What If We Played A War and Nobody Won?

What If We Played A War and Nobody Won?: Critical Approaches to War in Videogame Art is a mouthful of a title that asks the big question that lingers in our contemporary culture’s collective mind and begs its audience to consider the possibility of deconstructing war through game metaphor. This online exhibition comprises six games that tamper with the rules and styles of standardized games. Each explores an aspect of war — from its gruesome realities to its philosophical blurriness – through play. What is being reinvented here is not the act of play and the skills required to ‘win’ but rather the motivation behind the play and how it relates to our perceptions of war.

A different maker or set of makers creates each game in this collection. Yet, a common thread among them lies in their clever ability to address formulaic, culturally machinized attitudes toward war. Among them, Conker: Live & Reloaded – Saving Private Conker provocatively uses fantasy to illustrate the ubiquitous glorification of war illustrated in war films, in this case Hollywood’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’. The sensationalism of death and tragedy in Spielberg’s recreation of the 1944 invasion of Normandy is recreated here through chipmunk soldiers representing the Americans and teddy bears representing the enemy. What might at first come off as crass ridicule successfully translates into a meaningful parallel between this depiction of war and those generated by the media or Hollywood. All are inherently oversimplified and reduce the seriousness of complex issues to binary polarizations.

One game in this exhibition allows players to “Play the news. Solve the puzzle.” The conflict between Israel and Palestine is the basis for exploration and play in Peacemaker. However, as the name suggests, there is no opportunity for the player to engage in violent conquest. The equivalent of a victory in this game is achieving a peaceful resolution between the two sparring states. Losing this game results in an ongoing political struggle between them. Viable arguments from each side are the only forms of weaponry, giving ‘Peacemaker’ educational potential in a positively subversive and amoral take on video games. In a stride for utmost accuracy, the game is available in English, Hebrew and Arabic.

Another piece in this collection operates fundamentally as performance art and documentary art. ‘Dead-in-Iraq’ publicly recognizes the American casualties who died in Iraq through artist Joseph DeLappe’s participation in the online multiplayer game ‘America’s Army’. Under the username ‘Dead-in-Iraq’, DeLappe catalogues their names in the game’s system, which allows players to assume the role of real U.S. soldiers. His is an ongoing pursuit, as he promises to continue to memorialize those lost through the end of American occupation in Iraq.

The other three games in this series offer a fresh approach to videogame play, including a revolutionary, three-player game of Chess that pits pawns against royal forces. As the desensitization of shock value is gaining with increasing quickness, players generally approach games through leisurely consumption. This exhibition is an artistic manifesto that debunks these casual attitudes toward violence and gives voice to the gamers who represent our cultural blind spot toward these issues. In our game and technology-obsessed culture, this exhibition appropriates the products of technology to work with and against the assumed, mass-produced, and highly problematic conventions of games. It creates social change by engaging viewers and players in critical discourse, revealing stylized commentary, pedagogical potential, and thoughtful contemplation on the harsh realities of war. This collection becomes a part of the public record, each game representing one facet of the whole. The absence of winning and losing, as the title of this exhibition suggests, reveals an unpopular possibility and steers players toward an important outcome that eerily represents our fears and, for some, very personal experiences.

https://www.fact.co.uk/event/mywar-participation-in-an-age-of-war