July 05, 2004
Play with Purpose: Cultural Critique + Gaming
Seems to me that the computer gaming interface may represent the next portal through which cultural critique is articulated, which is promising so long as the coupling of narrative, critique and action doesn't dry out the game play to point that you can't tell its a video game anymore. Parenthetically, I love the way Rafael Fajardo has packaged his border-politics games with a well-written essay. It lends scholarly heft to his serious yet tongue-in-cheek re-working of Frogger!
The violence of the computer game world is thrown sharply into relief when
characters do not represent the cultural hegemony typically seen in a
First-Person Shooter. "Play" does not necessarily equal "amusement" or
"humour" in these games; the opportunity to put on an identity that sees a
formerly friendly (?) world as oppositional can be shocking. Developers
from four recent games discuss their works on -empyre-..
Based on the struggles of a Palestinian youth during the Intifadah,
UnderAsh and Under Siege were created by AFKARMEDIA under the direction of Syrian cofounder, programmer Radwan Kasmiya. Kasmiya also acts as media advisor for the Middle-Eastern publisher DAR AL-FIKR.
Depicting the plight of a foreign asylum-seeker in Australia, Escape from
Woomera asks a player to attempt to
break out of four refugee detention centers. Melbourne-based Kipper is
the Creative Director from the development team.
Rafael Fajardo explores the complexity of the real-world US/Mexico border
situation through the paired games Crosser and La Migra. The games depict border
crossings from the point of view of the illegal immigrant, and as a border
patrol agent who attempts to prevent the crossing.
Collaborative group C-level has produced Waco Resurrection. Several of the artist/developers, including
Brody Condon, Eddo Stern, and Peter Brinson will join us, examining issues
of colonialism, violence, and documentary versus fictive presentation.
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