![]() Dean’s conditions for critical media theory, however, provide a framework for theorizing how the complex interaction between a game’s narrative and mechanics might be adapted to resist and disrupt communicative capitalism. Yet, as a result of the decline in symbolic efficiency that is characteristic of communicative capitalism, these approaches are limited in their ability to effectively respond to the current social and economic situation. Critical game studies has traditionally fallen into two categories: those that emphasize the player as the locus of critique, such as McKenzie Wark’s trifler or Mary Flanagan’s critical play, and those that emphasize design, as in Alexander Galloway’s countergaming, Ian Bogost’s procedural rhetoric, and Gonzalo Frasca’s theory of simulation. ![]() Ultimately, the very same impulse that drives communicative capitalism is responsible for the player-centric trends that some developers view as an obstacle to their art. In the era of communicative capitalism, Jodi Dean argues that the commodification of communication has suspended narrative in favour of the circulation of fragmented and digestible opinions, which not only facilitates the distribution and consumption of communication, but also safeguards communicative capitalism against critique. This potential, however, is hindered by the player-centric trends in the game industry that limit the creative freedom of developers whose work is their livelihood. These works demonstrate the power of games as a site for critical media theory. Pippin Barr, La Molleindustria’s Paolo Pedercini, and Davey Wreden are exemplary in their thoughtful engagement with an ever-expanding list of subjects, including analyses and critiques of game development, popular culture, and capitalism. The past decade has seen an increase in the availability of user-friendly game development software, the result of which has been the emergence of a genre of reflexive and experimental games. Psychoanalysis pays close attention to the subjective dimension of our recollectionsin this case, that which speaks beyond the historical content of videogame memory. ![]() By mapping this fantasmatic structure across memories of the first videogame experience, authority figures, separation and individuation, and childhood fears and phobias, the article argues for the necessity of a psychoanalytic approach to videogame memory. ![]() What cannot be remembered gives rise to the fantasmatic structure of videogame memory. Analysing subjects' responses to the question 'what was your first experience of a videogame?', it argues that what is absent from videogame memory-what cannot be remembered-has unconscious significance. Taking a psychoanalytic approach, this article conducts a textual analysis of 115 recorded acts of videogame memory from Checkpoints, a podcast that ran from 2015 to 2018. Videogame memories are not simply mental records of what happened in the past they are also texts to be interpreted. ![]()
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