Espen J. Aarseth (born 1965) is a Norwegian academic specializing in the fields of

video game studies Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) system ...

and

electronic literature Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature where digital capabilities such as interactivity, multimodality or Generative literature, algorithmic text generation are used aesthetically. Works of electronic literature ar ...

. Aarseth completed his doctorate at the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...

. He co-founded the Department of Humanistic Informatics at the University of Bergen, and worked there until 2003, at which time he was a full professor. He is currently a full professor and Head of the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen, and principal investigator of a €2 million ERC Advanced grant for the project Making Sense of Games. Aarseth is also the Editor in Chief of Game Studies, the oldest peer-reviewed journal in the field of game studies, and member of the advisory board of G, A, M, E, a journal of comparative videogame analysis.

''Cybertext''

Aarseth's works include groundbreaking ''

Cybertext Cybertext as defined by Espen Aarseth in 1997 is a type of ergodic literature where the user traverses the text by doing nontrivial work. Definition Cybertexts are pieces of literature where the medium matters. Each user obtains a different out ...

: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature'' (Johns Hopkins UP 1997) book, which was originally his doctoral thesis. Cybertext focuses on mechanical organization of texts by placing the medium as a critical part of literary exchanges. The book introduces the concept of

ergodic literature Ergodic literature is a term neologism, coined by Espen J. Aarseth in his 1997 book ''Cybertext—Perspectives on Ergodic Literature'' to describe literature in which nontrivial effort is required for the reader to traverse the text. The term ...

, which is a text that requires non-trivial effort to be traversed. The book also contains a well-known (pre-ludological) theory, "typology of cybertext" which allows ergodic texts to be classified by their functional qualities. (In Aarseth's later work with Solveig Smedstad & Lise Sunnanå this typology of cybertext transforms into "a multi-dimensional typology of games".)

Non-linear media

Aarseth also wrote an article, "Nonlinearity and Literary Theory", which was published in ''Hyper/Text/Theory'' and '' The New Media Reader''. The article discusses the concept behind

nonlinear In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system (or a non-linear system) is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathe ...

texts, stepping away from the category of

hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typic ...

and delving into different types of media which can also be considered nonlinear. He identifies nonlinear texts as objects of

verbal communication Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds and equivalent gestures ...

in which the words or sequence of words may differ from reading to reading. He also outlines the different categories and varieties of nonlinear texts. Additionally, he talks about how writing is more than just signs and symbols. Writing can be broken down into two units which are called textons and scriptons. The essay also discusses hypertext fiction in depth as well as works of

interactive fiction Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text Command (computing), commands to control Player character, characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narrati ...

, such as

Colossal Cave Adventure ''Colossal Cave Adventure'' (also known as ''Adventure'' or ''ADVENT'') is a text-based adventure game, released in 1976 by developer Will Crowther for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. It was expanded upon in 1977 by Don Woods. In the game, the ...

, and

MUD Mud (, or Middle Dutch) is loam, silt or clay mixed with water. Mud is usually formed after rainfall or near water sources. Ancient mud deposits hardened over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone (generally cal ...

References

External links

Game Studies, an international journal co-founded by Aarseth

G, A, M, E, an international journal for which Aarseth is a scientific advisor

Making Sense of Games - ERC project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aarseth, Espen 1965 births Living people Date of birth missing (living people) Video game researchers MUD scholars Norwegian mass media scholars University of Bergen alumni Academic staff of the University of Bergen Academic staff of the IT University of Copenhagen Norwegian emigrants to Denmark European Research Council grantees Electronic literature critics