Medium Specific Uncanny in Contemporary Video Games

Abstract

The academic discourse on the uncanny in video games usually focuses on the phenomenon of the so-called “uncanny valley” (Mori 2012). The article explores the emergence of other, medium-specific occurrences of the effect, prioritizing interactivity as a key factor in its establishment. Two unique areas are particularly prominent in the increasingly photorealistic worlds of video games where uncanny moments associated with the wider, Freudian concept can be found. These are linked to necessary (structuring) and contingent (destructuring) components of the game: namely its heterogeneous ontology and the glitches that may appear in it. The author hypothesizes that these less conceptualized uncanny situations are regular features of the gaming experience and emerge when the immersion in an iconically realistic environment has been broken and eerie absences or ghostly presences pop up either through encounters with the game’s boundaries that result from the technological limitations of the software or the appearance of unintended errors in its processes.