Videogames: Design / Play / Disrupt

by Marie Foulston (Editor), Kristian Volsing (Editor)

Videogames: Design / Play / Disrupt explores the design and culture of videogames since the mid-2000s, investigating groundbreaking contemporary design work, creative and rebellious player communities, and the political conversations that define this movement.
 
A star-studded cast of contributors consider a variety of games, from blockbusters like The Last of Us and Splatoon and cultural phenomena such as Minecraft to less-mainstream productions like Consume Me, which tackles the difficult issues of body image and extreme dieting. Canadian academic and minimalist games designer Pippin Barr addresses violence in videogames through his work on A Series of Gunshots; Kat Brewster discusses the creation of fan art and fan fiction in relation to the multiplayer first-person shooter Overwatch; and the phenomenon of community and cosplay is explored by Philippa Warr through League of Legends and the 2017 world finals in Beijing. It also features rarely seen material including designers’ notebooks, concept art, prototypes and the artistic inspirations behind games such as Journey, Kentucky Route Zero and No Man’s Sky.
 
Published to accompany a major exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in Fall 2018, this is truly a landmark publication, bringing videogames into the mainstream of cultural criticism and placing them alongside more conventional mediums of creative expression.


 

Genres: Nonfiction, Art

208 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2018

Reviews

[Alex]

This is the exhibition catalogue for "Videogames: Design / Play / Disrupt" by the V&A in London, currently on tour. Its fifteen generously illustrated essays give a good sense of the themes of the physical counterpart: generally, the development of videogames and the discourse around them since the early 2000s, and specifically issues of representation, development processes, individual expression and community.

None of the ideas raised in this were particularly new to me: I was a seasoned fan when I attended the influential 2003 "Game On" exhibition they mention in the introduction, and I've seen these crises and innovations develop in the decade and a half since. However the personal perspectives and critical nuance of the authors were very welcome. I suspect the intrigued non-game-player will get quite a bit of insight out of it.

[Martin Hare Michno]

I found this book at the V&A Museum in Dundee during the 'Videogames: Design/Display/Disrupt' exhibition. It was sold at the Gift Shop for the (over)price of 25 pounds. It is a collection of essays which expand on many of the ideas put forth by the exhibition: race, sex, art, violence, community, etc. The essays were interesting, some more than others. It's not worth the 25 pounds though. Even in the more insightful passages, the writers never dig too deep into the philosophical or political aspects. However, despite the price, it is a worthy addition to the videogame exhibition.

[Jack]

A mixed bag of content and consequently of depth, insight and quality. The exhibition dwarfs the act of writing about it and it's games.

[bubez]

"Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt focuses on a small selection of titles that have had a significant impact on the industry since the mid-2000s." [from the foreword]
Print quality is okay but not great, because the price tag is low. The yellow clear plastic jacket is almost impossible to take off without breaking it (and it's not meant to be taken off) and is very sharp - so watch out when you're handling the book!