Disciplined body: How players design their game movements for the machine

Abstract

This study examines disciplined body in video game playing activities in which players produce their game moves with their bodies. Disciplined body refers to particularly designed bodily movements, orienting to their recognizability by the machine. Drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, this study demonstrates that participants endogenously display a sensitivity towards machine’s recognition, through which they point to a need for players to discipline their bodies and produce machine-designed movements. Disciplining the body involves producing the game movements in particular forms required by the machine, calibrating the movements to the constraints of the machine, and timing the movements in coordination with the unfolding games. The analysis provides insights for reflecting on the relations between humans and machines and in particular how the former adapts to the latter. Participants attribute a specific form of agency to the machine to see and recognize the player movements. This necessitates the players to perform their game movements with specific qualities, which deviates from the “natural” human body, arguably leading to dehumanization. This study is based on video-recorded data in which participants speak Turkish.