Videogames are a Mess - Ian Bogost
In Videogames Are a Mess, troublemaker/academic, Ian Bogost, discusses and reframes the history of one of the most visible and as he argues, misleading, schisms within videogame theory: “ludology” vs. “narratology”. Ludologists advocates for approaching game experience as “play” while narratologists explore game experience as “stories”. Though there have been many significant advances in understanding the way we interact with and create meaning in videogames, every few years a major flare-up will occur between these two legacy camps with a level of vitriol that can confuse the uninitiated. With this in mind, it is important for those learning about video games in the arts to be able to parse the scars of this—not exactly real—decades-long battle. Aside from explaining this loaded, often coded, history, Bogost’s contribution is to collapse and reframe common binary as a formalist trap that pre-limits the bounds of what he terms “computational creativity.” Aaaannnd… then it dives into what is either a hellscape or wonderland (depending on your personal and professional inclination) of supporting theory/philosophy of such ideas as flat ontology and actor-network theory. Bogost’s usual entertaining but slightly dismissive rhetorical style is present, but this essay serves as a wonderful overview and progression of historical impulses in video game studies.
PS: This is a good point to talk about “video games” vs. “videogames”. Common parlance and most media outlets use “video games”, but many in academic circles prefer “videogames”, with the understanding that “video-space-games” would technically refer to those 80s VHS dinner-murder-mystery games. We at Video Games for the Arts don’t really have a strong opinion and chose to use “video games” simply because it was most familiar.
Author: Ian Bogost
Link: http://bogost.com/writing/videogames_are_a_mess/
Connections:
Bruno Latour - We Have Never Been Modern
Edward and Nacy Kienholz - Installation Works
Quentin Meillassoux - After Finitude