From Asia Times: In his new book The Playstation Dreamworld, Alfie Brown discusses the role of video games in both reinforcing and challenging capitalism through the lens of Freudian dream analysis.
“Video games are a form of enjoyment in which the player experiences the wishes and desires of another as the wishes and desires of the playerâs own, if even in a momentary or unconscious way, Bown claims.
Games are experienced actively rather than passively, and any apparent agency over a game is illusory as the player controls neither the environment nor the plot or outcome, as in dreams.
Just as a misreading of dreams can lead one into falsely believing things about oneself, video games are ‘most dangerous’ in their capacity to force a desire onto the player while misleading them into thinking of it as their own.”
