One of the first counter culture games movement was the New Games movement started by Stewart Brand. "Brand explored how people interact with each other through the games they played, and devised a new 'set of meta-strategies to learn' through the development of New Games." (Fron). One of the most noticeable qualities of the new games movement was the subversion of traditional game mechanics and conventions. One game that best exemplifies the new games movement is "Rock-Paper-Scissors Tag". The game consists of two groups facing off in a massive game of rock paper scissors. Which ever side looses the round must run to their home base while the winning side attempts to tag as many people as possible on the loosing side. Whoever is tagged then joins the opposing side, causing groups to expand and contrast as the game continues. The game subverts one of the most fundamental conventions in games, winning. In the game there are no "losers". The two end states that "there is only one team or until everyone is too exhausted to continue" (Fron). In the case of exhaustion the game would be declared a tie, but in the one team scenario everyone wins. Even the very last person from the opposing team that is tagged would be considered a winner since the rules of the game dictate that he is now on the winning team. In this way the game 'encourages a "global allegiance' to the play of the game itself, rather than to the success of any particular team" (Fron). The point of Rock-Paper-Scissors Tag can be best summed up by DeKoven when he says, "victory is not determined by who wins, nor by what game we play, but rather by the quality of playing that we have been able to create together" (DeKoven, 12).
As technology advanced, so did the sophistication of games. Eventually the games moved to the digital medium, allowing users to play games on their computers. One of the first such games was Spacewar. The game play of Spacewar involves multiple ships flying around a screen shooting at each other. While Spacewar is fairly conventional by today's standards, at the time the game was completely counter culture just by virtue of being part of a new medium. People were interacting with the game in ways they had never done before and thus subverted traditional analogue forms of play. The game was created by hackers, a group of people who could be described as, "They're kids who tended to be brilliant but not very interested in conventional goals" (Brand). This is a description that could seemingly be applied to the pioneers of the new games movement. Furthermore the game included one of the most important innovations in gaming, "It encouraged new programming by the user" (Brand). As DeKoven puts its, "Once this freedom is established, once we have established why we want to change a game and how we go about it, a remarkable thing happens to us: We become the authorities" (DeKoven, 62). By allowing players to change the game to their liking every person can become an author. This was a practice that was not fully utilized until much later with the advent of moding.
In many modern games, specifically PC games, developers have included many of their in house development tools with the final release. These tools make it so that "Players are free to build their own game levels, create 'patches'...'skins'...and even build their own new games from scratch to run on the underlying game 'engine'" (Pearce). This practice of modifying games, or "moding" games is essentially subverting the game on a fundamental level. Moders are given the ability to change any of the game rules. Moders thrive on making various tweaks and changes to established games, something promoted by DeKoven when he says "If making an exception helps us have an exceptional game, anything is all right." (Dekoven, 56) One of the most popular mods is Counter Strike. The game was heralded by critics even earning the studio the Best Rookie Studio of the Year award. Still, the game was rather conventional, "[in] spite of it's altered theme anti-terrorist operations vs. Half-Life's 'alien experiment gone awry'), the basic play mechanic differs little from the original and follows the tried and true combat simulation genre" (Pearce). Unfortunately modding tend to be "biased towards [their] well-established game genre" (Pearce). Luckily the practice of patching allows user to create plug-ins and further subvert the game. The patch "velvet-strike: counter-military graffiti for cs" takes the Counter Strike Mod and transforms the military shooter into an artistic graffiti simulator. In this way the patch rejects the standards of video games, ie violence and combat, in the same way Dada artists reject the standards of art.
Brand, Stewart. "SPACEWAR: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums," Rolling Stone, December 7, 2001.http://www.wheels.org/spacewar/stone/rolling_stone.html
Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (aka Ludica) (2005). "Sustainable Play: Towards A New Games Movement for the Digital Age." Digital Arts & Culture Conference Proceedings, Copenhagen, December 2005.
Pearce, Celia. "Games as Art: The Aesthetics of Interactivity." Visible Language: Special Issue on Fluxus. January 2006.
De Koven, Bernard. "The Well-Played Game: A Player's Philosophy." New York: Anchor Books. First Edition, 1978.
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