Can you see yourself in videogames?

The National Videogame Museum (NVM) in Sheffield is launched a new series of activities and events that will be exploring how the people of Sheffield relating to videogames. In Play: Finding Ourselves in Videogames will open on 25th October, in time for Sheffield Half Term holidays, and will run until 3rd November. Throughout this period, the NVM will be open everyday, encouraging those who play games, both young and old, to explore how they see themselves in videogames.

Find out in a new exhibition at the National Videogame Museum this Autumn

As a part of this exhibit, the NVM is currently reaching out across the Sheffield community, and display their views on videogames on our gallery for all to see. Revolving around a simple questionnaire, museum visitors and the wider Sheffield community are invited to share their own views and experiences of videogame characters and places they relate to. The exhibition invites conversation about self-identification and representation, in the hope that visitors might begin to question what they see in videogames and what videogames are capable of. Guests will be able to see their answers update in real time, and compare them with other visitors to the museum.

Alongside the new exhibits listed above, guests will have the potential to take part in daily guided workshops, where they create their own character and put them into a videogame! These workshops have been designed exclusively for In-Play. The Museum will invite visitors to explore game making as a creative outlet, not just a career option. Much like playing an instrument, or painting can be seen as a hobby, the museum hopes to instil this about making your own game.

All this will be running throughout the week, alongside over 100 different games that will be available for visitors to play. This includes: our exhibition on accessibility in gaming for those with disabilities, in partnership with the Special Effect charity; Platform 14, which explores all the different iterations of the classic game Donkey Kong; and much, much more.

Conor Clarke, Marketing and Communications Manager for the NVM, said “After our wildly successful Summer event earlier this year – Summer of Buttons – we are incredibly excited for this October. Not only because we get to run some exciting videogame-related events, but also because In-Play promises to really bring the local community together, and let local people have their voice heard on our galleries. Also, you’ll be able to make your own videogame, which should be really cool!”