in italiano

Gentian Shkurti

Gentian Shkurti is the young author of "Go West", a 3D videogame where the user has to defy Italian Coast guards and try to reach Italia.

«Illegal immigration seems to be the main way to fulfill Albanian people's desire of integrating with Europe, and that make them blind, even when their own life is at stake. When they finally get to Italia, they discover that's all another story. The whole thing seems to me to be like a videogame, fated not to succeed ever.»

"Go West" shows that videogames are emerging in the public domain as a sort of commentary on social and somehow political issues. If compared to best-selling commercial products made by large global corporations, Shkurti's game may be simple and technically naif. However, in this case its simplicity is not a limitation, but the key point of a game which has been conceived to let the user play with (and within) a contradictory social situation.

While the typical hi-tech shoot-'em-up drags the player into a full immersion battle (and into the following withdrawal symptoms), a game like "Go West" mixes fun with ambiguity: it challenges the user to find his/her own role in it, leaving her with the doubt that another world where the players are losers from the beginning might exist. Actually Shkurti shows that one may be a loser, yet with an opportunity to escape this fate. That is to say: the smart and resource-saving way "Go West" relies on 3D modeling technology shows that it is still possible to find sustainable tactics to deliver ideas even in the over crowded world of digital communication.