Beyond Interactivity and Immersion. A Kinetic Reconceptualization for Virtual Reality and Video Games

In this paper, we aim to propose a theory for understanding and analyzing the experience of meaning in video games and virtual reality. By focusing on the viewer’s movements on the interface and their transformation into movements within virtual worlds, we will attempt to overcome assumptions based on the concepts of interaction and immersion that are at the core of academic thinking. It is not clear what distinguishes the interaction of digital media from the interpretive interaction of traditional media. Similarly, the concept of immersion risks generating confusion between sensory involvement and emotional and narrative involvement. For this reason, we will understand video games and VR as movement-images: experiences that build their meaning and storytelling according to two interrelated sets of qualities. On the one hand, there are the visual qualities that are widely studied in semiotics and in art history, while on the other hand, there are the kinetic qualities, those concerning movement. By postulating the existence of kinetic diagrams, i.e. relations between movements on the interface and virtual movements, we will identify the way in which video games and virtual reality build emerging narratives, combining visual worlds with figurative, abstract or thematic movements. Some examples of virtual experiences — including the cases of Tetris, Half-Life: Alyx, and Carne y Arena — will allow us to show how kinetic syntax and visual syntax are respectively articulated in video games and virtual reality.