ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the aesthetic status of videogames themselves to consider instead the aesthetics of individual performances of videogames. It argues that the aesthetics of videogame performance is importantly distinct from the aesthetics of performance in these other areas. The chapter considers and responds to, some reasons for claiming that there is nothing aesthetically interesting about individual videogame performances. It also considers some analogies between videogame performances and other kinds of performance. The chapter also argues that while videogame performances share important features—aesthetic and otherwise—with performances in sports, film, and theatre, they are also disanalogous in some fundamental respects. It provides a strong impetus to develop a new account of how to best understand, and appreciate, the aesthetics of videogame performance. The chapter considers the connections between videogame performance and the performance of various theatrical works. Moving beyond the realm of sports games, there are also more general areas of comparison between videogame and sporting aesthetics.
