Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt @ The V&A — thoughts and reviews and stuff

Jan 7

Jan 7 Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt @ The V&A

Ten Second Review: This exhibit might be interesting if you really love video games or if you don’t take them seriously at all. It’s enjoyable and at points thought provoking but I wouldn’t call it essential viewing.

I’ve been playing videogames since I was a kid. I clearly remember playing the Small Soldiers game with my dad and uncle on the PS1 and then being so excited to find a PS2 under the Christmas tree one year. Whether it was solo campaign style games, mini tournaments with friends or eventually getting good enough to beat my dad at certain games, I have loved videogames since I was very young. The counterpoint to this is my mum, who seems to hate them with a bitterness I can’t fully understand. “I just don’t understand why anyone would waste their time with video games…it just all seems worthless” to quote just a couple things she has said about the general concept of video games.

When the V&A announced that they would be putting on the first large scale exhibition looking at the design and culture around modern videogames, it seemed almost inevitable (and certainly necessary) that I should take my mum to see it.

The exhibit is split into three main sections: design. play and disrupt. The first portion, design, looks at the work done behind the scenes of video games design. From notebooks from the artists and programmers to material that inspired them, this first part of the exhibition is an interesting display of the sheer amount of work that it takes to design and build every corner of these virtual worlds. The second section, disrupt, looks at developments in the videogame industry around questions about violence, racism, misogyny and censorship. Over the past few years the industry has begun to see a shift in the workforce who makes games but also the way it presents individuals in games. The final section, and sadly the smallest, is called “play” and as you would imagine it’s a room of games for you to try. The games they chose seemed to be mostly weird flash games that had made a big splash on the internet over the past decade which I think people will either love or hate. There was also a giant screen showing the final of a League of Legends tournament held in the Bird’s Nest stadium in Bejing.

I think the first section, while extremely interesting, is very badly laid out. You follow a snaking path that just leads to congestion all the way through. The content was quite interesting, although I feel that it was made much better for already knowing the games being highlighted. I think for people would no knowledge about videogames in general, or the games being featured specifically, they could have been explained a little better. The middle section was easily where I felt the exhibition was at its strongest. By looking at the changes in the industry and also taking the time to discuss these changes, this room was really able to look at what videogames currently look like and how they are evolving.

The last two rooms, the big screen and the “arcade” made for an interesting end. The showcasing of the size that e-sports has reached while managing to remain almost hidden from mainstream view is something that I think people will be truly struck by. If you don’t care about videogames and suddenly learn that you can sell out an olympic stadium with people there to watch people play games, I imagine you’d be taken aback. I’m glad that the V&A used this as a moment to highlight the sheer scale that e-sports has reached. The “arcade” was a good idea for the end of the exhibition but I feel that it should have been bigger. There doesn’t seem to be any reason that they couldn’t have had more games or even just the games that they had spent the exhibition talking about so that people could have seen the design, understood the disruption and the had the chance to play them. While I relished the chance to play Enviro-Bear on an arcade style machine, it just didn’t seem the right fit after having gone through the previous rooms.

My mum’s opinion on video games bent a little. She was shocked by the size of the e-sports community and, while I doubt she’ll be heading to see any live gaming anytime soon, she now seems to understand the sheer amount of work and artistic ability that can go into making games. She also seemed to find the discussions around videogames quite interesting but she still doesn’t understand what would possess a person to spend their time playing. Having said that, she does now hold the highscore at the V&A videogames exhibit for QWOP so maybe that will change in time. (It was a little over 40m if you fancy tryng to beat it.)

I think that this exhibition has a few successes. It does recognise the beauty and artistry that goes into making videogames and I’m glad that somewhere like the V&A has chosen to do that in such a large scale exhibition. It does highlight the changing landscape of videogames and should make people question some of the games they play and what the content of those games is. It also highlights both the Goliaths and the bizzare, almost countercultural, games that blow up and make the rounds on the internet in a fun and interactive way. The problem is that the awkward lay out and small spaces never let you quit feel like you have the time to fully engage with the first and last sections and the slight disjoint between the three sections leaves you feeling quite unsatisfied. I’m glad it was put on, and I’m excited that videogames are being taken seriously, but I don’t feel this exhibition is quite as successful as it could have been.