Abstract
There is much to be learnt if we situate the study of computer games in a broader ‘ecology’, combining media ecologies with sensory, political and other ecologies in a ‘transdisciplinary metamethodology’ (Genosko, 2003). This methodology enables a better understanding of both games themselves and of what games can tell us more generally about our new hyper-mediated lives. The paper departs from Félix Guattari's concept of ‘three ecologies’ (here taken to include the technical aspects) of self, socius and environment. Sketches are drawn from recent research into computer games that allows for the diverse, often experimental, ecological niches of games. The first is a sketch of games’ historical contexts, crucially the concurrent rise of capital, aesthetics as a problem of judgment, and industrial technics. Further sketches are of games’ activation of ‘relational histories’ (Harley, 1996: 108), the dizziness of their mediations, and what Guattari called a ‘transdisciplinary metamethodology’ as a response to games’ vertiginous mediations.
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