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/485/ Can Games Teach Us Agency? ft. Pawel Kaczmarski (Patreon)

Published:
2025-05-06 07:00:05
Imported:
2025-05
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Content

On the promise of videos games.

Pawel Kaczmarski – a literary critic who teaches modern and contemporary Polish literature at the University of Wrocław – talks to George and Alex about his piece in Damage, "The Promise of Video Games".

How are things gearing up for Poland's election later this month?

Are video games moving culturally "upstream"?

How does a game like Helldivers 2 promise to teach us agency but fails?

Is the problem with video game criticism, and literary criticism, not so much their difficulty but rather that they are boring today?

Has anyone managed to write a good "novel of the internet"?

Links:

The Promise of Video Games, Pawel Kaczmarski, Damage

/162/ Gaming & Politics ft. Jonas Kyratzes

Gospels of the Flood

Files

Comments

James

As a gamer I enjoyed this episode a lot. For my money, the game which simply has to be mentioned in any discussion of agency and politics is the 2013 indie game Papers Please, in which the player works as an immigration official. There is no running, jumping, shooting, or anything of the sort. Instead, you play the entire game from the immigration booth, doing little more than checking documentation in accordance with varying and multiplying rules, and either granting or refusing entry. Gradually you will realise the kind of country for which you are working, and become aware (through these interactions) of subversive elements, which you can choose to assist (or not). Getting things "wrong" (whether by error or by favouring the subversives) incurs monetary penalties, which affects your ability to pay your rent and buy food for your family. Possibly worse still, you may attract the scrutiny and attention of your superiors. You can play the game either as an entirely loyal bureaucrat, or as a covert operative for the resistance, or as something in between. In this way you exercise a degree of agency or choice within a highly confined system. There are multiple possible "endings" depending on the route you take. Ambiguity is by and large the name of the game. I remember being amazed by just how keenly I wound up feeling the gravity of the decisions you are forced into making.. Since I played it, I see it's had releases on Android and iOS. Highly recommended to all Bunga listeners.

NigelBOpinion

George's mock dismissal of the novel form had me cackling.

Ricardo de Cillo

I remember playing gta 5 and spending significant time as a taxi driver and a pizza delivery guy. I guess I was being groomed for the gig economy. Or that those activities made me feel more helpful than just shooting people. Stunts and Stealing aircraft was also up there. It's a shame it wouldn't let me be a union organizer or a socialist revolutionary. Jokes apart I feel validated by this episode because too many games tease you with the promise of agency just to let you down with brainless repetitive mechanics and unexplored philosophical questions.