How to Cite

Nohr, Rolf F.: The Labyrinth: Digital Games as Media of Decision-Making, in Bonner, Marc (Ed.): Game | World | Architectonics: Transdisciplinary Approaches on Structures and Mechanics, Levels and Spaces, Aesthetics and Perception, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2021, p. 133–149. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.752.c10383

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https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.752
ISBN 978-3-96822-047-5 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-3-96822-048-2 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-96822-114-4 (Softcover)

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04/29/2021

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Authors

Rolf F. Nohr

The Labyrinth

Digital Games as Media of Decision-Making

Abstract The labyrinth is a metaphor, an ‘archetype’ and a praxeology of the game. It is an ambivalent formation of both orientation and disorientation. It evokes pathfinding as well as simultaneously blocking the (linear) path. It limits the subject and functions as a machine of training (or: trimming) and yet provokes the breakout and breakthrough. It is a metaphor for individual experiences of excessive demands, and it sees the maze as a function of order. The computer game is to be understood as a permanent labyrinth. The paper would like to focus on the figure and practice of decision-making. The centre of the digital game is therefore not any kind of unfolding narrative but the playing subject’s labour with the algorithm—the continuous attempt to understand the algorithms and ‘operate’ them correctly to win the game.

Keywords Labyrinth, decision, game space, algorithmic culture