Daniel Bösenberg
ABSTRACT:
This study interprets the active/passive binary of spectating in digital games through the seemingly oppositional relationship between representation and operation. While visuality in games is often treated as an aesthetic surface that conveys meaning hidden beneath at the level of code, Fizek argues that images are inseparable from the computational processes generating them – representations arise from operations, and operations become legible through representations. This study conceptualises this situation as Playing through Seeing. This perspective draws on Walker Rettberg’s interpretation of representational and operational images to suggest that what is seen can itself function operationally, as perception triggers and completes game processes. Visuality thus becomes an operational practice, with human perception acting as part of the cybernetic circuit. This theoretical problem is examined through the painting side quests in Elden Ring, where images scattered around the world initiate a specific type of quest that can only be resolved by aligning the player’s vision with the game’s own vantage points. What appears marginal within a combat-focused RPG instead reveals how digital aesthetics render computation visible and actionable. By reframing visuality as operational, the study challenges assumptions about active players and passive spectators and extends these debates beyond art-games to high-budget AAA titles.
KEY WORDS:
digital games, Elden Ring, operation, posthumanism, representation, visuality.
DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2026-9-1.118-131
HOW TO CITE:
Bösenberg, D. (2026). Playing through seeing: The case study of the painting quests in Elden Ring. Acta Ludologica, 9(1), 118-131. http://doi.org/10.34135/actaludologica.2026-9-1.118-131
Playing Through Seeing: The Case Study of the Painting Quests in Elden Ring © 2026 by Daniel Bösenberg is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0
