Interesting stuff although I don't quite see the same level of concern with video games primarily because you actually know when you are playing one.
This quote from the article sums it up pretty well, "It’s a little hard to describe in layman’s terms, but it basically means that humans would react positively to human-like robots for as long as they could definitely tell they’re still robots. After that, it is assumed that the robots could start looking less like robots, and slowly inch closer toward near perfect human emulation. It is at this point where it is theorized that people will have some sort of negative reaction, as the “robots” start to look very human, but not totally human."
When applying this to games, I just don't see there being a point where we wouldn't be able to tell we're playing a game in the same way we wouldn't be able to identify a robot if we saw one. Point being, we know they're graphical images because we know we're playing games. Now, I can still see how this uncanny valley effect could (and does in some instances) detract from gaming because something would be noticeably off about the human's behavior. That much I can agree with, but the comparison between reality and video games isn't a direct comparison.
Overall, interesting article. I definitely learned something.
