Os jogos pelo meio do caminho : a experiência dos simuladores de caminhada e a redefinição dos jogos digitais por seus aspectos de confronto e conflito

Abstract

This thesis starts from the questions and denials directed to digital games aligned to the walking simulator genre, regarding whether they can be considered or not as games, to analyze the limitations present in current and most used definitions to characterize the objects of this field. Such limitations contribute to the establishment of a denial paradigm that invalidates, beforehand, certain actions, mechanics and proposals contained in titles that are walking simulators and, therefore, are insufficient to cover this cultural form in its plurality of genres, meanings and potentialities. To understand how games of this genre establish a specific set of objectives, relationships with space, obstacles, actions and challenges, we propose the observation and characterization of games based on minimum and fundamental elements that define this medium: the presence of a confrontation and conflict, carried out in a resettable virtual environment. This work is affiliated with Frasca's methodological proposals, on the rhetoric of play, by Sicart, in the composition of the subject-player and Upton, in the situational design for games, to propose an analysis of the composition and articulation of confrontations and conflicts in a seminal title related to the genre: Gone Home (2013). In order to broaden the scope of the discussion related to this genre and to reaffirm the option for an analysis that brings together both the system and its possible apprehension by the person who plays, certain elements are described and understood in a comparative way with two other games: Dear Esther (2012) and Firewatch (2016). Then, we compose a brief historical review of digital games genres that have features which are activated and rearticulated in the walking simulators: adventure games, first person shooting games, point and click games, horror exploration games.Finally, we argue that walking simulators are the game genre that, today, is closest to the potential of experimenting future synthetic worlds, which expand the possibility of prolonged experiences in digital environments.