Games in the age of empire

Abstract

This is a part of the introductory essay of the now already canonical study on gaming culture, written by Nick Dyer-Witheford & Greig de Peuter - Games o f Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games (University of Minnesota Press, 2009). Regardless of the year of publishing, it still represents an extremely useful review that is not without serious critical insights. Placing the culture of video games in the epistemological passe partout determined by the Empire theorists Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, the authors had laid one of the key foundations for critical game studies, based on a deep understanding of the logic of virtual games, as well as their teleology and reception. The authors' cultural-political analysis of the media illustrates how central video games have become the very structure of our contemporary global order: both as a means of governing and as a (virtual) space of struggle and resistance.