Player and Avatar

<p> Do you make small leaps in your chair while attempting challenging jumps in <I>Tomb Raider</I>? Do you say Ouch! when a giant hits you with a club in <I>Skyrim</I>? Have you had dreams of being inside the underwater city of <I>Rapture</I>?</p><p> Videogames cast the player as protagonist in an unfolding narrative. Like actors in front of a camera gamers' proprioception or body awareness can extend to onscreen characters thus placing them physically within the virtual world. Players may even identify with characters' ideological motivations.</p><p> The author explores concepts central to the design and enjoyment of videogames--affect immersion liveness presence agency narrative ideology and the player's virtual surrogate: the avatar. Gamer and avatar are analyzed as a cybernetic coupling that suggests fulfillment of Atonin Artaud's vision of the body without organs.</p>