The Nip and the Bite

Abstract

An examination of the contributions that can be made by the field of non-mechanistic cybernetics (as elaborated by Gregory Bateson and Anthony Wilden) to a theory of videogames that views them as complex open systems in dynamic relation to players. Bateson, observing animal play, suggests that the playful nip has a complex relation to the earnest bite. This paper contends that the relation of player, avatar and game constitutes a similar system and that Wilden’s development of the theory of play has great potential for the study of videogames.