What is a Game Ego : or How the embodied mind plays a role in computer game environments

What is a Game Ego (or How the embodied mind plays a role in computer game environments) addresses questions concerning why and how a computer game player identifies her or himself with a Game Ego in computer game environments. The theoretical framework used to address these questions is drawn mainly from three fields of research: film theory (including theories on narration and narratives) theories on visual perception (which are also applicable to sound) and finally experientialist cognitive theory. The central claims of this paper are: the process of identification with a manifestation of a Game Ego has a bodily basis. The Game Ego is primarily a bodily based function that enacts a point of being within the game environment through a tactile motor/kinesthetic link. The human conceptual system shows a relationship to the motor system of the human body and is tightly connected to the emotional system so that no clear-cut boundary can be drawn between them. The more direct and immediate the control of this agent is, the stronger the identification is as well.