Death loop as a feature

Assuming its premise in the experience of being stuck in a death loop in Fallout: New Vegas (2010), this essay theorises the possibilities of interpretation in single-player computer game play. This amounts to a critical examination of the paradigmatic approach of interpreting computer games as games accessible for analysis and critique through 'research-play'. Comparing the role of rules in the activity facilitated by 'playable artifacts' like single-player computer games or pinball machines to rules in traditional, or more accurately 'œtransmedial'{combining square below} (Juul 2003) games, the essay questions the feasibility of considering computer games 'games' and suggests that a defining characteristic of 'playable artifacts' is to be found from the relationship between materiality and process. Situating playable artifacts in the context of post-phenomenological philosophy of technology, the essay differentiates between attitudes of player, designer, and a scholar. The essay argues that analysis of playable artifacts as 'g̃ames' is reductive and can be justified only from the perspectives of a player and a game design researcher. Based on analysis of how playable artifacts become meaningful through material resistance, the essay reconfirms the feasibility of the methodological programme of 'research-play' while calling for its re-contextualization in relation to authentic interpretation and empathy. © 2001 - 2012 Game Studies.