“Playful Labyrinth”, Path and Power in Video Games

At this time, they identified different directions and schools of thought in universities around the world, but also suffered from the negative consequences of what at the beginning seemed to be the differentiating factor of the field: the inherent interdisciplinary nature, which in the future weakened the confusion of what is the cajón of knowledge with a common technological substrate that is not always sufficient to carry out research.

I hear that Antonio José Planells de la Mazaprofessor and investigator of the Tecnocampus (center registered at Pompeu Fabra University), enraíza his questions in classic narrative imaginations and bases them connecting points of a very relevant game in the history of the Middle Ages with the cultural context of the Westfoundational texts that continue to breathe life into our stories across the ocean of time.

A playful labyrinth This is the result of many years of investigation which the author created in Marco de la Beca Leonardo, and from the first pages there is therefore a complete mastery of the material. Planells de la Maza does not approach video games with the curiosity of a tourist (as some academics of the past, such as Henry Jenkins and Janet Murray have seen), until it is clear that he has the enormity of the medium in mind (its historical development, its iconographic references, the specifics of its sensibility, geographical details, etc.) and combines it, naturally, philosophically as well as narologically and academically. basics.

The book is structured into five chapters that cover the main classical arguments of interest: the playful labyrinth (Theseus and the Minotaur), the conundrum (Jason and the Argonauts and the concept search), Homecoming (Ulyses and the return to origin transformed in the space of conflict), Fundación de la Patria (Eneas a Manifest destiny American exceptionalism) and the exercise of power and the emergence of rebellion (Macbeth, Kafka and the intersections between capitalist dynamics and democratic ambitions).

None of these themes are radically new in themselves, but the author justifies the contemporary relevance they represent by introducing parallels, hybrids, and permutations of millennia-old stories in relatively recent digital narratives.

I hear that the selection of video games you use is very well donea compendium of works in progress from el blockbuster from twenty millionaires to independent joys which received unanimous applause from professional critics.

While there are some archeological examples from the 1980s, most of them are readily available titles and are available on major digital platforms, so you can appreciate these books first hand.

Academic discourse on video games tends on many occasions to an intellectual snobbery that focuses on the most obscure and unknown works of the canon, congratulating itself on the impenetrability of exposition that is absolutely relegated to the circle.

Don’t worry if you misinterpret me. A playful labyrinth It follows that it is a dense text, full of quotations and with an extensive bibliography and literature, which in every way reveals the academic background of the research and its author, but I must say that it is the right one for me much more pleasant, interesting and satisfying than many texts of a similar nature.

The last chapter, a reference to the exercise of power, I asked if it brought me such a harsh thought, with some reflections on political philosophy (the panopticon as a metaphor for the degeneration of the information society regarding hypervigilance, exhibitionism and self-examination of social networks) repeatedly expanded and moved in the pages. However, the real relevance of these questions is undeniable, and the author delves deeply into the many clubs that explain the violent social phenomenology that is straining the world at these moments.

You will find that the most used epigraphs have been selected a test of American exceptionalism BioShock Infinite y Death Strandingin this case in conjunction with the digital precariat gig economy.

They are games I know very well, right They caused a lot of controversy that day but over the years they have demonstrated an unfathomable depth of case, a wealth of relevant ideas, and a very sure commentary on issues that range from the physical physics and racism of the Padres Fundadores in the case of the former to the existential considerations and late capitalist realities of the latter.

The author’s concise summary of such comprehensive works deserves praise because consigue to exhibit the essence of worksthereby creating a coherent relationship that easily covers most of its attachments.

This is undoubtedly the main strength of this book. Poner’s order in the mass of references, influences, links and commentary in the modern video game ecosystem; to create an exhaustive genealogy across acronyms that connects the Homeric relationships that illuminate the Western canon with the most sophisticated narrative formats that exist today.

It’s a reminder of the sum total of the most regressive diatribes involved in a medium of infinite consequence the fruit of malicious ignorance. A rebuke on two sides: on the one hand the cultural substratum of the West (much vilified by contemporary postmodernists who are carving out their own academic ground) and on the other hand the possibilities of the medium, which is overtaken by the most cunning and cruel capitalist dynamics.

Eventually, absolutely recommended reading For anyone who has ever wondered the origin of the magnetic effect that video games cause.