Mecânicas de jogo: uma exploração da trama semiótica da experiência interativa na Série Metal Gear Solid

Abstract

The present proposal aims to recognize game mechanics as a new field of interactivity exploration in videogames, specifically in the work of Japanese designer Hideo Kojima. The game mechanics present in the director's work form ecosystemic and communicational relationships that occur during the moment of the player's interaction with the electronic games of the Metal Gear series. This transdisciplinary analysis will be carried out from an understanding of the game as a product of its semiosis, that is, how the action of the signs involved in the evaluated object make sense during the moment of interaction. The theoretical basis is provided by the semiotic view of communication and culture, sought in authors such as Charles S. Peirce, Iuri Lotman and in the work of Irene Machado, using semiotic concepts of code, modeling systems and Semiosphere. The research proposes a qualitative methodological approach involving an exploratory research of the themes related to videogames, through a participant observation where the separation between the author and the object is not considered, thus realizing an exploration of the virtual environments related to the signic aspects of the work Metal Gear Solid, 1998. The work brings as contribution the vision of the game mechanics not only as a field of study of the technique of development of electronic games, but as a field of interest of the human culture, through a qualified exploration of the mechanics involved During selected gameplay sections of the game, through a semiotic discrimination of their sign codes. Another result obtained was a possibility of identification and visualization of a proposal for a communicational ecosystem of the games, based on the analyzed work, that puts into communication the modeling systems, codes systems and exchange relations observed in the semiosphere of which the game is part. The observations made lead to the visualization of a cultural environment where the games have their own language that reflects the learning and differentiated communication of those who participate in this ecosystem.