How can interactive systems subvert the way we normally think things are supposed to be done? This week’s roundup features a number of articles on designing games for different ways of being, as well as examinations of how visual design can make things feel familiar.

Discipline

First, two writers take on the ideological expression of games, in relation to capitalism and religion.

Practice

Four articles this week examined different ways that game systems can work for or against oppressive social systems.

“The everyday consciousness of ourselves as simultaneously modeling and modeled might instead be a productive site from which to imagine alternative cities and political structures.”

Limitations

Finally, two critics look at visual expression in games, with an eye towards things that feel familiar, whether that familiarity is comforting or creepy.

  • (9) Hygge in Video Games – YouTube (Video: auto-captions)
    Satchell Drakes highlights some visual design techniques that create a sense of simplicity and coziness in some of his favorite games.
  • FAITH – calei2copi0x 
    Celia Sanchez argues that horror is best found in the unseen, and nostalgia is best used in service to consistent narrative and aesthetic goals.

FAITH‘s self-imposed technological limitations are attached to the very essence of the game: since our memory is terribly short, we find these Spectrum-esque graphics obscure and confrontational”


Plugs