Pay To Play, 2023
4K video with sound, 3D printed PLA plastic
11 mins 56 sec
Pay To Play (2023) is a CGI video by Bob Bicknell-Knight. The work explores how addictive and predatory monetization practices, like loot boxes, are being inserted into video game spaces, the gamification of our everyday lives and the highs and lows, the pleasure and pain, associated with addictive experiences, alongside ideas surrounding faith, morality and wealth inequality.
The film explores the history of loot boxes from the point of view of an anthropomorphised loot box called Wally. Loot boxes are consumable virtual items that are bought within video games for real world money, which can be redeemed to receive a randomised selection of further virtual items, ranging from simple customization options for a player’s avatar to equipment like weapons and armour. As the items are randomised players have previously spent thousands of pounds attempting to gain specific products in different games.
The video travels through various video game landscapes, originally released in the early 2000s before loot boxes came to prominence, whilst Wally speaks to the viewer about the video game industry, their complex ancestral history and the part they play within the gamification of our lives.
Pay To Play has been included in the following exhibitions:
– Digital Portraiture: Empathy In Virtual Worlds, curated by Bob Bicknell-Knight. At [Senne], Brussels, BE, 25th April – 5th May 2024.
– Attract Mode w/ Rúrí Sigríðardóttir Kommata. At Kannski Gallery, Reykjavík, IS, 2nd – 10th December 2023.
– Sunday School. At Number 1 Main Road, Berlin, DE, 29th April – 23rd May 2023.
– Insert Coin. At CABLE DEPOT, London, UK, 1st February – 19th April 2023.
The first edition of Pay To Play is part of a private collection in Belgium.
BOB BICKNELL-KNIGHT 