This weekend, I spent over eight hours in a theatre playing a video game about donkeys, reincarnation, and organised labour with about 70 other people. The game, Asses.Masses, is a rudimentary-looking title by Canadian artists Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim. But the setting—a theatre with a live audience—transforms it into collective performance art.
On a plinth before a giant screen sits a controller. Audience members can take control, becoming the avatar of the crowd. The game opens with questions about donkeys, some in different languages, requiring collaboration. Someone in our crowd spoke Spanish; another knew engineering; I knew a female donkey is called a jennet.
Over 10 chapters, with food and breaks, we guided a cast of donkeys on a surreal quest to reclaim jobs from machines. The game touches on collective action, industrialisation, and labour politics, with content warnings for violence, strong language, simulated sex (donkey and human), police brutality, drug use, and suicide. The Glasgow performance prompted a mini moral panic from Parents Watch Education, reported by the Daily Record.
Asses.Masses is thought-provoking but an endurance test. I ducked out for a couple of hours to rest; a friend with more stamina filled me in. Overwhelmed by differing opinions, I put down the controller, empathising with labour organisers. The game could have done more with herd mentality—many group decisions felt inconsequential, and mostly we watched someone else play, like a live Twitch stream.
It made me want to invite friends over and pass the controller around all day. My friend recalled a video game book club where six people played What Remains of Edith Finch together. Asses.Masses is designed for collective play, but many short, thought-provoking games could be staged similarly. Given Twitch's popularity, I think many would attend.
