Games that avoid capitalistic design
Games that avoid capitalistic design
Games that avoid capitalistic design
February5,2022
By MalindyHetfeld
Summary
There are obvious examples in which games put us to work, like the cycle of work and consumption in Animal Crossing that many memes make fun of even as we enjoy it, or management games and city builders.
Many games are fun because, unlike at many points in real life, the work we put in brings visible results.
With marketing campaigns selling us the possibility of 500 hours of game time as fun for an especially dedicated bunch of people, and the recontextualization of binging and grinding to become something positive, it's worth asking if games, too, can't offer alternatives to the cycles that keep you working.
To that end, I've spoken to some designers of recent games that many players and critics noted for their kindness - the link between kindness and anti-capitalist design often isn't incidental.
Freedom is an important anti-capitalist notion in association with games.
Games can't offer answers to any of these problems, in part because these problems all exist in our industry.
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Reference
Hetfeld, M. (2022, February 05). Games that avoid capitalistic design. Retrieved February 28, 2022, from https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2022-02-05-games-that-avoid-capitalistic-design