Anxiety, Openness, and Activist Games: A Case Study for Critical Play

This paper explores the boundaries of social issues or ‘activist’ games with a case study on a popular game released in 2009 which fosters a critical type of play among the audience. We assess the game’s public reception to better understand how contradictory play elements led to an anxiety of ambiguity during open play. Borrowing from the “poetics of open work,” we will demonstrate how the most powerful play experience in activist games result from a new relationship formed between the audience and the player through mechanics, subject position, representation, and content. Author