Author: Natalie Denk

My current research investigates tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) and their relationship with the nuclear age. Proposing new methodological approaches towards the nuclear age, my research adds fresh dimensions to knowledge of how the Cold War and the arms race affected the everyday lives and experiences of those who lived under the ever-present threat of nuclear war. I have also worked as a TTRPG designer. My games include the dystopian science fiction game a|state (Contested Ground Studios, 2004), the Cold War meets the occult Cold City (Contested Ground Studios, 2006), and the post-apocalyptic Hot War (Contested Ground Studios, 2008), and a|state 2nd edition (Handiwork Games, 2022). I have also contributed material to other games such as the 1970s Germany themed Red Front playset for Bully Pulpit Studios’ Fiasco!, Cubicle 7’s Cold War Cthulhu, and many others.

Histories of Wars That Never Were: Tabletop role-playing games and the Cold War nuclear threat

FROG 2024 – Talk

This talk will explore the history and impact of post-apocalyptic tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) of the 1970s and 1980s. Popular memory and scholarly study of the first two decades of TTRPGs are understandably dominated by Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). D&D always has been the most famous and widespread of all such games. There were many other games, though, that did not hew to high fantasy settings and instead offered much darker, more immediate worlds for gamers to explore. Amongst these were games that dealt with one of the period’s most pressing global issues: the threat of nuclear devastation. Such games dealt with the contemporary prospect of fiery annihilation in diverse ways. From the visceral post-World War Three landscape of Poland in Twilight: 2000, through the surrealist grotesquery of a mutated far-future in Gamma World, to the Marxist (Brothers, not the father of communism) absurdism of Paranoia, the nuclear age and its terrifying ultimate consequences were present in a diverse range of different game experiences. What was implicit or explicit in all of these were the acknowledgement of the fragility of the world around them, the threat posed by the Cold War nuclear standoff, and their implicit invitation to players to somehow deal with this through play. Through documentary analysis and accompanying oral history, this talk will assess how the history and impact of these games significantly add to our understanding of Cold War ‘nuclear culture’, positioning them as a means for imagining, reacting to, and potentially coping with all-too-possible futures.

David J. Cross is a doctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Stuttgart. His research revolves around apocalyptic thought in contemporary literature, media, and culture. Beside his academic research he also composes sound and music installations for exhibition as well as composing the OST for the folk horror adventure game, The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow.

Walking Towards Extinction: Pyschogeography and Détournement in the Fallout Series

FROG 2024 – Talk

This paper explores the concepts of dérive and psychogeography to analyze and enhance the experience of open-world games, with a specific focus on the Fallout series known for its expansive post-apocalyptic world and narrative layering. Derived from the Situationist International’s theories, dérive involves drifting through urban spaces to uncover hidden psychogeographical patterns and influences, while psychogeography examines the interplay between environment and psychological experience. By activating the mechanic of walking and engaging in deliberate acts of détournement within game environments, players may be able to actively subvert and recontextualize the game’s spatial and narrative elements.

Through minor détournements – such as the reinterpretation of mundane objects or in-game snapshots – and deceptive détournements – where significant narrative elements or major game landmarks are placed in novel contexts – players can challenge and redefine the intended meaning and experience of the game. Deceptive détournements might go as far as manipulating major plot points or iconic game elements to generate alternative interpretations or critiques of the game’s inherent ideology.

This approach interrogates how open-world games like Fallout can be engaged with critically through the walking mechanic while highlighting the potential of détournement as a tool for players to actively reshape and interrogate the immersive worlds and stories presented in apocalyptic games. By reimagining the game’s space and narrative through psychogeographical exploration and détournement, new imaginaries can be created through a ludo-affective dissonance which potentially allows the player to reflect on their own socio-cultural experiences beyond the playing experience.

Dott. Ric. Dr. phil Eugen Pfister is historian and political scientist and heads the SNSF-Sinergia research project “Confoederatio Ludens: Swiss History of Games, Play and Game Design 1968-2000” at the Bern University of the Arts. He holds a doctorate in the history of political communication, is a founding member of the working group “History and Digital Games” and teaches and researches the history of ideas in and of digital games.

Zombies Ate Democracy – How the idea of democracy and individualism is negotiated in zombie games.

