Never Alone: Video Games as Interactive Design – Paperback

Every interaction in our onscreen lives—with ATMs, vending machines, retail websites, and video calls—takes place through an interface. Sometimes buggy and confusing, sometimes inviting and accessible, these interfaces, like other everyday tools, are seldom the object of critical examination, and often we don’t even notice them. In video games, however, the interface is at the heart of the design: it is the conduit to the narrative and to the experience as a whole. Is the game easily learned by newcomers, or does it take years of experience to decode and master? Is it for solo contemplation or group competition? Does it encourage us to lose track of time, or does it delight in frustrating us? These questions—of behavior, navigation, and artistic intent—are all addressed by interactive design.

Through the thirty-six video games in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, Never Alone: Video Games as Interactive Design explores the field of design that mediates and facilitates our relationships with computers, with systems, and even with each other. The games, created between 1972 and 2018, include Space Invaders (1978), Pac-Man (1980), The Sims (2000), and Minecraft (2011); they embody a rich cultural history of technology, culture, social behavior, and creative enterprise. By looking at video games as reflections of our increasingly complex interactions with the world, Never Alone offers a new perspective on a powerful tool for communicating, collaborating, and playing. 144 pp.; 120 illus.