Article:

Cinematography and Ludology: In Search of a Lucidography

What happens when one tries to figure out the relationships between games (ludology) and films (cinematography)? The answer is lucidography. The business of this paper is to enquire more deeply into the various intermediations of games and films. First, the interface or screen level (the explicit level) is considered, and second, it is shown how games thematize or – even – ‘think’ film; and vice versa. The proposition is that not only do computer games inherit some of the well wrought aesthetic and functional means of cinema; moreover, both films and games continue to copy forms of attraction from each other in an increasingly rapid pace.