Critical Play

<b>An examination of subversive games like <i>The Sims</i>--games designed for political aesthetic and social critique.</b> <p/>For many players games are entertainment diversion relaxation fantasy. But what if certain games were something more than this providing not only outlets for entertainment but a means for creative expression instruments for conceptual thinking or tools for social change? In <i>Critical Play</i> artist and game designer Mary Flanagan examines alternative games--games that challenge the accepted norms embedded within the gaming industry--and argues that games designed by artists and activists are reshaping everyday game culture. <p/>Flanagan provides a lively historical context for critical play through twentieth-century art movements connecting subversive game design to subversive art: her examples of playing house include Dadaist puppet shows and <i>The Sims</i>. She looks at artists' alternative computer-based games and explores games for change considering the way activist concerns--including worldwide poverty and AIDS--can be incorporated into game design. <p/>Arguing that this kind of conscious practice--which now constitutes the avant-garde of the computer game medium--can inspire new working methods for designers Flanagan offers a model for designing that will encourage the subversion of popular gaming tropes through new styles of game making and proposes a theory of alternate game design that focuses on the reworking of contemporary popular game practices.