Game Play Journal Entry 1: Dujanah

Defining technicity within a cultural framework can feel like a zero sum endeavor. In doing so, often we surmise the potential relationship technological mediums WILL have with culture. Looking forward to a time where this abstract question presents a definite yes or no. Yes technicity will begin to obfuscate perceived reality. Or no we will always have the beast by its chains. Dujanah is a game developed by Jack-King Spooner that seeks to address this theological conundrum. In the game Spooner abstracts many preconceived ideas of interactivity, often times blurring our understanding of what a game is. However the relevant commentary behind the experience is that technology functions more as a reflective representation of ourselves rather than vessel of progress.

In my play session with Dujanah Spooner creates an alien world with mass social unrest that is familiar to anyone who lived through post-9/11 America. Spooner examines not only the possible ramifications of international conflict, but also how we as “first world” citizens interact with history. Spooner often shows with gameplay how simple it is to virtually bomb a village and simple it is to deal with the ramifications of such events as unaffected citizens. So unaffected we can parody and replay events. This contrast between satire and seriousness is when the game is at it’s best Susan Sontag states “Debates within the mass media public sphere (from Jürgen Habermas onwards)have been characterized by anxiety about the disappearance of seriousness. SusanSontag (1992) claimed that part of her mission as a novelist was: ‘To keep alive theidea of seriousness. You have to be a member of a capitalist society in the late 20thcentury to understand that seriousness itself could be in question’ ”(Dovey & Kennedy 19–20).