Aesthetic Theory and the Video Game 1st Edition

I would say that have read quite a lot of books on computer games, and this is certainly the most theoretically original, ambitious, and interesting one that I have come across. This book is an extremely rich vein of ideas that incorporates a range of theorists - most prominently Rancière, Badiou, Adorno, Benjamin, and Foucault - in making an argument about the distinctiveness of videogames.The author thinks that the hegemonic linguistic or semiotic models of understanding and interpretation cannot be satisfactorily applied to videogames. Instead, he advocates an aesthetic approach, which foregrounds the experience of their ‘form’, or ‘formal structure’. ‘Form’ is a tricky term to explain, but it is something like a precondition to the coherence of a whole experience. It is the thread that runs through the entire book, and amounts to an attempt to deal with how the feel of videogame experiences can make sense to us in a way that I have not seen elsewhere. The way in which this form is unlocked is through the physical actions and behaviours of the player, which he likens to a dance (using the hands) that reveals the properties of the game as an object in accordance with a prior choreography (drawing upon Alain Badiou).The book is also notably ambitious in its attempt to get beyond the traditional cultural and media studies’ concern of submerging the account of the emergence of videogames (a new Badiousian ‘event’) merely in the story of its social and historical context. It situates videogames in relation to a contemporary ‘structure of feeling’ (Raymond Williams), or rhythm. Videogames’ refusal of meaning, or excess of meaning, is another continuous thread that explains their relation to a contemporary ‘neo-baroque’ (Angela Ndalianis) as well as a prevalent ‘cynicism’ (Peter Sloterdijk). I would recommend this book if you are interested in videogames, meaning, aesthetics, or contemporary experience.

As the title suggests this is a scholarly look at the video game form. Kirkpatrick writes well and explains concepts clearly but this is definitely not an easy read (if that is what you are looking for).The book argues that the aesthetic form that video game playing is most closely aligned to is dance:"Players dance, mainly with their hands, in response to games as choreographic scripts and it is through this dance that they derive the pleasures and frustrations of form" p7.This perspective leads to a very interesting discussion of the physical actions of the video game player and the rhythms of play.In arguing his case Kirkpatrick draws on, amongst others, video game theorists Aarseth, Juul and Bogost and the philosopher Badiou. The book challenges cultural and media studies' focus on interpretation and meaning in games. Kirkpatrick describes these as "imposing alien principles of meaning making" (p6) on the video game experience. As someone who comes from a media studies background, I found these arguments both confronting and thought-provoking. Although I didn't agree with all Kirkpatrick's arguments, for me, this book makes an important contribution to the field of video game studies and is well worth careful consideration.

Many attempts have been done to attach the booming video game phenomenon to serious aesthetic discussion. By not focusing on graphics, cutscenes, and narratives but on that what we actually do when we play -- use our fingers -- ATVG becomes so far perhaps the most important single author book devoted to the aesthetic questions concerning video games.