The Study of Computer Games as a Second-Order Cybernetic System

Abstract

The following paper is part of a larger analytical study of various contexts of computer games. Here, I elaborate on the method on which I base my study of the semiotic process constituted by playing a computer game. This method is derived from a critique of earlier approaches to the fi eld from the perspective of literary and media studies. While most of these approaches employ a two- level model with undeniable roots in structuralist narratology, the model suggested here is based on the constructivist concept of viability. This presupposes a change of perspective from “naïve objectivity” to informed subjectivity.