![]() One of the challenges of writing about videogames is where to draw the line: what to consider, and what to leave out. The remaining games, Saints Row IV, No More Heroes, and Persona 5, remain a bit of a mystery to me. I have only played one of the games featured in the book: GTA V. The book focuses on free-form games located in virtual cities, which treat this setting as the basis for a power fantasy. ![]() While it has not been a focus taken within my own research, Bailes’ book demonstrates what a psychoanalytical account of videogame play can add to our analysis. Taking videogames seriously as part of this struggle is no longer something the left can ignore.’ 12 As I argued towards the end of my book, Marx at the Arcade: ‘Organizing at work is the key way that we can change the world, but that does not mean we should do so while leaving the dominant ideas in society unchallenged. This should be welcomed – particularly as aspects of play under contemporary capitalism have received little attention from Marxists. However, there has been a recent increase of Marxist criticism, including my own writings, 10 Marijam Didžgalvytė’s ‘Left Up’ 11 series, and the videogame criticism that features regularly in Jacobin, for example. Some aspects of critical theory have been adapted for use in game studies, but shorn of its radical intent. 7 There is a similarity here with Terranova’s work on free labour and the Internet 8 (much of which can be said to apply to online videogames) and Kücklich’s portmanteau concept of ‘playbour’, 9 used to discuss the practices of modifying videogames. ![]() 6 Caillois’ engagement with Marxism was not previously discussed in game studies, despite the impact he has had on the theorisations of games. Following on from this, there have been some attempts to develop a Marxist theory of videogames, 5 with attempts to revisit Roger Caillois in light of his engagement with Marxism. The work prefigured the rise of game-worker organising, although its post-workerist conceptualisation of resistance might be considered as too pessimistic. This text, soon to be reappraised in a forthcoming special issue of Games & Culture, traces the roots of videogame production to the military and hackers, riffing-off Hardt and Negri’s Empire 4 to develop a critical account of the medium and its role within capitalism. Many of these questions were taken up in Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter’s Games of Empire, 3 an autonomist-Marxist inspired critical analysis of videogame production and play. 2 Videogames have become a mainstream cultural activity, and the site of recent struggles over ideology, capital, and working conditions. It has also emerged as a new battleground for worker-organising, with branches of Game Workers Unite springing up across the world, trying to build unions. Anyone who is in any doubt about the importance of videogames to understanding contemporary capitalism should be reminded of the sheer scale of the industry, 1 with GTA V having sold 115 million copies. In part, it can be easy to miss the widespread engagement with videogames in the home – as those who do not play them then have very limited exposure. What is particularly interesting about the book is its argument for how videogames involve ‘working through’ the antagonisms within these virtual cities, drawing attention to the importance of the interactivity within these representations.ĭue to the specific history of the medium, particularly the focus of marketing attention upon the idealised figure of the teenage boy as consumer, many continue to dismiss videogames as a niche pursuit. Bailes elaborates on the neoliberal demand to ‘enjoy responsibly’ (returned to throughout the book) and how this relates to the roles of play within contemporary capitalism. It is from this starting point that the book attempts to unpack these virtual cities, the opportunities and constraints they present for the player. Bailes justifies the psychoanalytic focus by arguing that there is ‘something especially significant in the way that many videogames function as power fantasies, which grant their characters, and through them their players, a sense of agency and control that they generally cannot experience in everyday life’ (p. Its focus is upon a critical psychoanalytical account of Saints Row IV, GTA V, No More Heroes, and Persona 5, each involving the player navigating through virtual cities. Ideology and the Virtual City by Jon Bailes is part of the recent wave of critical works examining videogames. Jon Bailes, (2019) Ideology and the Virtual City: Videogames, Power Fantasies and Neoliberalism, Winchester: Zer0 Books. Senior Lecturer in Management, Faculty of Business and Law, The Open University, – videogames – psychoanalysis – cultural studies A Review of Ideology and the Virtual City: Videogames, Power Fantasies and Neoliberalism by Jon Bailes
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