The semiotics of the game controller

An important question for video game research is how to characterize the video game experience. One common view emphasizes that players are cognitively able to operate with the game world as the experiential point of reference leading to states of "immersion, "spatial presence", or "engagement". A different view is that the player is also embodied and situated in the actual world, entailing that the video game experience also involves physical preconditions like hardware for playing. One aspect that has not been clearly thematized and analyzed is the contribution of the video game controller. I propose that the controller is not just an input device that lets the player act in the video game, but to play a video game is to act both on the controller and in the video game through the controller. It has the the dual character of requiring the player to act in the actual world while simultaneously providing the player with the link to the video game. This duality is similar to signs, which makes it possible and fertile to analyze game-controller pairings according to general semiotic principles