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Playing Nonhumanity: Simulating the Animal Apocalypse in Tokyo Jungle
by Yaochong, J. Yang Published December 2024 Download full pdf of article here. Abstract This paper focuses on Crispy’s! and Japan Studio’s Tokyo Jungle (2012) as a limit test on the procedural rendition of nonhuman engagements through the language of anthropocentric semiotics. Here, I draw on Ian Bogost’s (2006) definition of the simulation, or the Continue reading
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Eternal sunshine and the “Gestaltized” mind: the broken promise of the posthuman in NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139
by Kaitlin Moore Published December 2024 Download full pdf of article here. Abstract Taking the 2021 remaster of the action role-playing game NieR Replicant as its object of study, this article asks how NieR’s story and characters simultaneously enact the fantasies of a posthumanist futurism beyond apocalypse and, in their very reflexivity, exposes those fantasies Continue reading
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Of Cyborgs and Cats: Nonhuman Companionship and the Specter of Humanity in NieR: Automata and Stray
by Caighlan Smith Published December 2024 Download full pdf of article here. Abstract While there are many post-apocalyptic videogames available, few approach the playing of this genre through a post-humanity lens. In this paper, I explore titles which ask the player to take control of nonhuman avatars, as they negotiate post-apocalyptic environments created by an Continue reading
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Videogames, the Anthropocene, and Other Problems of Scale: Methodological Notes for the Study of Digital Games in Times of Ecological Crisis
by Paolo Ruffino Published December 2024 Download full pdf of article here. Abstract In this article I critique and evaluate a number of methodological approaches to the study of videogames and their relationship to the Anthropocene. I identify two dominant tendencies. Firstly, videogames are seen as tools that can potentially inform and educate their players Continue reading
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Playing the posts: post-Anthropocene, posthuman, post-apocalypse
by Lawrence May and Poppy Wilde Published December 2024 Download full pdf of article here. Introduction Today we create and play videogames in the ruins of our own planet, as our contemporary era comes to be defined by inexorable ecological crises and collapse. Alongside planetary catastrophe, questions of who humans are, what we can (or Continue reading
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Posthumanist, post-apocalyptic, and post-anthropocentric possibilities: Kantian morals and posthuman ethics in My Friend is a Raven
by Poppy Wilde Published December 2024 Download full pdf of article here. Abstract This paper analyses My Friend is A Raven (Two Star Games, 2019), a short post-apocalyptic game with four potential endings. Playing as the lone survivor of the world, Lutum, we unlock different endings through our exchange with the titular Raven. Depending on Continue reading
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Dark Entanglement and Visions of the Post-Anthropocene in Battlefield 2042
by Lawrence May and Ben Hall Published December 2024 Download full pdf of article here. Abstract While the revelation of our entanglement with other biological actors and our surrounding environments can radically reshape our relations with Earth, a form of dark entanglement also underlies contemporary life. This darkness is legible through the ways that enmeshed Continue reading
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Beyond Barren Wastelands: The Greening of the Post-apocalypse in Video Games
by Melissa Bianchi Published December 2024 Download full pdf of article here. Abstract Video games often depict post-apocalyptic environments characterized by loss and destruction. Some video games, however, challenge this paradigm through representations of lush greenery and thriving gardens that signify environmental recuperation in the wake of world-ending devastation. This essay explores how these virtual Continue reading
The Journal of Games Criticism is a non-profit, peer-reviewed game studies journal that strives to connect the conversations between traditional academics and popular game critics. The journal strives to be a producer of feed-forward approaches to video games criticism with a focus on influencing gamer culture, the design and writing of video games, and the social understanding video games and video game criticism.
ISSN: 2374-202X
Recent Articles
- A Contemporary Take on Victorian Lunacy: Representations of the Asylum in the Neo-Victorian Video Game Alice: Madness Returns
- Investigating Development Crunch in Games and its Impact on Creative Expression
- Character Affectivity in Newton and the Apple Tree
- Colonized Morality Mechanics: The Struggle to Be Good in Telltale’s The Walking Dead
- Videogame Distribution and Steam’s Imperialist Practices: Platform Coloniality in Game Distribution
Journal of Games Criticism 