Australia
99 Problems, GTAV Online Intervention, 2014
Violence is claimed and turned on itself by the female protagonist in 99 Problems [WASTED] in a dualistic moment of empowerment and defeat.
The action of ‘playing to win’ is neutralised as she ritualistically performs and re-performs her own violent suicide in front of disinterested players and characters. At once, an unheard digital cry for help against a wall of self-absorbed in-game characters, a martyr action of feminist protest against the treatment of her fellow female characters in gaming history and a claiming of her own death prior to her inevitable violent murder. Ultimately her quest is a futile one, not only is her action unregistered and unheard, her reverse gaming against her own survival is redundant, as in all gaming, in dying there is an automatic digital rebirth. There is no purgatory online, she is destined to be eternally punished in a digital hell. In repetition her hyper violence against self becomes hypnotic, darkly humorous and deeply disturbing.