It is 2023, and Are video games art

[rynling]

I gave a fan convention panel on "Postapocalyptic Fantasies and Nuclear Anxieties in Japanese Video Games" this afternoon, and the response wasn't what I was expecting.

I prefaced my presentation by saying that there are different ways to read various stories, and that people should feel free to disagree with my arguments, as I'm keenly interested in hearing different interpretations. People did disagree, but in a surprising way that I didn't know how to respond to.

Virtual talks are always a bit weird, as screenshare set-ups often don't allow you to see the chat while you're showing a slideshow. Not being able to see or interact with a live audience while you're talking is always a bit awkward, but what happened was still strange.

At the end of my talk - and during the chat conversation throughout - people weren't disagreeing with my readings of the games under discussion. Instead, they were disagreeing with the concept that a video game can reflect its social context or have a political message. Multiple people argued that video games are pure escapism, and that there's no room for real-world social concerns in their stories.

To my mind, that's an odd argument to make. I wonder where it's coming from...?

Comments

[renegadefolkhero]

I think they do it because when they were young, they didn't recognize social context in the games they played. They want to go back to a simpler time, not realizing things were not actually that simple and they were simply unaware of the complexities.

If you ask them to list games they play that are pure escapism, I guarantee it won't be stuff like arcade Pac-Man. They'll list modern games with clear social context but they'll refuse to acknowledge it and argue you're reading into it too much, even if you have developer materials to confirm intent.

[rynling]

This makes perfect sense, and I hate it. 🫠

When I finally arrived at the "curiosity" stage of grief, I took another look at the convention schedule and found that my panel followed a panel about academic studies of BL fandom. If I had to guess, I might posit that the attitude of "it's not actually political" may have carried over from a discussion in the previous panel. But who can say?

[lassarina]

but....all media (using that term specifically to dodge the "art" question) is inherently part of its context. Even if it's not trying to have a specific political or social conversation, the fact that its creators are part of the world means that the political and social landscape seeps in. And stuff like that isn't always conscious! Our biases show up in the words we choose or the path of a story. (There's some really interesting discussions around themes in the last couple of FFXIV expansions and how they specifically reflect some aspects of Japanese culture and therefore hit differently to a Western audience. Also recently saw a completely wild Tweet comparing omegaverse by Japanese creators to omegaverse by American creators and the effect that has on some aspects of the worldbuilding. Absolutely bonkers.)

People's ability to just delete context is fascinating and horrifying.

[rynling]

All good and fair points!

I can't help but wonder what the audience was expecting from a talk with this particular title, though. I don't think it's particularly political to say that there are anxieties concerning nuclear energy in Japan??

Then again, I've read some bad academic takes on video games. One of my favorite instances of this was when a respected senior professor gave an unironic lecture on Twitter about how Animal Crossing is Japanese imperialist propaganda. To be fair, this was during the pandemic lockdown, but still.

[lassarina]

I wouldn't think that's especially political either, but people sure do be having some Takes out there.