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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
Taking protests to the street is old hat. Today's rabble-rousers wave their signs inside video games.
May 4, 2004 | Even on a Tuesday afternoon, the line for the Whitney Biennial stretches around the corner, blocking the sidewalk at 75th Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The Biennial is a survey of the last two years of new American art, but what constitutes "art" is open to interpretation. When I visit, one of the exhibits is a computer showing a loop of "Counter-Strike," the anti-terrorism variant of the classic video game "Half-Life."
A first-person shooter (FPS) on display at one of the world's most preeminent contemporary art shows isn't the strangest thing one might expect to see, but it's still pretty odd. I step closer to the computer, where a woman stands frustrated, clicking the mouse impatiently. I explain to her that the game looks to be on a loop, and is not actually controlled by her. But it's not clear to me why "Counter-Strike" is in this collection until I read the curatorial card explaining the piece. "'Velvet-Strike,' 2002. Online game intervention."
I look more closely at the screen, at the dim world of concrete and crates, the space the game designers have created. A soldier changes weapons. But instead of firing his gun, he spray-paints a message on the nearest wall. It reads, "Hostages of Military Fantasy."
The Biennial is well known for featuring works of art, such as graphic novels, that don't fit into classical categories. But in this case, it's the message that appears to be the point, and not the quality of the art. In line with the theme of this first post-Sept. 11 Biennial, "Velvet-Strike" is an indictment of the pro-military sentiment of many video games. "Velvet-Strike" infiltrates "Counter-Strike," changing its dynamic. And with images such as two camouflage-covered soldiers poised for a kiss, it's an intervention that has outraged many "Counter-Strike" gamers.
"Velvet-Strike" has been irritating gamers for two years now. But its relevance seems only to be increasing, as casualties continue to mount in Iraq, and the gaming industry continues to jump on the military bandwagon. In the first days of the Iraq war, Sony copyrighted the phrase "shock and awe," for use in a (now abandoned) future video game. "America's Army," the game created as a P.R. and recruiting tool for the real U.S. Army, is now the No. 1 online action game, according to CBS News.
Games like "Counter-Strike" create their own highly militarized, highly political world, and their creators pride themselves on the "realism" of the games. Protesters who deplore that reality -- and who go inside the game to deploy "Velvet-Strike's" graffiti -- are not welcome. But while many may not agree with their actions, so-called protest mod makers don't fit in the pro-censorship camp so often reviled by game enthusiasts. "Velvet-Strikers" rely on the game to make their point. They leverage the existing design and popularity of the game to assist them in bringing their anti-militarism agenda into the game itself.
