Everything to Play For

Marijam Didžgalvytė (Marijam Did) has a book coming out in Autumn called Everything to Play For, How Videogames are Changing the World (EPF). I was one of the lucky few to be given an advance copy. My deadline for getting my notes into shape was extremely tight but I found the book an engaging read, EPF is a mix of autobiography, artistic review and criticism, sociological research, consumer activism, history of workplace organising and appeal for further activism and resistance to build a better gaming industry as part of a better society for everyone.

The book covers plenty of ground, and despite its grand scope EPF is newbie friendly - gaming terms are explained when they first appear in the text. Did’s target audience appears to be people who are committed left wingers of one stripe or other but are not into games or are sceptical of them and possibly even hostile to them. There are several passages lamenting the arbitrary treatment of games compared to film, art, literature etc. While every game terminology and technology is explained left wing terminology is only explained if it’s somewhat obscure. For example, the Situationist concept of Derive (Drift) is explained for the reader but Did’s usage of Historical Materialism is not.

I share Did’s frustrations on common left wing disdain for games and the blind spots that come with it. I’ve experienced the disapproval and belittling attitude first hand and I’ve been trying to chip away at that wall of disinterest for some time in my own small way. I was surprised when Organise expressed interest both in my writing and commentary about games in general as that is not a typical response for an older established platform. Film, music and literature are staples of left wing critical commentary, and entire schools of thought have risen to prominence pondering the impact of these media institutions on the minds of the working masses, but videogames are still shut out of those conversations. EPF’s publisher is Verso books, which is both another positive sign of change and a good platform to reach the audience of sceptics. Did makes an effective case that to ignore one of the largest industries on the planet is to seriously undermine any strategy for resistance to capitalism and hinders attempts to construct a world that is free from the exploitation and violence of infinite growth and productivity improvements.

The games industry is a major contributor to land clearance, modern slavery, resource depletion and pollution. If we wish to stop hyper-exploitation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other regions of the world we can’t limit ourselves to illegal logging and conflict diamonds, we have to challenge the role of tech and game companies in cobalt and other mineral mining. Tens of thousands of people around the world are employed in the games industry and just like their fellow workers on the docks, in the fields and factories they are exploited, overworked, underpaid, harassed sexually, bullied, fired on short or no notice, and through their labour create products that they will not own and will enrich someone else. Their struggles are just as worthy of moral and practical support.

Ignorance of these areas also presents the danger of sleep walking into a trap as the cultural, social and psychological effects of the lessons learnt in the gaming industry seep out into areas of our society and personal lives that at a glance are completely separate from the world of point winning and level climbing. Gamification is marketing buzzword, but annoyingly and dangerously it’s a buzzword that describes a real process that has proven time and again to be quite effective, at least effective at generating profit. The impact that the logic of video games being exported outside its traditional sphere is something we don’t fully understand yet as the process is still in early stages, but its quickly becoming inescapable even for those who have never touched a joystick and only use keyboards and mice for writing emails and browsing videos of cats being random. My audio book and podcasts apps recently added medals and experience points as an example of the future fast approaching.

All of these issues and more are summarised and examined in EPF, there’s lot of blood, sweat and tears that go into making plumbers jump up and down and hedgehogs collect shiny rings, and sadly that is often literal. I’ve never experienced crunch time developing a video game but I’ve experienced similar conditions in a factory, and its mind, body, and soul draining work, so I can empathise with conditions for game developers. There’s plenty to critique and lament in gaming spaces and the industry that shapes it right now, and EPF could easily have been another entry in the growing left wing genre of political pessimism, pointing out and cataloguing at length the many faults of the world as it is and then despairing about how insurmountable it all is. Thankfully EPF is not like that, although it does catalogue the many faults of the world as it is. It also credits the successes, games that engage politically with their players and raise awareness of issues, the growth of video game and tech worker unions, independent developers and games co-operatives that are experimenting with new ways of working that promote sustainability, collaboration and equability in compensation and decision making. EPF couples these positives with outlines of a potential better future for gaming that more support from the wider left could assist in making a reality sooner.

EPFs vision of a possible future is not a blueprint and there are parts of the puzzle that remain unanswered by the end of the conclusion. To me that isn’t a detriment; the history of the schools of socialism is littered with impressive schematics that breakdown and become obsolete within a year. The remaining ambiguities in EPF leave room for independent thought, and there were points in the text where Did asked a question and while reading I thought of a rough outline of an answer or potential avenue for discussion and examination. I really hope that in the near future I will find enough time to start writing some of them.

I’m not in the target demographic (well I am partially in that demographic - I am convinced that we need a revolutionary overhaul of society after all), but I’m not new to games and I doubt anyone who reads Red & Black Gamers would need the definition for a LAN party. If that’s the case should you still read EPF? I would hope that I’ve already answered that question, but just in case I’ll be blunt: yes, yes you should. I consider myself a well-informed gamer who has documented issues within the industry and supported early attempts at resistance, and yet I’ve learnt quite a bit, both new examples and some more information or another perspective on cases and incidents I was already aware of. To pick just one example I was aware of the game Dead Cells, but was not familiar with its studio Motion Twin nor that it is open about its support for Anarcho-Syndicalism.

“Follow games industry unions on social media and support their calls for action. Enjoy and encourage artistic experimentations in this field and support smaller creators. Do not dismiss political action within these spaces as isolated aberrations, but engage with them, give them merit, be curious.”

Is it a perfect book? No, but I don’t believe those exist and my negative notes were trivial, so I won’t bother including them as just mentioning them would give them greater weight than they merit. I think EPF is good contribution to the discourse about video games and I hope it proves to be a successful step in the process of getting video games as an industry, and as a subject for criticism, resistance and improvement out of the lefty sin bin and into the mainstream. Getting it on the bookshelf is a good start.■

Reddebrek
You can find more of Reddebreks writing and reviews on their website: reddebreksbowl.blogspot.com

Pre-orders of "Everything to Play For" are available from Verso Books with 20% off, £13.60 paper book / £8 Ebook which shipping commencing on 17 September.