FROG 2024 – Talk

Zombie games are still hugely popular, even if the zombie craze’s peak in popular culture is now waning somewhat. Zombie games, just like films, novels and graphic novels, are characterized by an astonishingly consistent narrative. I would even speak here of a “myth” in the sense of Roland Barthes: The backstory of the zombie apocalypse is usually not explicitly told, but it assumes that the world as we know it – and that means mostly Western democracies – was unable to deal with the zombie threat. Our modern societies are being overrun. Politicians usually react too slowly and incorrectly, the executive fails to protect its citizens. What follows the destruction of democracy is a presumed primal state of everyone fighting everyone else. Homo Homini Lupus, a perverted and abbreviated reading of Thomas Hobbes’ political ideas. For while Hobbes also assumed a violent original state of pre-society, he drew the conclusion that a strong state was needed. In zombie games, however, all attempts to re-establish larger communities of people in the post-apocalypse were often shown to be doomed to failure.

In the post-apocalypse, fascist military forces and insane cannibals quickly assert themselves, and the surviving protagonist can usually only rely on himself. An individualism taken to extremes that corresponds to (neo-)liberalism. So far, the narrative resembles each other across the media forms. What makes digital games particularly interesting sources for the history of ideas here is not only the story and the audiovisual aesthetics, but above all the game mechanics, through which ideology is also communicated. And I would like to take a closer look at these for the lecture and contextualize them historically. This shows that early zombie games such as Resident Evil, The Walking Dead and The Last of Us serve the aforementioned myth of “failed democracy” and propagate an extreme, exaggerated individualism. At the same time, there were also attempts to make solidarity and cooperation a game mechanic, which I find particularly exciting because it shows the possibility of a counter-narrative, like the Survivor Mission in Dead Rising and other mechanics in State of Decay.

Kevin Mercer holds a BFA degree from Western Illinois University and an MFA degree from The Pennsylvania State University. Mercer is an artist and game developer. His work focuses on interactive installation, experimental narrative, rurality, and the environment. Mercer currently serves as Assistant Professor of Digital Media Arts & Animation at Southern Illinois University, USA.

The Cute Shall Inherit the Earth: Animal Protagonists in Post-Human Game Worlds

FROG 2024 – Talk

Recent video game titles such as Stray and Another Crab’s Treasure feature animal protagonists navigating and improving built worlds in the decades following the extinction of humans. In each, the player embodies a cute, unlikely hero as they reckon with old-world technologies inherited from humans, face deadly foes, and seek to either reclaim a long-forgotten past or start anew.

Stray sees a cat, accompanied by an AI companion, ascend several architectural and societal layers of a near-lifeless city. Swarms of carnivorous zurks pursue the unnamed feline as it seeks respite among robotic communities. Another Crab’s Treasure sees a hermit crab, whose shell was stolen from its back, blaze a trail across a polluted ocean to reclaim his home. Throughout gameplay, the protagonist often returns to the city of New Carcinia to trade microplastics for goods.

Through intertextual analysis, I will discuss the commonality and contrast of Stray, Another Crab’s Treasure, and other games in their depictions of post-apocalyptic architecture, fallen economies, stratified societies, and environmental abuse. More specifically, the unique animal lens through which players engage with these themes will be investigated. In what ways may an animal player character facilitate either more or less humane gameplay?

References:
Another Crab’s Treasure. Directed by Nicholas Kaman, Aggro Crab, 2024. Microsoft PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S game.
Skolnick, Evan. Video Game Storytelling. United States of America, Watson-Guptill, 2 Dec. 2014.
Stray. Directed by Koola & Viv, BlueTwelve Studio, Annapurna Interactive, 2022-24. Microsoft PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S game.
Vergine, Lea. When Trash Becomes Art: TRASH rubbish mongo. Italy, Skira Editore, 2007.
Whiteley, Gillian. Junk: Art and the Politics of Trash. New York, NY, I.B. Taurus & Co., 2011.

Linda Rustemeier is an eLearning expert and research assistant at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. She is doing her doctorate on diversity-sensitive learning games/serious games, game labs and game didactics. After several years at the Innovation Center for Technology-Supported Learning at Goethe University Frankfurt, StudiumDigitale, she joined the Institute for Didactics (of Mathematics and) Computer Science in May 2024 in the LeseKI:DS and GameLab project.

