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...
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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 their nightmarish game-worlds. Players, he argues, will gradually come to see similarities between the virtual dystopia and their own 'offline' environment, thus learning to stay wary of social and political developments.In his analysis, Farca draws from a variety of research fields, such as literary theory and game studies, combining them into a coherent theory of aesthetic response to dystopian games.
5.1.1 Between Estranged Order and Creative Disorder: On the Notion of Precarious Play
Description based upon print version of record
Includes bibliographical references and index
Dissertation, Universität Augsburg, 2018
Frontmatter -- -- Contents -- -- Acknowledgments -- -- Introduction -- -- Part I: Towards the Video Game Dystopia -- -- Preface to Part I -- -- 1. Utopia and the Dream of a Better World -- -- 2. Dystopia: Nightmarish Worlds as Distorted Anxiety Dreams -- -- 3. Warning, Effectiveness, and Targets of the Video Game Dystopia -- -- Part II: Playful Trial Actions in Estranged Gameworlds -- -- Preface to Part II -- -- 4. Towards the Implied Player -- -- 5. Estrangement Through World and Agency -- -- Part III: Playing Dystopia -- -- Preface to Part III -- -- 6. Night-Time Dreams and Wish-Fulfilment: The Struggle for Utopia in BIOSHOCK INFINITE -- -- 7. THE LAST OF US and the Journey to Nature -- -- 8. Horizons and the Video Game Dystopia -- -- List of Abbreviations -- -- Glossary -- -- Ludography -- -- Bibliography
