POCG Berlin 2015 slides pdf

What is
a simulation
of a game?
David Myers | Loyola University New Orleans USA
Philosophy of Computer Games | Berlin 2015

The relationship between simulation and game is unclear.
Normally
define simulation; define game; compare
Something different
Assume one of these is true…
1. Games are not simulations.
2. Games are simulations.
3. Games and simulations are in some other relationship.
...and examine how each possibility affects
a simulation of a game.

Why?
Some advantages re defining things...
● Needn’t define game as other than a simulation, not a simulation, or something else.
● Needn’t define simulation other than semiotically,
according to its relationship with that which it simulates.
But...
What IS the relationship between a simulation and that which it simulates?
a SEMIOTIC relationship
Simulation Simulated
A simulation REFERENCES that which it simulates.

REFERENCE REFERENCE + RESEMBLANCE
iconic reference
the thing itself
REFERENT
non-iconic reference
self reference
simulative reference
less resemblance <<< resemblance scale >>> more resemblance

iconic reference
the thing itself
REFERENT
self reference
The resemblance associated with the simulation must be stronger
than the weakest of the resemblances available to the icon.

iconic reference
the thing itself
REFERENT
self reference
The resemblance associated with the simulation must be weaker
than the strongest of the resemblances available to the icon.

iconic reference
the thing itself
REFERENT
self reference
How to construct a simulation #1 | Add resemblance.
Start with a reference; add resemblance until you get to a simulation.
How to construct a simulation.

iconic reference
the thing itself
REFERENT
self reference
How construct a simulation #2 | Subtract resemblance.
Start with a referent; subtract resemblance until you get to a simulation.
How to construct a simulation.

iconic reference
the thing itself
REFERENT
self reference
How to get to a simulation #1 | Add resemblance.
Start with a reference; add resemblance until you get to a simulation.
How to get to a simulation #2 | Subtract resemblance.
Start with a referent; subtract identity until you get to a simulation.
Exact resemblance is the goal of the emulation, perhaps, but not the simulation.
A simulation is something other than that which it simulates.

An important consequence.
IF a simulation is a simulative reference.
AND IF a simulative reference is
something other than that which it simulates.
THEN
a simulation of a simulation
is
a simulative reference
that is something other than a simulative reference.
or
>>> PARADOX <<<

So, assume one of these must be true…
1. Games are not simulative references.
2. Games are simulative references.
3. Games and simulative references are in some other relationship.
...and then, determine how each adjudicates
a simulation of a game (SoG).
● scenario #1: Simulation of a Game = NOT GAME
● scenario #2: Simulation of a Game = PARADOX
● scenario #3: Simulation of a Game = SOMETHING OTHER than #1 or #2
Which is these is most likely and compelling?

What is
a simulation
of a game?
(a test case)

iconic reference
REFERENT
self reference
How to construct a simulation of DOOM.
DOOM
8-bit, 256 color
DOOM
2-bit, grayscale
How construct a simulation #2 | Subtract resemblance.
Start with a referent; subtract resemblance until you get to a simulation.

Unfortunately,
grayscale DOOM example is not entirely persuasive.
A simulation of a specific game,
like DOOM,
may well have different consequences
than a simulation of games more generally.
Because,
the IDENTITY of a specific game
may be determined by specific characteristics (e. g., color)
other than those more general characteristics
determining the IDENTITY of games more generally.

For instance,
2-bit grayscale DOOM is NOT a specific GAME
i. e., it is NOT 8-bit color DOOM
Yet,
2-bit grayscale DOOM remains a game more generally.
It would be nice at this point
to offer an example of a simulation of a game more generally,
to see if THAT sort of simulation of a game remains a game.
Unfortunately (again),
difficulties associated with determining
the characteristics of games more generally
(i. e., defining games)
are exactly what this analysis intends to avoid.

In this analysis,
we are stuck with defining games
ONLY on the basis
of these three relationships
between games and simulations.
1. Games are not simulations.
2. Games are simulations.
3. Games are neither of the above.
What can we do with these three?
Let’s take a shot.

IF a game is not a simulation,
THEN a simulation of a game is something other than a game.
>>> NOT GAME
But… DOOM is a game.
Grayscale DOOM is simulation of DOOM.
And grayscale DOOM is a game.
And… IF a [simulation of a game] is GAME,
THEN a game is something other than a game = NOT GAME.
So… a game is [GAME and NOT GAME]?
SCENARIO #1: Games are not simulations.

IF a game is a simulation,
THEN a simulation of a game is a simulation of a simulation.
>>> PARADOX
But… DOOM is a game.
Grayscale DOOM is simulation of DOOM.
And grayscale DOOM is NOT PARADOX.
And… IF a [simulation of a game] IS NOT PARADOX,
THEN a game is PARADOX.
So… a game is [PARADOX and NOT PARADOX]?
SCENARIO #2: Games are simulations.

IF a game is neither a simulation nor something other than a simulation,
THEN what is it?
Among the more intriguing possibilities...
IF a simulation is a simulative reference
AND a simulative reference references something other than itself.
THEN perhaps a game is a simulative reference that references itself.
Perhaps, in this way, a game is a partial or broken or UR-simulation...
neither a simulation nor something other than a simulation.
Perhaps a game is a simulation of a simulation.
SCENARIO #3: Games are something else.

IF a game is a simulation of a simulation,
THEN are games more generally PARADOX ???
Some, as it turns out, have already made this claim.
Games in the classic sense... exhibit a basic feature which cannot but
puzzle us: a true paradoxy... In other words, the players must first
agree amicably as partners to have a game of chess in order that
each may endeavour to defeat the other. (Kolnai, 1966, 103–4)
Yet while the juxtaposition of competition and collaboration within
games is admittedly oppositional, it is not a true paradox in that it is
not ‘an inescapable contradiction’. Suits claims that the aims of
playing a game trump all fleeting discord within a game. Ultimately,
the force majeure of Suits’s lusory attitude sweeps away claims such
as Kolnai’s as parochial and irrelevant. (Myers, 2012, 34)

Certainly, a game as a simulation of a simulation
would have a unique referential function:
A game would be an iconic and self-referencing form of a simulative reference.
GAME
From the paper…
For a simulative reference that is not a game, self-reference of this sort results in
paradox. However, when a game references itself as something other than itself,
there seems to be a paradox escape clause: the game’s lusory nature. Insofar as
this lusory nature resolves any essential paradoxy of games (Suits, for instance,
thinks it does), we can use it here to resolve this third possibility of a simulation of
a game as SOMETHING ELSE.

How to (speculatively) construct a simulation of a game more generally.
iconic reference
REFERENT
self reference
Game
a simulation of a game SUBTRACT
lusory nature

iconic reference
REFERENT
self reference
Game
a simulation of a game
Something other than lusory = NOT LUSORY
Something other than [a simulation of a simulation] = NOT PARADOX
Something other than [a game] = NOT GAME
SUBTRACT
lusory nature
How to (speculatively) construct a simulation of a game more generally.

So, given these three possibilities…
● scenario #1: Simulation of a Game = NOT GAME
● scenario #2: Simulation of a Game = PARADOX
● scenario #3: Simulation of a Game = SOMETHING OTHER than #1 or #2
Which is these is most likely and compelling?
Based on this analysis,
#3: SoG = SOMETHING OTHER (e. g., NOT LUSORY)
However, regardless of any speculation
regarding this last scenario,
this analysis favors rejecting those scenarios
in which games are either
most essentially equivalent to simulations, or
most essentially distinct from them.

POCG Berlin 2015 slides pdf

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POCG Berlin 2015 slides pdf