Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies

Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies

<P>What matters in understanding digital media? Is looking at the external appearance and audience experience of software enough--or should we look further? In <I> Expressive Processing</I>, Noah Wardrip-Fruin argues that understanding what goes on beneath the surface, the computational processes that make digital media function, is essential. </P><P>Wardrip-Fruin looks at "expressive processing" by examining specific works of digital media ranging from the simulated therapist <I>Eliza</I> to the complex city-planning game <I>SimCity</I>. Digital media, he contends, offer particularly intelligible examples of things we need to understand about software in general; if we understand, for instance, the capabilities and histories of artificial intelligence techniques in the context of a computer game, we can use that understanding to judge the use of similar techniques in such higher-stakes social contexts as surveillance. </P>