Metaviews

dropouthangoutspaceout:

This thesis illustrates, using political economy, the ways in which governments increasingly play a large role in developing, or encouraging the development of, videogames, and how these games then circulate and interact as political texts in the public sphere. This is achieved in four parts: two on history and theory, and two case studies. The theoretical chapters have two main foci: the first is by finding value in videogames as meaningful cultural artifacts that play a role in the ongoing maintenance of the state and civil society. This is achieved through a literature review and discussion of the contemporary theoretical parameters of the public sphere, which draws heavily on the work of Habermas (1991), Warner (2002) and Drache (2008). In the second chapter this discussion is located inside the field of game studies, drawing heavily on the work of Bogost (2007), whose theoretical frameworks about the persuasive potential of videogames is investigated through their unique status as computational objects. The two second chapters each conduct a political economy through commodification, spatialization and structuration (Mosco, 2009) on the development of videogames who have a direct link with state intervention: The United States Army recruitment videogame America’s Army (which was funded entirely by the Pentagon) and the Toronto developed iOS videogame Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, which was the recipient of a small-scale cultural industry grant from the provincially owned Ontario Media Development Corporation.

So you can read this now, if you so desire. I do not wish to know about typos of any sort. Please keep those to yourself. Otherwise, discuss away! I would love to hear your thoughts, so please shoot me an electronic mail at daniel[dot]joseph[at]ryerson[dot]ca

Anyways, this is an MA thesis so it has to have a considerable amount of literature review and whatnot, but the most interesting stuff, at least to most scholars of political economy or videogames, will most likely be the investigation of America’s Army as a historical moment that marks a distinct reterritorialization of the medium of videogames by the state after the videogame industry’s youth in the heady days of neo-liberalism. [deep breath]

The second case study (which consists of a long interview with Superbrothers’ Craig Adams) should be of interest to those who make or study indie videogames, as well as the Canadian videogame industry as a whole. It is an early foray into the political economy of these small scale developers and their intimate relations with the state, which is an ongoing concern of mine especially in relation to Toronto’s young videogame development community.

If you are interested in citizenship and the public sphere, I suppose there is a whole bunch of that stuff in there too. Ya know. Democracy.

[cover page / full text]