When you say, “I’m playing a game,” what does that really mean?
Unlike watching a movie or reading a novel, describing the experience of playing video games is far more complex. While we can easily tell someone what watching a film feels like, explaining the act of playing demands a look at something deeper — the embodiment of characters, choices, and perspectives.
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Through video games as embodiment, we “become” someone else; we inhabit their body and live their story. But why do different games like Half-Life, The Witcher 3, or Dark Souls — all within the same medium — feel so drastically different? The reason lies in how each one constructs its body for players to live in.
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Table of contents
The Embodied Nature of Play
Every video game, even those without a written story, is inherently narrative-driven because every action you perform constructs meaning.
When you play Counter Strike, you never say “my character got shot.” You say “I got shot.” This small linguistic instinct reveals a profound truth — our minds naturally project ourselves into the digital bodies we control.
Thus, choosing a video game means choosing a new body to live in, a new self to inhabit. This is the heart of the idea — video games as embodiment.
Character Design and the Embodied Experience
Every playable character exists between two extremes:
- Ideal Form — a fully realized, defined hero.
- Blank State — an empty vessel waiting for us to fill it.
Two main parameters shape a character’s form:
- Core Personality – revealed through critical decisions and moral choices.
- Characterization – the external traits, behaviors, values, and physical appearance.
If players can’t connect with the character, embodiment breaks. But when connection happens, the experience transforms from playing into living within.
Four Archetypes of Embodied Characters
Below are four iconic examples showing how “video games as embodiment” differ in depth and form.
1. The Undead – Dark Souls
In Dark Souls, you are told simply: “You are the Undead.”
No backstory, no fixed identity. The game offers a vessel—a pure Blank State. You build everything: the face, the fighting style, the moral path. At the end, you don’t just say, “I played as the Chosen Undead.” You declare: “I was the Chosen Undead.”
2. Henry – Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Henry is a semi-defined figure: kind, dutiful, but fragile.
The game mixes agency and authorship — letting you shape his choices, morality, and combat style.
By the end, Henry feels like an extension of yourself, a hero you crafted emotionally and ethically. This is embodiment shared between designer and player.
3. Geralt – The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Geralt is close to the Ideal Form — charismatic, cynical, and morally intricate.
The Witcher 3 gives you enough decision power to influence his tone and outcomes. You don’t create Geralt — you perform him.
In this way, you live out the fantasy of being The Witcher himself, through embodied choices that feel personal.
4. Gordon Freeman – Half-Life
At first, Gordon seems fixed — a mute, predefined hero. Yet through the first-person perspective and absence of dialogue, the game transforms him into a mirror. You become the silent scientist-hero yourself.
When Half-Life ends, it feels as though you’ve awakened from a dream where you were Gordon Freeman — proof again of the embodied power of games.
Why We Live Through Games
The richness of video games comes not just from stories or graphics, but from experiencing life in another body. Whether we shape a vessel (Dark Souls) or step inside a defined hero (Witcher 3), we are always inhabiting something beyond ourselves.
That is the magic of video games as embodiment — they are not objects of play but bodies to live in.
Conclusion
Video games are, at their core, simulations of being.
They let us explore alternate selves — to die, reborn, fail, succeed, love, and fight — not as observers, but as participants.
Whether you are the blank Undead or the eloquent Geralt, every time you pick up a controller you are, once again, choosing a new body for your soul.
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FAQs
It means that video games allow players to inhabit digital bodies, merging self and avatar through interactive experience.
Because each game defines how much of your identity fills the avatar — from blank vessels (Dark Souls) to complete heroes (Half-Life).
It blurs the line between player and character, making every narrative moment feel lived rather than told.
Yes, to varying degrees. Even minimalistic puzzles rely on projection — you “become” the one overcoming the challenge.
