Free Play

While avoiding working on my Yale and NYLS presentations, I came across a nice article on Reason Online called Free Play: the Politics of the Video Game by Kevin Parker. While probably a review for many of the Terra Nova regulars, Parker does a nice job of covering the history of video games in the context of how free the player is to make his or her own choices during gameplay before moving on to discuss games as a platform for ideologies, touching on economic and other freedoms, and finally reaching a conclusion that many of us would cheer: Comics theoretician Scott McCloud has asked if gaming can “‘rewire’ us in some way,” and journalist Steven Poole has concluded that games are “rewiring our minds.” If so, they just might be pushing us toward individualism, encouraging us to resist both authors and authoritarians. Stories do fulfill a distinct need, and computer games are unlikely to break completely from them. For those so inclined, it will always be possible to glue a dramatic collectivist veneer over a rigged simulation. … [B]ut this facade warrants little worry. It may take some ingenuity, but free minds eventually break through fake dungeon walls to explore their potential and live their own stories.