The video game as a sociotechnical artifact
Historical processes and cultural practices that have defined the imaginary of the digital revolution
Abstract
Video games are socio-technical devices that (re)produce preceding structures, historical processes, and cultural practices. The main objective of this article is to analyze the historical evolution of the video game linked to broader cultural, sociopolitical, and technological transformation processes. In particular, we try to show how video games have contributed to the generation of a space where power relations and hegemonic cultural frameworks are renegotiated. Since the 70s, we have observed how symbolic imaginaries, corporate cultures, forms of resistance, discourses, and identities emerge around the videoludic device. In this way, we analyze a technology developed in a specific spatial and temporal context, which has caused a social and technological revolution far from its original ideals and goals. Thus, we rethink the video game as a mediating artifact that co-creates and reproduces socio-historical structures, cultural microcosms, and maps of power.
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