Can Diversity and Inclusion in Game Design for (Social Awareness) Games save the (Game Education) World?

FROG 2024 – Talk

Serious Games can also be Social Awareness Games. These games want to achieve gamified consciousness for challenges in the world. If its security, energy, clima, emissions, health and fitness prevention or rehabilitation, sustainable training simulations, city architecture planning, ecological behaviour, game concepts with incentive and reward systems like points, badges or something else in games are motivating. Games can help to face the enormous challenge the society has through game thinking and out of the box solution thinking. So divers sensible game design should counter in: Can teaching, learning and use diversity and inclusion in Game Design for Social Awareness Games save the Game (education) World? How could such a concept look like? Does the (education) world need (more) game labs to develop these games?

Chris Carbonaro studied at the Institute for European Ethnology and Cultural Analysis, LMU Munich, completing his master’s in 2014 with a thesis on digital gaming spaces and socioculturally produced reality. He continued to work at the department as a lecturer, researcher, and administrator. In spring 2023, he defended his doctoral dissertation on protest practices under the label “Anonymous” at the online/offline intersection. Fascinated by digital and analog games since playing Tetris on his grandfather’s Gameboy in the mid-90s, Chris has a strong academic and personal interest in strategic and narrative-heavy games, including ‘classic’ pen-and-paper role-playing games, and competitive multiplayer titles.

Those Who Live in Death – A Hauntological Approach to Elden Ring’s Eternal Post-Apocalyptic World

FROG 2024 – Talk

“A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism” proclaims the opening line to the Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels (1848: 14). Looking at the post-apocalyptic world of FromSoftware’s Elden Ring (2022) we could argue that one or even several specters are also haunting The Lands Between and its inhabitants.

The proposed contribution approaches Elden Ring from a cultural anthropologist’s perspective with a focus on the parallels between the ludo-narrative game world or system and contemporary cultural experiences typical for the postmodern era, which might explain part of its appeal.
The theoretical basis for this analysis lies within the terminology of hauntology by Marc Fisher (2012; 2013; 2014), who adapted the concept from Jacques Derrida’s thesis (1995) that even after the fall of the Eastern Bloc the idea of communism will haunt western society and culture. Accordingly, we can understand Elden Ring as a world temporally frozen or displaced – its “time is out of joint” (Derrida: 38) – and befallen by what Fisher diagnosed our current postmodern life under late-capitalism with: “The Slow Cancellation of the Future” (Fisher 2014: 2).

The order of the world is lost through the devastating war of the Shattering and the destruction of the eponymous Elden Ring. The character Radahn literally cancels the future by halting the stars and by the removal of the concept of death not even dying offers change. All that is left to do in The Lands Between is to cling to old beliefs and ideas, the memory of purpose one used to have, but over the course of eons this leads to physical and mental decay, the loss of self and identity, very much akin to Fisher’s pop-cultural analysis of our Zeitgeist.

But Elden Ring’s ludo-narrative design affords its players multiple ways to playfully interact with this hauntological and often depressing experience and even to overcome it. Beginning as “A Tarnished of no renown” (Opening Cinematic) they overcome immense difficulties typical of FromSoftware titles, create humor and companionship despite the game’s bleakness via Multiplayer and online community practices, and reconfigure the game in their imagination through modding and challenge runs.

Literature:
Derrida, Jacques (1995): Marx’ Gespenster – Der verschuldete Staat, die Trauerarbeit und die neue Internationale. Frankfurt a.M.
Fisher, Mark (2012): What is Hauntology?, In: Film Quarterly, Vol. 66 (1), p. 16-24
Fisher, Mark (2013): Kapitalistischer Realismus ohne Alternative? Eine Flugschrift. Hamburg
Fisher, Mark (2014): Ghosts of my Life. Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures. Winchester
Marx, Karl / Engels, Frederick (1848): Manifesto of the Communist Party. In the English Edition published by Marxists Internet Archive (2010), available via: www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Manifesto.pdf [26.07.2024]

Dr. phil. Elke Hemminger, born in 1978 in Freiburg, studied Biology and German in Tübingen and Schwäbisch Gmünd. She worked as a teacher for several years, while continuing her studies in sociology and psychology in Karlsruhe. She received her PhD in 2009 for an interdisciplinary study on digital role-playing games at the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd and the University of Waikato in Hamilton, NZ. From 2012 to 2017, Elke Hemminger was Wrangell Fellow at the University of Education Schwäbisch Gmünd. Since 2017 she is Professor of Sociology at the Protestant University of Applied Sciences in Bochum.

