Ideology and the Virtual City: Videogames, Power Fantasies, and Neoliberalism w/ Jon Bailes

On this edition of Parallax Views, video games are a popular pastime at this point. From Halo to Super Mario Bros., video games have become become a juggernaut within the entertainment industry and remain hugely popular with people from various generations. As with other forms of entertainment it is possible to look at such video games as a reflecting pool for the culture from which they were produced. In Ideology and the Virtual City: Videogames, Power Fantasies, and Neoliberalism (Zero Books; 2019), Jon Bailes uses popular games to examine and interrogate the culture of neoliberalism. Specifically, Jon seeks to understand, through the lens of games like Saints Row IV, Grand Theft Auto V, No More Heroes, and Persona 5, the demands placed upon the neoliberal subject to be constantly productive, the burnout this produces in said subjects, and the ways in which neoliberal subjects imagine the possibility of escape from neoliberal hegemony.

Synopsis of Ideology and the Virtual City: Videogames, Power Fantasies, and Neoliberalism from Zero Books:

Ideology and the Virtual City is an exploration of modern society and the critical value of popular culture. It combines a prescient social theory that describes how ‘neoliberal’ ideology in today’s societies dominates our economic, political and cultural ideals, with an entertaining exploration of narratives, characters and play structures in some of today’s most interesting videogames. The book takes readers into a range of simulated urban environments that symbolise the hidden antagonisms of social life and create outlandish resolutions through their power fantasies. Interactive entertainment can help us understand the ways in which people relate to a modern ‘common sense’ neoliberal background, in terms of absorbing assumptions, and questioning them.

A short review of Ideology and the Virtual City: Videogames, Power, and Neoliberalism by philosopher Slavoj Zizek:

Videogames are gradually recognized as a new cultural form which reaches far beyond mere entertainment: they enact new forms of subjectivity and temporality. However, this fascination with the new form should not render us blind for the fact that, in their content, even at its most magic, videogames are firmly rooted in our neoliberal capitalism and faithfully mirror its antinomies. This is where Bailess book enters. Through a detailed analysis of selected games, from Grand Theft Auto to Persona, he demonstrates how they reproduce the key dimensions of a modern megalopolis: the City as Playground, as Battleground, as Wasteland, as Prison Ideology and the Virtual City is not only insanely readable; in its combination of vivid descriptions with theoretical stringency, it provides an unsurpassable introduction into the deadlocks of our real life. In short, an instant classic for everyone who wants to understand not just games but our reality itself.