Videogames with an agenda

VIDEOGAMES WITH AN AGENDA @ THE CURZON SOHO, OCTOBER 16-NOVEMBER 7

The current growth of videogames is turning them into one of the defining media genres of the new century. However, unlike film or even television, videogames grew up under the late capitalism, when marketing was already very developed. This may in part explain why many of the commercial videogames that are available today are quite conservative and do not aim to do much more than entertain us (thankfully, there are some exceptions, such as Sim City, The Sims or Grand Theft Auto 3).

However, there is a long tradition of using games for other purposes outside entertainment. Educators have been using games for centuries to model systems. The military has used them as training tools. One of the most popular board games of the 20th century, Monopoly, was based on an original game (The Landlord’s Game) created in 1904 by a Quaker woman who was opposed to a certain form of land taxation. Artists such as Augusto Boal (The Theater of the Oppressed) have also brilliantly combined drama with games in order to create little laboratories where players explore social and political issues.

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