Stephen N. Griffin, "Push Play: An Examination of the Gameplay Button"

(In Worlds in Play)

- Crawford: simple input devices (button) -> cognition-centred approach to games
- By contrast, long history of games that involve the abilities/idiosyncrasies of the body, no reason why symbolic input is the only way
- Importance/prevalence of the button as the primary means of taking action in digital games
- Buttons on the border of the magic circle (accept limits by participating)
- Transparancy (presumed) of simple input devices
- Reduces gesture and performance to symbolic action, automation, functional value, productivity, efficiency, not expression
- Lack of embodied interaction impedes the medium?
- Importance of physicality of input (example of musicians and instruments)
- It would seem that the Wii (and Kinect, and Move) actualizes this argument, but does it also reduce gesture to merely symbolic action? (Diagonal slash is more or less the same thing as the Y button... or is this just a function of technology not being advanced enough?) Maybe Guitar Hero is a better example - performance, expression