The Art of Failure

An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games

Jesper Juul (Associate Professor, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts)

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English

MIT Press
02 September 2016

Popular culture; Impact of science & technology on society; Computer games: strategy guides

Series: Playful Thinking

An exploration of why we play video games despite the fact that we are almost certain to feel unhappy when we fail at them.

A gaming academic offers a ""fascinating"" exploration of why we play video games-despite the unhappiness we feel when we fail at them (Boston Globe)

We may think of video games as being""fun,""but in The Art of Failure, Jesper Juul claims that this is almost entirely mistaken. When we play video games, our facial expressions are rarely those of happiness or bliss. Instead, we frown, grimace, and shout in frustration as we lose, or die, or fail to advance to the next level. Humans may have a fundamental desire to succeed and feel competent, but game players choose to engage in an activity in which they are nearly certain to fail and feel incompetent. So why do we play video games even though they make us unhappy? Juul examines this paradox.

In video games, as in tragic works of art, literature, theater, and cinema, it seems that we want to experience unpleasantness even if we also dislike it. Reader or audience reaction to tragedy is often explained as catharsis, as a purging of negative emotions. But, Juul points out, this doesn't seem to be the case for video game players. Games do not purge us of unpleasant emotions; they produce them in the first place. What, then, does failure in video game playing do?

Juul argues that failure in a game is unique in that when you fail in a game, you (not a character) are in some way inadequate. Yet games also motivate us to play more, in order to escape that inadequacy, and the feeling of escaping failure (often by improving skills) is a central enjoyment of games. Games, writes Juul, are the art of failure- the singular art form that sets us up for failure and allows us to experience it and experiment with it.

The Art of Failure is essential reading for anyone interested in video games, whether as entertainment, art, or education.

By: Jesper Juul (Associate Professor The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts)
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 137mm, Spine: 11mm
Weight: 181g
ISBN: 9780262529952
ISBN 10: 0262529955
Series: Playful Thinking
Pages: 176
Publication Date: 02 September 2016
Recommended Age: From 18
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jesper Juul is Associate Professor in the School of Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He is the author of Half-Real- Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds; A Casual Revolution- Reinventing Video Games and Their Players; and The Art of Failure- An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games, all published by the MIT Press.

Reviews for The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games

So it's a fascinating time to examine the concept of failure in video games, and luckily the gaming academic Jesper Juul did just that in The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games, which was released in February by MIT Press as part of its Playful Thinking series.... Maybe the interesting question here isn't what failure in games does-as Juul acknowledges, it does different things for different people-but rather what creative new approaches developers can take to one of the oldest, most universal parts of the human experience. -Jesse Singal, Boston Globe