Remediation in Games

Remediation is the idea of a piece of media being changed in ordered to be used for a different media and purpose than originally intended. A good example of this was the gramaphone, which was designed with the original number one purpose of recording messages and instead it became a medium to play music as its number one function, leading to the creation of the mp3 player.

The process of remediation has two different forms, they are immediacy and hypermediacy. Immediacy is the idea of creating a new immersive experience that will allow the consumer to forget that it is media and act like they are there. Hypermediacy is the opposite and is used to draw in the consumer into its unique design, such as the internet.

Remediation is not exclusive to a specific type of media.
Bittanti introduces the idea of technoludic film, a play on the idea of technology and play (following a previous blog post where ludus = play)
The technoludic ideas that Bittanti puts forward are as follows:

Technoludic Film as commentary. This idea is that the film is used in order to offer criticism of video games.

Technoludic Film as a quotation. This idea is that video games will appear in the film as a form of illustration towards the plot

Technoludic Film as remediation. The idea that the film uses the video game as a source material, taking its ideas and plot directly from the video game.

A media text that relates to the blogpost is Run, Lola, Run. This is a move which utilises a base video game idea very well. The film illustrates a 'character select' screen, 'checkpoints', 'powers' and 'respawning'. It even goes far to offer the multiple multiple endings and outcomes. This film, whilst lacking in plot and acting, brilliantly displays an example of technoludic film as a quotation.