In Open World Empire: Race, Erotics, and the Global Rise of Video Games, Christopher B. Patterson critically analyzes video games through the methodological framework of erotics. In doing so, he provides astute insights into the ways in which video games can work to challenge essentialized narratives and constructions of race while also fostering greater awareness and understanding of one’s own place within the larger geopolitical systems of capitalism and empire. Through understanding video gamers as not simply passive receptors of ideology, but rather as active participants in the gameplay experience, he contends that video games create pleasure and other forms of affective engagement through erotic play. Through this erotic play, Patterson argues that “games enact playful protests against the power, identity, and order of information technology” (7).
Articles by Ian Sinnett
Ian Sinnett is a PhD student in cultural studies at George Mason University. At GMU, his research has ranged from the ethnographic study of subcultural music scenes in Washington, DC to the critical analysis of video games. His primary research areas are popular culture and popular music, the politics of memory, affect theory, and critical video game studies. He holds an MA from Kansas State University, and a BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.