Browsing by Subject "game studies"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Access status: Open Access ,
How Gandhi went nuclear: potentiality of the archiverse in »Civilization VI«
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2021) Alejski, Jakub; Kowalska, Elżbieta
»Nuclear Gandhi« is a surprising and controversial image of the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Often portrayed against the backdrop of nuclear explosions, his poses and styles clearly suggest awe and admiration for the ongoing mass destruction. This image is related to Sid Meier's Civilization VI – one of the most influential video games in the history of gaming. The aim of the article is to analyze this particular case study and consider processes from many different angles that led to the emergence of this controversial phenomenon. To do so, the notion of archiverse is introduced – an assemblage (after Jane Bennett) of all cultural, political, economic and technological archives performed by the user. By following the connections between different and often seemingly distant data and contexts, it is possible to propose an archive-centric perspective for video game studies.
Access status: Open Access ,
Lost worlds of »Andromeda«
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2021) Majkowski, Tomasz Z.; Kozyra, Magdalena
The paper offers a reading of Mass Effect: Andromeda (BioWare, 2017) vis-à-vis lost world romance (also dubbed »lost race romance«, or »imperial romance«), a late-Victorian era novelistic genre originating from H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines and serving as a major tool for British Empire propaganda and a source of early science-fiction conventions. We claim that the narrative failure of this ill-received game stems from its adherence to the rigid principles and forceful themes of the genre and the colonial and imperial imaginary informing it. Our analysis aims at highlighting the way 19$^{th}$-century novelistic convention can be remediated as contemporary digital games, and to expose the link between the imperial imaginary and the ways in which open-world digital games are structured, on both the narrative and gameplay levels, even when they do not directly refer to the historical colonial legacy.
Access status: Open Access ,
The future, the crisis, and the future of »replay story«
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2021) Imbierowicz, Eleonora Teresa
The article explores the notion of replay story by Janet Murray. Replay story – a game telling a story through choices and allowing the player to access all of their outcomes – was supposed to be a step in the process of games becoming the most important narrative medium of a new era. Soon after that, the reasonable critique emerged: not every story can, and should, be told through a replay story. Some, mostly tragic ones, can even be highly controversial if told in such form. However, new ways of storytelling through replay have emerged in recent years: New Game +, multiple routes that influence one another, and games that are conscious of previous playthroughs. Three years ago, Ian Bogost stated that the possibilities of development of narrative games had already been played out, and yet, there still is a chance that replay story can once again be considered a keystone in the evolution of games.