED TERRITORY?

2.5 ART OF HUNTING

2.6 THE CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE

2.7 MEDIUM CONFIGURATIONS

2.8 TYPOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY: BEYOND CHAT

2.9 THE MATRIX – A SUBJECTIVE LANDSCAPE

 

3 MACHINE-SUBJECTIVITY 

93

3.1 THE TRAJECTIVE SUBJECT

3.2 SYNTHESPIANS

3.3 SUBSTITUTE SUBJECTIVITY

3.4 SHARED IDENTITY 

3.5 FELLOW PATRIOTS: CAPTURE THE FLAG!

3.6 ALTERNATIVE FIRST PERSON 

3.7 MULTIPLAYER – MULTIPLE SUBJECTIVITY

3.8 NEW COMMUNITIES

3.9 DANGEROUS NETWORKS

 

4 CONCLUSION 

127

GLOSSARY 

131

AFTERWORD 

141

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

143

VIDEOGRAPHY 

159

FILMOGRAPHY 

163

CHRONOLOGICAL APPENDIX

165

Support:
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
União Europeia
Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional
Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade
Universidade da Beira Interior
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