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April 13, 2004

| The Dead City >>

Playing By the Rules, But Whose?

In the libertarian mag Reason, Kevin Parker writes about the politics of video games:

… But as a political vehicle, games may have an inherent bias. Bridging an ideological chasm, libertarian Iain Smedley and socialist Julian Stallabras agree that computer games possess a native individualism. Writing a decade ago, Smedley noted the “heroic and individualistic philosophy” of video games, in which the player “does not merely cheer on the hero in [his] struggle; the player