Class Tourism, Empathy Machines And Videogames

Abstract

As videogames grow in complexity, they have become part of a tradition of exploring cross-class differences in culture. This essay explores three such games that offer players an experience of “class tourism” by placing them into different socioeconomic positions. The games analyzed are I Get This Call Every Day, Little Red Lie, and Invisible Fist. To do this analysis the essay draws from Nakamura’s concept of identity tourism as well as prior research on games and other media as empathy machines to explore their affordances and constraints. The essay also points to gameplay complexities such as agency and gamer mode that challenge the ability of a game to allow players to successfully ‘experience the life’ of the characters portrayed. Our findings push back against some common points of praise for videogames and instead challenges researchers to reconsider the potential of games as 'empathy machines.'