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On the Experimental Potential of Games: A Play-Centric Response

At the end of Thursday's class, we discussed whether there still exists an experimental potential in videogames. Many comments focused on the growing commercialization of video games, whether or not corporations could contribute to the creation of something truly experimental or "counter-cultural," and role of newer technologies in lowering barriers for independent developers. One thing that struck me about the conversation is that most of what was said focused on the potential for the designer to create experimental spaces in video games, with little mention of how the player might make their own experience an experiment in itself. Given that one of our earliest lectures emphasized the distinction between procedural and play-centric approaches to games, I thought it important to give this question a play-centric answer as well. It also seemed highly relevant to this week's reading on "The Queer Art of Failing."


In the Ruberg reading, her final, broad-reaching conclusion is that "if we accept failure as fundamental to games and we accept failure as coded as queer, all games become queer, in a nonrepresentational sense" (Ruberg 210). This "nonrepresentational sense" of queerness as something that exists outside of heteronormative structures or challenges existing norms seems to be nothing less than boldly experimental. If every game is queer, then is not every game experimental?


Beyond this reading, which might seem a bit of a logical leap to some, there are numerous other play-centric approaches we can take to understanding the experimental potential of video games today. The increased production of games that focus on "emergent gameplay," offer infinite possibilities for the player to take, such that one player's playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2 might be radically experimental in how they turn the game into a story of a man whose only goal is to assemble a monumental collection of rabbit carcasses. The rise of "Let's Plays" and Twitch streams encourages players to play games in more experimental ways as a means to differentiate themselves in a growing pool of online personalities all playing the same games. The culture in games today seems to increasingly favor the player, fostering ever more experimental playthroughs of games.

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