Jill mentiones that she has her terminology in shape (march 29th, currently writing), and she chooses to use text and reader. That triggered a realisation in me: I am not using text and reader, I am using game and player. And the reason I do that is that no matter how close the online texts Jill is studying and the online games I am studying are, we are not looking at the same thing! So this shouldn’t be such a revelation, but there’s so much else which overlaps in our work: the choice of theory, the approach to power and agency, the focus on creativity and player/reader activity. The difference is that while cybertexts and non-linear texts can be approached playfully, they are not consistently built to support and encourage competition or closed arenas of achievement unless they have been limited by rules and other signifiers of a game. Intent and comparisons differ, while the performance might be seductively similar to the viewer.

Thanks, Jill