UNIT OPERATIONS: AN APPROACH TO VIDEOGAME CRITICISM

UNIT OPERATIONS: AN APPROACH TO VIDEOGAME CRITICISM by Ian Bogost. MIT Press/243 pp./$35.00 (hb)

Though not a gamer myself, the evergrowing culture surrounding videogames drew me to this book. I expected Unit Operations to provide a visual criticism of the art of videogames; however, this book offers an educated look into the history on which gaming is built and a model of critique for the role videogames will play in the future.

Ian Bogost's approach to videogame culture in Unit Operations is certainly academic. Gamers posting reviews on the Internet found this voice to be exclusive, and almost paradoxical due to videogame's roots as a subculture entertainment. Bogost's claim from the beginning is to compare literary criticism to computation so it is no surprise he pulls his views from historical resources. He introduces the reader to the best of the philosophers, sociologists, psychoanalysts, media theorists, and computer developers in a way that dissolves heady discussions and simplifies theory. Bogost touches on many subjects within Unit Operations, comparing ludology (the study of gaming) and narratology, unit operations and system operations, and the need for the humanities to intersect with science and technology at earlier stages than the finished product of the videogame -even suggesting the restructuring of university departments. Bogost believes in "...criticism's ability to vault videogames toward a status higher than entertainment alone" (xiv), and suggests that "videogames, like art of all kinds, has the power to influence and change human experience" (89).

Unit Operations crosses intellectual borders- especially in Bogost's range of examples in both high and low art forms: from The Sims to Charles Baudelaire and The Terminal (2004, by Steven Spielberg) to Marshall McLuhan. This book would make an ideal text for an introductory or interdisciplinary humanities course.

ILANA SWERDLIN