Crisis Simulations and Sociological Insights: Using Digital Games for Future Scenarios in Higher Education

FROG 2024 – Talk

This paper explores the integration of digital games into higher education, specifically within the fields of science communication and sociology. By leveraging games as triggers for sociological thinking, students engage in immersive and interactive experiences that enhance their understanding of complex crisis scenarios and future challenges. The course framework encourages students to analyze and critique these games based on fundamental insights from digital game studies regarding gameplay and game mechanics, but also through the lenses of critical theory (Horkheimer/Adorno) and the theory of social construction of reality (Berger/Luckmann).

Digital games from various genres serve as practical case studies, allowing students to explore the narrative construction of crises and the ideological underpinnings these games present. Through these analyses, students learn to identify hegemonic narratives and ideological biases. They are also guided to understand how games, as cultural artefacts, shape and reflect societal perceptions of crises and potential futures.

The incorporation of these games into the curriculum provides several educational benefits. Students develop critical thinking skills and the ability to deconstruct media representations of crises. They also gain practical experience in scenario planning and the evaluation of risk, essential skills for navigating the complexities of contemporary global issues. Furthermore, by engaging with the simulated worlds presented in these games, students learn to construct and assess potential future scenarios, fostering a proactive approach to problem-solving and innovation.

This educational approach not only enhances students’ skills in science communication and sociological analysis but also prepares them to actively participate in societal discourse about crisis management and future planning. By confronting and dissecting the dystopian narratives prevalent in many games, students cultivate a nuanced understanding of the role of media in shaping public perceptions and expectations of crises. Ultimately, this educational model empowers students to critically engage with the world around them, equipping them with the skills and perspectives necessary for contributing to a more informed and resilient society.

Danny Hinrichs is enrolled in the master program ‘Cultural Sciences: Culture, Arts and Media’ at the Leuphana University Lüneburg. There, he is writing his master thesis on the relationship between the gamification of labour and the labourification of videogames, and how both converge in the logic of neoliberalism. His main research interests include critical theory, philosophy, and political aesthetics.
If he could add one book to the canon of game studies, it would be Alfie Bown’s ‘PlayStation Dreamworld’.

Between Pre- and Post-Apocalypse: Disco Elysium and the Critique of Apocalyptic Escapism

FROG 2024 – Talk

Apocalypses are convenient. Fantasizing about how asteroids, the zombie super virus, or madmen with nukes destroy humanity might be more comfortable than the more realistic prospect of slowly rotting away through bleak decades of ever-decreasing living standards. Apocalyptic fantasies project humanity’s self-imposed horrors onto external threats. They serve well to delegate responsibility and reduce the social complexity of impending doom, be it of social, ecological, or economic nature. It’s what makes them cathartic.
Now that our pop culture is saturated with highly aestheticized doomsday scenarios and equally stylized post-apocalyptic hellscapes, one must ask: Why are we drawn to the catastrophes that end ’life as we know it’ at the exact time when ‘life as we know it’ becomes the catastrophe? Is it a most ironic sort of escapism? Or was Walter Benjamin right when he declared that “humanity’s self-alienation has reached a point where it experiences its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure”?

The answer might lie in a city at the end of history, trapped between post- and pre-apocalypse, where a late-stage alcoholic cop wakes up from a botched suicide attempt. Disco Elysium’s city of Revachol effectively underwent a post-Soviet shock therapy and was left at the mercy of financial colonialists and rampant poverty. At the same time, its world is slowly rendered uninhabitable by a mysterious force reminiscent of our world’s global warming.
Subjected to this dual crisis, our protagonist can declare himself the “Cop of the Apocalypse”, if the player wills it. But no matter how much the harbinger of doom doubles down on his apocalyptic prophecies, the game still declares that “it’s totally a coping mechanism”. It turns out that being devoted to the end of the world is just as much an escape fantasy as naïve optimism. Both stand in equal opposition to a sober encounter with an increasingly unpleasant reality.

With the help of the not-so-unreal world of Disco Elysium, my talk aims to shed light on how the crises of our world give rise to the popular aestheticization of apocalypse.