Ideology and the virtual city (Jon Bailes)
Part of a group of books on urbanism I am currently hyperfocusing on. Or so I thought.
The book actually focuses more on the urban way of life as set in videogames and how it informs on the hidden capitalism / (neo)liberalism subtext and how, even in games with a cynical message on the system, they are still dominant.
The author goes through 4 games: Saints Row IV, GAT V, No More Heroes and Persona 5, two american and two japanese games. More than the games, it also uses 4 archetypes of characters with regards to neoliberalism (hedonism, cynicism. consumerism/escapism and reformism) and how these archetypes interact with the story, the environment and the gameplay through both psychology and sociology.
Final word
The book is extremely short (89 pages) so it can be a good short read if you are into the topic