Jonas Mindaugas Paberžis

Which values do we blatantly and blindly accept, propagate and worship in video games? Using found footage and found 3D model narratives, The “Western” Gods We Give Our Young illustrates, in a hyperbolic and slightly morbid way, the dehumanising, oppressive and discriminating memetic myths consistently repeated in video games.

Video games are currently the most dominant medium of communication – both in terms of use and profit. The social facts that we internalise while ‘praying’ – devoting endless hours, money, emotions and effort, in front of our blinking plastic ‘altars’ – undoubtably escape virtuality through us and enter our everyday lives through what and how we preach, teach and act in relation to other people. Jonas Mindaugas Paberžis believes we should not dismiss or fearmonger video games as the creators and only propagators of all modern evils – but neither should we accept the socially enforced worst part of them: their environments and their values as norm, solely because someone once said it is ‘just a game’.