An actor-network approach to games and virtual environments

In this paper we apply some of the insights of Bruno Latour and actor network theory to suggest that games and virtual spaces can be interpreted as aesthetic forms which are established and stabilised by a ‘collective’ of humans and technologies. The ‘agents’ that comprise any collective or network – whether it be a simple human-tool relation or a far more complex assemblage of actors in massively multiplayer games – are equally human and non human, social and material, corporeal and technical. Yet the combining effects of these factors rarely rate a mention in the discourses of ludology and game studies, which we suggest is for several key historical and technical reasons. The application of actor-network theory to games and virtual environments aims to facilitate a nuanced understanding that exceeds more conventional userand viewer-centred interpretations in game studies, and is therefore more organic to the open-ended and constantly changing nature of our engagement with online games and virtual environments.