Mutants and Zombies Everywhere! Or Villains, Violence, and Selfishness: Questions of Humanity in the Post-apocalyptic (Pandemic) Video Game

IF 2.4 2区 文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION
Philly Wintle
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

The post-apocalyptic environment has been popular in video games for many decades—from nuclear fallout to alien invasions, there is a fascination with the decline of mankind. This article looks, in light of the Covid-19 outbreak, at the depiction of failing and inhuman worlds in video games about pandemics. The environments in games such as Bioshock (2007), Left 4 Dead (2008, 2009), and The Last of Us (2013), are unflinchingly cruel, often depicting humans (and the player) as selfish entities seeking only self-survival. These environments are destructively violent, and, although the player is often surrounded by ‘mutants', these worlds are also oppressively lonely. This article looks at the fears reflected in pre-Covid-19 pandemic video games and what they say about our world, offering a retrospective view now we are living through a global pandemic perhaps not so different from those found in these games.
变种人和僵尸无处不在!《恶棍、暴力和自私:后世界末日电子游戏中的人性问题
几十年来,后世界末日的环境在电子游戏中一直很受欢迎——从核辐射到外星人入侵,人类的衰落令人着迷。鉴于2019冠状病毒病的爆发,本文着眼于电子游戏中对失败和不人道世界的描述。《生化奇兵》(2007年)、《求生之路》(2008年、2009年)和《最后生存者》(2013年)等游戏的环境都非常残酷,通常将人类(和玩家)描绘成自私的实体,只追求自我生存。这些环境具有破坏性的暴力,尽管玩家经常被“变种人”所包围,但这些世界也是令人压抑的孤独。本文着眼于在covid -19大流行之前的电子游戏中反映的恐惧,以及它们对我们世界的影响,提供了一个回顾的视角,现在我们正在经历一场全球大流行,也许与这些游戏中发现的没有太大不同。
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来源期刊
Games and Culture
Games and Culture Multiple-
CiteScore
7.20
自引率
7.10%
发文量
54
期刊介绍: Games and Culture publishes innovative theoretical and empirical research about games and culture within the context of interactive media. The journal serves as a premiere outlet for groundbreaking and germinal work in the field of game studies. The journal"s scope includes the sociocultural, political, and economic dimensions of gaming from a wide variety of perspectives, including textual analysis, political economy, cultural studies, ethnography, critical race studies, gender studies, media studies, public policy, international relations, and communication studies.
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