Cyber Narrative and the Gaming Cyborg

Abstract The notion of the cyborg is a useful tool for examining the relations between gamers and gaming environments, and the construction of narrative in gaming contexts. I will discuss the idea of the gamer’s sense of self, projected into the game-world exploring the extended mind theory and proprioception. Following that I will address the construction of narrative with algorithmic (computational) interaction with the database and procedural narrative in the sense of how the gamer relates to both the real and virtual world. According to Donna Haraway in her book, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women, ‘a cyborg is a hybrid creature, composed of organism and machine’ (1991: 1). Gabriella Giannachi embellishes Haraway’s definition in that the cyborg is ‘able to bridge the gap between the real and representation, between social reality and fiction’ (2004: 47). I intend to demonstrate that the material gamer interfaces with the database/game/internet and the projected identity/presence/proprioception of the gamer becomes part of the virtual world. The narrative is virtual and interaction with the algorithms (rules) provides a sense of agency within the game world. Procedural narrative is created through an algorithmic interface with a database. The human is subsumed into the technological. Human interaction becomes algorithmic. The pleasure of augmentation is seductive.