La vertigine, la maschera, la sfida

Abstract

Video games have long been one of the most effective and widespread forms of communication and learning among the younger generations. Far from being mere leisure and entertainment opportunities, they present themselves to a more careful analysis as complex constructs - cognitive artifacts, to use Vygotsky’s words - that deserve to be studied with the same attention as the great authors of the past reserved for the game. For the same reason, the world of libraries should perhaps consider the possibility of including video games among those devices for transmitting knowledge - such as books and multimedia of various kinds - which it preserves and offers the possibility of consultation. This essay, in particular, examines the theses of Vygotskij and Caillois that, if used to read architecture and videogame philosophy, show all their extraordinary relevance.