Videogames

<div><i>Videogames: Design / Play / Disrupt</i> explores the design and culture of videogames since the mid-2000s, investigating groundbreaking contemporary design work, creative and rebellious player communities, and the political conversations that define this movement.<br>  <br> A star-studded cast of contributors consider a variety of games, from blockbusters like <i>The Last of Us</i> and <i>Splatoon</i> and cultural phenomena such as <i>Minecraft</i> to less-mainstream productions like <i>Consume Me,</i> which tackles the difficult issues of body image and extreme dieting. Canadian academic and minimalist games designer Pippin Barr addresses violence in videogames through his work on <i>A Series of Gunshots</i>; Kat Brewster discusses the creation of fan art and fan fiction in relation to the multiplayer first-person shooter <i>Overwatch</i>; and the phenomenon of community and cosplay is explored by Philippa Warr through <i>League of Legends</i> and the 2017 world finals in Beijing. It also features rarely seen material including designers’ notebooks, concept art, prototypes and the artistic inspirations behind games such as <i>Journey</i>, <i>Kentucky Route Zero</i> and <i>No Man’s Sky</i>.<br>  <br> Published to accompany a major exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, in Fall 2018, this is truly a landmark publication, bringing videogames into the mainstream of cultural criticism and placing them alongside more conventional mediums of creative expression.<br><br><br>  </div>