Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference Proceedings
Tampere University Press, June, 2002
Volume: 1
ISBN / ISNN: ISSN 2342-9666
This paper argues that the dominant study of the form and structure of games – their poetics – should be complemented by the analysis of their aesthetics (as understood by modern cultural theory): how gamers use their games, what aspects they enjoy and what kinds of pleasures they experience by playing them. The paper outlines a possible aesthetic theory of games based on different aspects of pleasure: the psychoanalytical, the social and the physical form of pleasure.