Glitched Perfection:

The Ontological Crisis of Hyperreal Avatars in Cinematic Gaming

Abstract

This comprehensive study advances the ontological furnace framework to interrogate how cinematic gaming’s pursuit of photorealism transmutes human presence into commodified simulacra. Through rigorous comparative analysis of Erica’s filmed virtuality and Detroit: Become Human’s uncanny prison across four ontological dimensions— Organic Crucible, Fracturing, Forged Replica, and Commodified Specter—we demonstrate how both production paradigms generate Baudrillardian third-order simulacra that undermine authentic connection. Combining technical examination of motion capture pipelines with philosophical interrogation spanning Simondon’s individuation theory to Plato’s dianoia, this treatise documents how these apparatuses induce existential dissonance through perceptual-behavioral mismatches, propagate cultural pathologies via simulation anxiety and misrecognition cascades, and enact the death of play through ludic anorexia. Our findings reveal that despite divergent technical implementations— live-action footage versus algorithmic recomposition—both models prioritize spectacle over substance, resulting in what we term promethean paradox: technological awe coupled with human dispossession. The study concludes by proposing three principles for revelatory embodiment that transcend replication toward ethical co-creation. By rejecting replication-centric paradigms, our principles for revelatory embodiment offer concrete alternatives that realign avatar design with ludic integrity and ethical co-creation which is a key contribution to DiGRA community.