First of all it’s kind of hard to find games that, if they were books, wouldn’t be shelved under the label of “genre” which is typically seen as cliched adolescent power fantasy, as opposed to literature, which is beautifully written and meticulously crafted adolescent power fantasy (I am kidding slightly but the two books I have read more than any other are: the book about is a subtle science fiction metaphor for the author’s penis, and the literary novel about the author’s penis that is literally his penis). I’m being unfair to literature, but literature has in return often been unfair, privileging a narrow microcosm of the human experience (working class struggle, upper-middle class ennui). Not that sentence quality doesn’t matter in literature (unlike games) but genre does too.

Genre dominance in games is monotonous, which is bad but not really genre’s fault. Believe me, literary fiction has not solved this problem either. The narrow band of human experience (reaching out and touching someone with your gun) is a problem too, but again it’s not unique to video games. For every bald space marine glaring at you from gamestop’s preorder selection, there is an 800 page novel by an academic on his third divorce experiencing existential angst about a self-insert academic on his third divorce experiencing existential angst.

Well it’s hard to say video games are on same level as literature as the inability to write a sentence is pretty gosh damn bad. As Tim Rogers frequently mentions, it might be a good idea for a game designer to read a book, or even more than one book, at some point in their life. Still, some of our more fundamental problems aren’t really going to be solved by just not writing about aliens. 

dropouthangoutspaceout:

In relation to that Gorz quote I would say videogames have become one of those “spheres” that was supposed to separated from “real life”, which explains, once again, why “gam3rz” are so virulent in their defense of sexism, separate spheres, border patrolling, racism etc. It’s that “private sphere” that they shared with others which was conceived as their private garden, their summer cottage. Mass produced hobbies, mediated through gatekeepers like trade and enthusiast press is one reason why “games” became a private sphere.

Under monopoly capital we get mass production of private life with private homes and the monarchy of the bourgeois family. The bourgeois class created the private because it had the resources to manufacture a world distinct from the aristocracy and the monarchy while the previous classes, farmers and serfs had no concept of the private. Think about how brands are supposed to be private - they are families you bring into your kingdom because they are lifestyles and ideas and whatnot embodied as subjects - even if those subjects are just commodities. Brands, rather than products, become citizens of sorts and are represented by their various manifestations in your private kingdom.

I think that these things are then, in a sense, under your care as a sovereign and that the gardens, the houses, the collections, the games, are your responsibility to protect from the pressures of capitalism. Remember, this separate sphere is all we have outside of work itself. It’s this private sphere that is supposed to lend true meaning to our lives - not our shitty job that we grudgingly wake up for every day. This is where shit matters and as it happens when things are under your care you give a lot of damns when something appears to attack them.

These responses can often be healthy if they are things like our families and our friends. Our private joys, our pets, our heirlooms, the objects whose use value without a doubt transcends any kind of exchange value. This carries over, however, also to brands and hobbies and things that are just as emblematic of fascist and reactionary imaginaries. In videogame culture that has manifested as a kind of knee-jerk move towards defense at all costs. It’s this kind of Churchillesque war against the aggressors that has lead to the transphobic garbage that has taken place over the past few days, and that which was manifested against Anita Sarkeesian last year.

So what comes out isn’t so much entirely about a hatred of women (though much of it is) but also about the reaction against the drive of a more communal impulse to challenge that hegemony of the private sphere. To move against bourgeois values means to attack, in one sense, that autonomous sphere of production and reproduction of the monarchy of the home. It means to rip that tiny sphere of sovereignty that so many people, robbed of any other space of control in their lives through rampant capital accumulation, have. It also shows how the economic movements of our world come around and viciously react against things they seem so far away from.

5 minutes

1.

This doll is a sacrifice

Each limb ripped from its socket is a proof:

I am not

2.

When I say “you are beautiful”

what I mean to say is

“I wish I was

3.

I didn’t realize I had a body

but when you wrote on it,

I remembered

4.

Hate is such a strong word

i’ve got a green fire

burning my eyes

from the outside in

5.

I am enough

I have heard this before but

I do not believe it

The normal gameplay is Save the Princess. In between these sections, the game of Kill the Princess is played, when the knights remember when they tried to kill the Princess. If we can’t save the Princess, we must kill her to be free.

They tried many times, so you may sort the Knights into those for the Princess and those against the Princess, and they will enact a small play. The Princess cannot die, and the Princess cannot be saved; instead watch the knights as they struggle.

Self Cauterizing Attack Force—Cloudy

“Removes harmful tissue, both external and internal.”

Steam rises from the his glowing hands.

“This question is not related to anything, but do you award a lot of experience points when killed?

His hands are a breath away from your cheeks.

Persona: Gleeful

Notice: No mercy, no loot

CAUTION: Double-edged

Nocturnal Phantasmagory Invention Matrix—Silver

“Welcome to our garden. Please do not wake the princess. Would you like to hear a story instead?”

Silver grows here like lilies of the valley. 

“A golden bee landed on a small flower and said,

little flower, can I drink from you?

Kiss me, and you can take all you want, said the flower.

The bee drank until she was full and flew away.

The flower waited for a long time.”

They have stopped paying attention to you.

Persona: Lazy

Notice: Illusionist

CAUTION: Useless

Diurnal Deconstruction Reflection Matrix—Gold

While their sibling sleeps, they contemplate the haunting flowers in the silver garden.

“What is required for happiness? Happiness can be obtained by receiving only the smallest amount of kindness. However, the catalyst is a sacrifice of such great proportion it will leave you withered forever. This is the meaning of the parable.”

They do not look at the coffin buried beneath the flowers.

“This story follows the logic of a sad and pathetic person.”

Persona: Intense

Notice: Disabler

CAUTION: Merciless

XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX—?????

Clear text: “No one by that name.”

Yellow text: “Princess told me something…oh but it’s a secret, I can’t tell you.”

Green text: (A tender expression)

Cloudy text: “I removed all the damaged tissue I could, sorry whoops”

Silver text: “Once upon a time, there was a Princess…”

Gold text: “A dream is just a dream.”