The Orientalism and Abstraction in Eurogames irritated me, Cybertext left me complex, Games of Empire freaked me out, and How to do Things with Videogames was actually wonderful. The readings for this week, as you can tell, created a cluster of emotions. I had a watch A Clockwork Orange and Rosemary’s Baby to become centered again. What I notice about the readings was that it all had the theme of violence. Bogost might disagree with this, however the reason for his writing is to prove that videogames are not these violent toys, or videogames do not lead to violence. Violence does not have to be physical; it can verbal or even mental. However, I feel uneasy writing about how violence is the theme to these works because in some ways it is true and others it is not. I feel in Games of Empire it apiece that shows that violence exists in video games but it is the violence of capitalism. The fact that  “immaterial labor from theories  about post industrialism, knowledge work, or a creative class is its link to ideas of autonomy and struggle… a line of thought that emphasizes not the right and powers of corporations to control life in the name of profit but the way workers desires exceed, challenge, and escape that control. Capital’s attempts to constrain this autonomy within the limits to profit lead to recurrent cycles of struggle. ” (5). The fact people have to fight to relieve their struggles, but that fighting leads to more struggle is such a violent act. It is like we can never escape from struggling nor can we not escape from someone creating or profiting from struggle. Even though Game of Empire is showing how video games help expose and fix this struggle and violence, however some people still profit off others struggles. At least they use videogames to hide struggle and violence. Look at the Orientalism and Abstraction in Eurogames, the fact that empire-creating Risk like games are popular in Europe, to me continues violence. Instead of killing or hurting someone with a gun or grenade, they are continuing this imperialistic capitalism. They are seeing a country for their monetary value, a value that is beneficial to them and a value that is short. What I mean is that value is short-lived and when that material disappears or is not a moneymaker the country is thrown away. It is continuing imperialism, only if it is imaginary or figurative.

However, this is just my ranting opinion of the articles. But I feel that Bogost does tries his best to show the beauty of video games. It is an art form, they have beautiful music, and escapism. However, I feel, especially after reading these works, video games and games in general are not escapist. They are so rooted in reality. I feel like a hypocrite for writing that, especially after my recent posts. But, I think escapism is based on the person, so if someone feels like they can escape reality in a video game that is rooted in reality than that game is escapist to them. Nevertheless, that is how I feel and I think I have ranted on for much too long.