Algorithms and Action

Finally, in the lower right quadrant, there are nondiegetic machine acts. These are actions on the part of the machine that blur the boundary between the inside and outside of the game. Galloway gives these actions the Derridean name "play of the structure" for the impish way they violate the fourth wall of the game. The game over screen is perhaps the most common nondiegetic machine act, but far more interesting to Galloway is metalepsis, a kind of in-game meta-moment that acknowledges a world exists outside the game world. A famous example occurs in ''Metal Gear Solid'', when the game advises the player that his or her videogame console has itself been compromised by the villain, and instructs the player to physically move the game controller from one port to another in order to circumvent the in-game boss’s power.

Finally, in the lower right quadrant, there are nondiegetic machine acts. These are actions on the part of the machine that blur the boundary between the inside and outside of the game. Galloway gives these actions the Derridean name "play of the structure" for the impish way they violate the fourth wall of the game. The game over screen is perhaps the most common nondiegetic machine act, but far more interesting to Galloway is metalepsis, a kind of in-game meta-moment that acknowledges a world exists outside the game world. A famous example occurs in ''Metal Gear Solid'', when the game advises the player that his or her videogame console has itself been compromised by the villain, and instructs the player to physically move the game controller from one port to another in order to circumvent the in-game boss’s power.

Galloway's model has its shortcomings (to be addressed in a footnote), not the least of which is its game-centric underpinnings. Even so, the idea of four actions reveals several characteristics of the 10 Print program that are, on the one hand, completely obvious, but on the other hand, so obvious as to be entirely overlooked. In other words, thinking about 10 Print in terms of the operator-machine axis and the diegetic-nondiegetic axis defamiliarizes the program, allowing new insights into its operation.

Galloway's model has its shortcomings (to be addressed in a footnote), not the least of which is its game-centric underpinnings. Even so, the idea of four actions reveals several characteristics of the 10 Print program that are, on the one hand, completely obvious, but on the other hand, so obvious as to be entirely overlooked. In other words, thinking about 10 Print in terms of the operator-machine axis and the diegetic-nondiegetic axis defamiliarizes the program, allowing new insights into its operation.