Behavioristic and Emotional Characteristics of the Game as a Space of Art Expression and Therapy

Abstract

Game space allows players to experience not only activity areas without spatio-temporal limits but also multiple and varying self-images. Virtual space in games shares many commonalities with traditional paintings of East Asia in that the space has numerous perspectives and moving eyes and that it contemplates objects through the whole-body experience. A player is divided into the physical self outside the game space and the present self within it, who are connected to each other by interaction and counteraction. At this connective moment, expressions of the player are no longer passive perception: they become active activities that complete the contents of the game, enable various levels of meaningful interpretation, and bring up the experience of the present self here and now. Another characteristic of game actions is that there are regular patterns of repetition. As in the play of a child, a game player expresses the self and creates the game world via interactive repetitive actions, which a) reflect the desire to recover from a sense of loss or insecurity and stay healthy, and b) form an existential self who realizes narcissism. Therefore, the game space is a space of active art expression and therapy where one can realize healthy narcissism through expansion and expression of the self.