It's Not Always About You: The Subject and Ecological Entanglement in Video Games

In the face of a global ecological crisis, culturally dominant framings of subjective experience as separate from living ecologies are no longer sufficient. Games might offer ways to break down these divisions. Alenda Chang has proposed bringing game ecologies to life. To complement her position, in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGames and culture Vol. 19; no. 6; pp. 743 - 760
Main Authors Heijmen, Nicky, Vervoort, Joost
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2024
Subjects
ecology
subjectivity
sustainability
game design
video games
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Summary:In the face of a global ecological crisis, culturally dominant framings of subjective experience as separate from living ecologies are no longer sufficient. Games might offer ways to break down these divisions. Alenda Chang has proposed bringing game ecologies to life. To complement her position, in this paper, we aim to inspire game designers and researchers to explore ways in which video games can remodel the perceived player subject as a pathway to ecological entanglement. We investigate four strategies for decentering and deconstructing the subject. These are: (1) deconstructing the subject to foreground internal sources of entanglement; (2) dismantling, distorting, ignoring, and/or invading the visual perspective; (3) conceptual deconstruction and reframing of a sense of self; and (4) decentering the subject through shifting contexts. For each of these, we introduce relevant examples of narrative and gameplay design in existing video games and suggest steps for further development in each direction.
ISSN:1555-4120
1555-4139
DOI:10.1177/15554120231179261