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Mit der Etablierung des Computerspiels im System der Medien vollzieht sich heute ein ähnlich tiefer Einschnitt in der Geschichte der Medienästhetik wie mit der Etablierung des Films um 1900. Und in ähnlicher Weise provoziert das Computerspiel Stellungnahmen über den gesellschaftlichen Nutzen und Schaden digitaler Spiele. Bevor man aber weit reichende Aussagen über Chancen und Gefahren des Computerspiels formulieren kann, muss man sich zunächst vergewissern, was man in Computerspielen zu sehen, zu hören und zu verstehen bekommt und wie uns Computerspiele etwas zu sehen, zu hören und zu verstehen geben. In diesem Sinne fragen die Beiträge dieses Navigationen-Themenheftes nach der ästhetischen Immanenz des digitalen Spiel-Erlebnisses im Schnittfeld zwischen Spielformen, Erzählformen und sozial freigestellter Interaktion. Im Computerspiel können offenbar alle medialen Formen, d.h. alle nur denkbaren Bildtypen, Textsorten, Klangformen und Bewegungsmuster auftauchen, die mit den gegenwärtigen Medienbegriffen überhaupt nur identifizierbar sind. Es kommt daher auf die genaue Einzelanalyse an, auf die prägnante Beschreibung der spezifischen Gestaltungspotenziale dieses neuartigen Modus medialer Vermittlung: IT'S ALL IN THE GAME!

In this chapter I want to discuss the concept of ‘cultural value’ in computer games, as a reflection on why and how games might be a part of a future European cultural policy. To readers who are only vaguely familiar with the various aesthetics and practices of this medium, the general considerations addressed may also serve as a useful first introduction to a relatively new field. acceptedVersion

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Computer games may be defined as artifacts that connect the input devices of a computer (such as keyboard, mouse or controller) with its output devices (in most cases a screen and speakers) in such a way that on the screen a challenge is displayed. On the screen we see pictorial elements that have to be manipulated to master a game, that is to win a competition, to solve a riddle or to adopt a skill. Therefore the characteristics of the representational function of computer games have to be contrasted phenomenologically with conventional games on the one hand and cinematic depictions on the other. It shows that computer games separate the player from the playing field, and translate bodily felt concrete actions into situational abstract cinematic depictions. These features add up to the situational abstract presentation of self-action experience. In this framework computer games reveal a potential as a new means of shared cognition that might unfold in the 21st century and change the beingin- the-world in a similar way as cinematic depiction did in the 20th century

Computer games are rigid in a peculiar way: the logic of computation was the first to shape the early games. The logic of interactivity marked the action genre of games in the second place, while in massive multiplayer online gaming all the emergences of the net occur to confront us with just another type of logic. These logics are the media in which the specific forms of computer games evolve. Therefore, a look at gaming supposing that there are three eras of computation is taken: the early synthetical era, ruled by the Turing machine and by mainframe computers, by the IPO principle of computing; the second, mimetical era, when interactivity and graphical user interfaces dominate, the domain of the feedback loop; and the third, emergent era, in which the complexity of networked personal computers and their users is dominant.