Nurture by Tetris: On the Ideological Foundations of the Soviet Computer Game

Abstract

The authors attempt to speculatively reconstruct the concept of the "Soviet computer game”. They propose to consider gaming practices associated with computers as a derivative of the accepted ideological guidelines that accompany the Soviet project of machine modernization. Within this framework, the concept of the Soviet computer game appears as an unrealized historical alternative to the normative game design that has developed in countries with market economies. Despite the industry - or the electronic entertainment market - not having had the time to be properly established in the USSR, there were a number of discursive attitudes regarding the game as such, and the gaming function of computing devices in particular. Even early Soviet pedagogical theories assumed that "playing like a Soviet” involves performing activities structurally similar to labor, where the player becomes part of production. Later, cybernetic discourse, through game theory, indicated the possibility of formalizing any pragmatic activity as a game model; with the advancement of programming, the pragmatics of digital gaming as a way of educating and solving utilitarian tasks was developed. Based on the memoir archive of Soviet cybernetics, and publications in the late-Soviet press, the authors demonstrate that the Soviet computer game was not seen an entertainment product, but a representative model for solving problems in an algorithmic form. Thus, the article is not about specific games that could be called Soviet, but about the logic that guided and set the tone for the interpretation of certain computer-game phenomena in the USSR.