Looping Back to Video Games: The Question of Technological Interpassivity

Abstract

Cyberspace “agents” such as a wand, mouse, data glove, and various on-screen avatars are extensions of the console-user’s ego; they enable the software program to stand in as an alter ego. In cyberspace this decenterment of the self comes at a price as these cyber-agents begin to mediate our lives more and more. As Baudrillard remarks, the videotape (as well as cable TV) in a way, “watches” the movie for us. We need not trouble ourselves to drive to the movie center to see the film. In a similar way, the avatar in a chat community is e-moting for us, externalizing and embodying our very emotions. Through our disavowal of these agents—this is mere simulation, this is only a game, this is not “real”—we slowly let them take over our lives having to face the question of “impassivity” (Pfaller 2002; Žižek 1999b, 2002a), which is the other side of media interactivity that is disavowed.