This research has been aimed to explore what is the ontic nature of the video game playing experience, and the ways in which it differs from interactions with other media.

The dissertation begins with a phenomenology of game playing, focused primarily on skill acquisition. It then explores the conventions of video game design, drawing on interviews with designers and scrutiny of design textbooks, analyzing the mechanisms designers apply to create emotional identification and empathy with the game. Manipulation of the concept of glory is central to the games' design. The dissertation continues by looking at the phenomenon of cheating in video games, surveying more than 300 players and analyzing cheating not as deviant behavior but rather as a crucial, built-in element of game design. Finally, the dissertation addresses the concept of the player's subjectivity and how it is shaped by notions such as death, repetition and recollection.

The dissertation argues that video games differ radically from all other media in the experience they provide and in its possible implications. They are tightly designed environments that leave little room for free choice while creating the illusion that such a possibility exists. The player, therefore, due to the physical nature of the play experience and to the reconstruction of his or her self as both a physical entity and a representational, on-screen avatar, ceases to be a subject and exists instead in a decontextualized state.