Sovversioni Videoludiche: Dalle Avanguardie Alle Pratiche Performative In-Game

This essay examines a growing category of subversive videogame practice that intervenes in gameplay rather than merely altering a game's visuals, as earlier countergaming work such as Velvet Strike and Super Mario Clouds did. Drawing on Alexander Galloway's 2006 observation that scholarship had overlooked gameplay-level critique, the author argues that performances like Brent Watanabe's Animal Crossing: All Mine (2020) and Total Refusal's Operation Jane Walk (2018) use the medium's formal features to critique capitalism and militarism. The analysis draws on critical play, ludic mutation, and Situationist concepts of détournement and situation, positioning these hybrid interventions at the intersection of game studies and avant-garde art.

The central proposal is a new analytical framework, "situationist play," which describes in-game performances that repurpose a game's existing spaces without altering its code or mechanics. Building on Situationist détournement and Anna Watkins-Fisher's notion of "parasitic resistance," the author contends that established game-studies vocabulary, including emergent gameplay, transgressive play, and counterplay, is insufficient for these critical-artistic works. The framework is presented as provisional, forming part of an ongoing doctoral project.

The principal case study is Sam Crane's staging of Hamlet within GTA Online (2021–2022), a performance blending gameplay, theatre, and live streaming. The essay characterizes such works as "spoilsport" hybrids: they operate within the rules of play while defying socially shared norms of conduct. Their scope is primarily Anglophone digital games and contemporary performance practice, with the analysis situated within recent years.

The essay ultimately concludes that Galloway's vision of a critical, politically avant-garde gameplay has not yet fully materialized, though these interventions demonstrate the medium's capacity to reconfigure game spaces without changing visuals or core mechanics. The author calls for updated methods and frameworks capable of analyzing these performative hybrids.