The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture

The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture

Edited by Linus Larsson and Daniel Goldberg, The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Video Game Culture is a collection essays from both PhD researchers and notable bloggers within the gaming industry.  The various authors provide social and political commentary on the state of video games and gaming culture through personal stories.  Although some essays attempt the semblance of balance or scholarly discussion, State of Play fails to do so, falling victim to the phenomena that has become synonymous with many gender or other marginalized populations studies. The complete lack of two-sided discussion necessary for true academic arguments unfortunately plagues this field of scholarship.  Any discipline that disallows any counter discussion or contrary evidence, even in an attempt to promote social justice, fails to provide non-partisan, scientific or scholarly material, and thus should not be considered as such.

Discounting scholarly merit due to its blatant biases, The State of Play is mostly a collection of stories highlighting the worst aspects of videogame culture; aspects which are all too familiar to anyone immersed within it.  Of course most of video gamers, like most people, are decent, but the culture is awash with toxic racism, homophobia, sexism, anti-semitism, xenophobia, and a list of other -isms and- obias too long to include.  Many of the stories are heartbreaking, and one cannot help but feel bad for both the individual writers and the countless others who face similar horrors at the hand of this culture.  Perhaps instead of story after story of the terrors, more discussion on the psychology of anonymity within these groups, other tangible issues, or stories highlighting empowerment would have been more beneficial to the reader and the culture.