Levels and loot: archives in video games

ABSTRACT This study examines video games’ depictions of archival architectures in levels and practices of interacting with archival material such as looting. By doing this, the article proposes a processual idea of proper archives and virtual counterparts, both determined by various moments of interplay, such as opening treasure chests, boxes, or cells. Archived artifacts, hidden in games to be discovered, lure players to begin interplay, and are a crucial part of the labyrinthic archival ecosystem. Examining video game archives enhances the perception of archival ecosystems from the interplay with institutional archives, and the archived material in general. In video games, archives becoming media if someone recursively interacts with and within the entangled ecosystems of levels and loot.