Welcome to the Dollhouse

Constructing Bodies in Crytek’s Crysis and Mattel’s Kiddle Dolls

Abstract

In this paper, we try to defamiliarize our assumptions about dolls/action figures and avatars, by confronting two seemingly distinct toy lines. We reactivate a lineage between avatars and dolls through an inspection of how bodies are constructed, and how play is experienced with these material props. We use Jean-Marie Schaeffer’s notion of hypernormal mimetism as a fundamental aspect of prosthetic body construction in games. In order to maximize the defamiliarization effect, we have decided to adopt the vocabulary associated with dolls as a general framing device. The gender associations that implicitly play a role in these dynamics are also put forward.