The Pleasure of the Playable Text: Towards an Aesthetic Theory of Computer Games

Abstract

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.