Liminal gaming

The movie Tron has that great scene where Jeff Bridges’ character is digitised and zapped into the computer game system. It’s a great example of crossing boundaries from the ‘ordinary world’ to the ‘video game world’ in a literal sense. The character is shifting from being human, to being digital, being a user as well as a gamer. This type of liminal, in-between space is a little bit like the term ‘prosumer’: you’re between a producer and a consumer – you’re doing the work of producing (game modding, etc) but you’re often not being paid for it and you’re still seen as a consumer of the product.

What types of liminal experiences and places exist between the game world and Hobart. Access points where you cross over from the ordinary world to the video game world? The McDonalds in Moonah/Glenorchy seems like you’ve stepped into GTA3 with some young ‘hoodlums’ in the car park?

Access points in Hobart to new media

Are there any portals in Hobart where non-media professionals can get to rub shoulders with media-as-it-happens? I’d love to think there’s some possible chance of a point of contact with me and the video game world here in Hobart, or the manga and anime world.

Couldry identifies two access-points for non-media people to connect with the process of media production:

1. Journeys to mediated places. eg: media tourist locations: “sites where the boundary between the ‘media’ and ‘ordinary’ ‘worlds’ is symbolically, but playfully, confirmed”
2. Sites of mediated conflict. eg: protest sites: “sites where it emphatically and perhaps shockingly revealed” (where people get close up to the media process which represents them)

Are either of these access-points here in Hobart? Eg: Within the world of cinema, I wonder if the new horror movie filmed in Tas last year will cause any media tourism to the site it was filmed?
And, for the second access point, there must have been some local moral panic newspaper reports in The Mercury uncovering the darker side of video gaming (WoW obsessions, GTA desensitisation)?

There are access points if you look for them, and Hobart starts looking a little bit closer to a new media node once you see them.