Mathieu Triclot's 'Philosophie du jeu vidéo' Examines Video Games as Cultural Form

In 'Philosophie du jeu vidéo,' Mathieu Triclot approaches video games as an illegitimate cultural form and an 'instrumented experience' that relies on technical devices. Building on his earlier work 'Le Moment cybernétique,' he focuses on the relationship with the computing machine rather than the typical concepts of immersion and interactivity. Triclot explores 'small video game states' and their unique desire investments, emphasizing the combinatorial or computational nature of game worlds. He identifies 'zones of experience' left fallow by other games: a mixed zone of competition, vertigo, and rule-based universes, and a form of simulation constrained by computational rules. These experiences involve a specific image regime that exploits subjective viewpoint and exclusion of montage, creating an image-action that calls for movement over gaze. The book also examines external conditions through a 'microgeography' of the environments, audiences, and ways of life that enabled new relationships with the computing medium. Triclot contrasts the transition from university lab games like Spacewar at MIT—a game of total mastery in a simulated universe—to arcade games like Pong, a game of loss of control. This shift involves a 'new human-machine-merchandise symbiosis.' The 'political aesthetic' links total engagement with the computing machine to forms of work sharing its informational nature. The book suggests further exploration of image components beyond the computational focus.