Playing Spy Games: a Surveillant Platform Study of Microsoft’s Xbox 360
Published in University of Toronto - School of Graduate Studies - Master's Theses, 2014
Recommended citation: http://adcybulski.github.io/files/Cybulski_Alexander_D_201411_MIS_thesis.pdf
Recommended citation: Cybulski, A,D. (2014). “Playing Spy Games: a Surveillant Platform Study of Microsoft’s Xbox 360.”
This thesis, a platform study of Microsoft’s videogame console the Xbox 360, demonstrates how one of the defining traits of the videogame platform’s design and architecture is pervasive surveillance of its users. By applying William Bogard’s (1996) theory of surveillant “enclosures,” this thesis will explain how the Xbox 360 uses a panopoly of methods and technologies to watch users and shape their use of the videogame system, forming them as easily governed subjects. In support of this argument, this thesis will examine not only the hardware and software layers of the Xbox 360, but also peripheral hardware and networks including the motion tracking sensor the Kinect and Xbox Live, the videogame console’s online network. Of particular interest to this platform study will be an examination of how each of these layers performs surveillance, and how they collectively perform a project of governance over videogame players.
References
Bogard, William. (1996). The Simulation of Surveillance: Hypercontrol in Telematic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Recommended citation: Cybulski, AD. (2014). “Playing Spy Games: a Surveillance Platform Study of Microsoft’s Xbox 360.”