Playing dystopia : nightmarish worlds in video games and the player's aesthetic response /
Video games today permeate our everyday existence. They immerse players in fascinating game-worlds and exciting experiences, often inviting them in various ways to reflect on the enacted events. Gerald Farca explores the genre of dystopian video games and the player's aesthetic response to thei...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Bielefeld :
Transcipt Verlag,
2018.
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| Series: | Studies of digital media culture ;
v. 8. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to this title online (unlimited users allowed) |
Table of Contents:
- Cover; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Hypothesis: The Video Game Dystopia as a New Strategic Enterprise of Utopia and Playful Trial Action; State of Research: The Assumed Position Within Video Game Studies; Method: A Creative Encounter Between Guiding Structure and Playful Expression; Structural Overview of the Argument; Part I: Towards the Video Game Dystopia; Preface to Part I; 1 Utopia and the Dream of a Better World; 1.1 Utopianism; 1.2 The Literary Utopia of Sir Thomas More and Bioshock Infinite's Columbia; 1.3 The Secret Wish Hidden Within the Dream.
- 1.4 Defining the Literary Utopia1.5 Towards the Video Game Dystopia; 2 Dystopia: Nightmarish Worlds as Distorted Anxiety Dreams; 2.1 Anti-Utopia or Dystopia?; 2.2 Anti-Utopia as a Rejection of Utopianism; 2.3 Variants of Dystopia: The Classical and Critical Dystopia; 2.3.1 The Classical Dystopia and the Player's Enclosure Within its System; 2.3.2 The Critical Dystopia as a Liberating Route Towards a Better Future; 2.4 Four Variants of the Video Game Dystopia: A Typology; 2.5 The Resistance of the One Free Man: City 17 as Orwellian Nightmare.
- 2.5.1 The Player as Dissident and the Process of Coming to Awareness2.5.2 The Official Narrative and the Combine's False Utopia; 2.5.3 The Counter-Narrative and the One Free Man as the Opener of the Way; 2.6 Dystopia's Plot Framework and the Video Game Dystopia; 3 Warning, Effectiveness, and Targets of the Video Game Dystopia; 3.1 The Video Game Dystopia's Primary Function as Warning; 3.2 The Video Game Dystopia's Effectiveness in Issuing Warnings; 3.3 Targets of the Video Game Dystopia; 3.3.1 The Ongoing Threat of Oppressive Regimes: Anti-Totalitarianism.
- 3.3.2 Capitalism and Its Momentous Consequences3.3.3 On the Dangers of Science and Technology; 3.3.4 (Human) Nature as the Main Culprit; 3.4 The Diversity of the Perspectival Network as Precondition for Dystopia's Effectiveness; Part II: Playful Trial Actions in Estranged Gameworlds; Preface to Part II; 4 Towards the Implied Player; 4.1 Video Games as Forms of Representational Art and Fiction; 4.2 The Different Games We Play with Fictions; 4.2.1 Work Worlds and Game Worlds; 4.2.2 Becoming Involved in the Virtual Worlds of the Video Game; 4.2.3 Video Games as Objects and Processes.
- 4.3 The Implied Player4.3.1 The Multi-Layered Qualities of the Implied Player: Popular Cultural Player Types and the Emancipated Player; 4.3.2 On the Phenomenology of Reading and the Aesthetic Effect of Art; 4.3.3 The Intersubjective Framework of the Implied Player; 4.4 The Game(world) as a System of Perspectives; 4.4.1 The Player's Sensorial Perspective; 4.4.2 Items of Setting and Characters; 4.4.3 Plot Developments and Narrative Framework; 4.4.4 Processes, Playing Styles, and Player Actions; 5 Estrangement Through World and Agency; 5.1 Playful Trial Actions in Dystopia.