Blog of Abstracts

Flavia Mazzanti is a media artist and co-founder of Immerea, a media company based in Vienna focusing on the development of VR Games and interactive installations. Listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe List of 2023, she graduated with distinction at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2020, receiving the Gustav Peichl Award for architectural drawing and the Würdigungs Prize for artistic work. Her work explores artistic-philosophical theories on post-anthropocentrism, new materialism, body and identity, and has been presented at multiple national and international festivals. She is also active as public speaker and university lecturer.

Manuel Bonell is co-founder of Immerea, co-organizer of XRVienna and active as university lecturer. Manuel graduated with distinction at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna after receiving the Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Innsbruck. His work is driven by the interest for interactive applications in extended realities, ranging from XR installations, to CGI animations and VR games. His works have been exhibited in national and international festivals, among others the Ars Electronica Festival and DA Z – Digital Arts Festival Zürich.

Surreal Worlds and Digital Dystopias: Art and Games in Times of Chaos

FROG 2024 – Talk

In an era defined by multiple crises – such as climate change, wars, and economic instability – the intersection of games and art offers a unique lens through which to explore our collective anxieties and hopes. This talk examines how past art movements have emerged as a means of conveying specific emotions driven by the complexities of their times, while also exploring fantastical and dystopian worlds. These imaginary realms merge uncanniness and grotesqueness with a surreal sense of possibility and resilience, providing a space for both confronting our fears and imagining paths to hope and renewal.

The discussion will highlight how artists from the past and today’s game developers use surreal worlds and elements to reflect on the human condition in times of chaos. By looking at different époques and past crises, particularly the postwar surrealist era, parallels and contrasts will be made between the artistic responses of that time and some contemporary video games. Artists like Francis Bacon, Zdzisław Beksiński, and Leonora Carrington created haunting, surreal landscapes deeply influenced by the horrors of war and its aftermath.

Just as surrealist art conveyed emotions shaped by the crises and uncertainties of its time, video games as a medium can evoke similar emotional responses. Games like “Scorn” (2022), “The Utility Room” (2023), and “Still Wakes the Deep” (2024) explore themes of eerie uncanniness, megalophobia, distorted bodies, and horrific monumental landscapes in ways that reflect the emotional depth found in surrealist art.

By drawing these parallels and examining the differences, the talk will look at postwar surrealism in art and its consequential forms of expression, tracing its influence in contemporary media such as video games

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Matthes Lindner is a researcher, consultant, and lecturer. He heads Spielfabrique’s acceleration programs for video games and is a researcher in the Horizon Europe project “STRATEGIES” (Sustainable Transition for Europe’s Game Industries). As such, he dedicates his work to fostering a strong Indie games ecosystem and sustainable practices in the games industry through connecting stakeholders from industry, science and policy.

After studying anthropology and sustainability, Matthes worked as project manager in an international science communication NGO. Since then, he has also been teaching university courses, producing multimedia projects and hosting events on topics ranging from career design to futures literacy.

Champions for hope: The power of futures-literate game developers

FROG 2024 – Talk

Games may help us understand the challenges moving forward, but to fully harness the medium’s potential, game designers and developers need to be both motivated and literate in the transformative potential of their creations. In short, only futures-literate game developers can create games that foster future literacy in their gamers.

Past research (McGonigal 2011, Vervoort 2022, York 2023) has shown that playing games can develop key skills to tackle 21st-century challenges. However, with apocalyptic visions for the future being commonplace in mainstream games, the medium still does not necessarily inspire the necessary sense of optimism and agency in gamers required to translate these skills into positive action.

What is missing, then, are games that instill futures literacy and urgent optimism in their players. The mainstream hits that provide this experience have yet to be created. These games will likely be created by futures-literate developers who can effectively and consciously design moments of transformation towards futures literacy in their games.

In this talk, Matthes Lindner explores the work needed at the source: the studios developing tomorrow’s games. He presents a framework for co-developing future-literate games with developers, already in use with indie game developers at Spielfabrique. Finally, the talk explores an unexpectedly hopeful scenario for the future of the games industry, where game developers become champions for better futures.

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Ruth Dorothea Eggel is a cultural anthropologist and digital ethnographer, currently exploring sustainable game development practices in the EU Horizon project “STRATEGIES – Sustainable Transition for Europe’s Game Industries” (www.strategieshorizon.eu) at the Cologne Game Lab, TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences. Her research concentrates on the ethnography of technosocial lifeworlds and the anthropology of play and games. Her dissertation, Embodying Gaming (University of Bonn 2024), explored the materialities and embodiments of gaming culture at gaming events in Europe. She was a lecturer at the Universities of Bonn, Graz, and Vienna and is co-editor of the journal Kuckuck. Notizen zur Alltagskultur.

Co-Author:
Sonia Fizek is a professor of Media and Game Studies at the Cologne Game Lab, TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences, and a visiting professor at the University of Lower Silesia, Wroclaw (Poland). She is co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds. Her latest book, Playing at a Distance (MIT Press 2022), explores video game aesthetics, focusing on automation, AI, and posthuman play. Fizek’s current research concentrates on environmental sustainability in video games. She leads the “Greening Games” project (2021-2024) and is the scientific lead for “STRATEGIES. Sustainable Transition for Europe’s Game Industries” (2024-2027, https://www.strategieshorizon.eu).

Towards Greener Video Game Making Processes and Practices – People and the Planet

FROG 2024 – Talk

Depleting planetary resources, environmental collapse and the threat of a climate apocalypse are increasingly popular themes in video games. Game developers often introduce these eco-themes in bottom-up processes. Some games, like Terra Nil (Devolver Digital 2023), focus on building balanced ecosystems (Alfred 2022), while others, like the Riders Republic Rebirth event (Ubisoft 2022), use temporary features to draw attention to climate concerns (Sandifer 2022). This use of ecologically informed narratives, mechanics, and design tactics has been discussed in developer and research communities (Abraham & Jayemanne 2017; Chang & Parham 2017; York et al. 2022).

Two perspectives that remain relatively unexplored point towards a) development processes and b) development practices. The first presents a paradox: green-themed games still contribute to environmental destruction (Abraham 2020; Abraham 2022; Gordon 2019; Gordon 2020). The planetary impact of computer technology, the capitalist exploitation by large tech companies, and the extractivist logic (Cubitt 2016) in games and hardware production significantly contribute to climate change. The second perspective shifts attention to the making and makers of games, for which we raise the following core questions:

• How can sustainable game-making be achieved within an industry constrained by neoliberal frameworks and profit-driven motives?
• What are developers’ attitudes towards sustainability in games and the industry?
• What drives developers to make ecological games in the first place?
• How can challenges of hardware reliance and the mining of planetary resources be addressed in game development?

In this contribution, we map out those two fields of tension, proposing a collaborative research approach, including ethnographic fieldwork among selected game developers. Only direct observation allows deeper probing into attitudes, skills, resources, and challenges in creating green games and making games in greener ways. Our research is part of the EU Horizon project “STRATEGIES – Sustainable Transition for Europe’s Game Industries” (2024-2028), which aims to integrate sustainability into game design, production, and distribution. Collaborating with European game studios, we leverage their practical expertise to develop industry and policy recommendations to encourage and adopt sustainable game-making practices.

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Ellie Chraibi is a student in the Game Studies and Game Engineering master’s program at Klagenfurt University. Her background lies in engineering mechanics and musicology at Sorbonne Universitée. In 2023, she wrote her first article on the depoliticisation of Far Cry 5 and is working on her master’s thesis on the role of childhood nostalgia in video games.

Inside: A reflection on the role of the avatar in a dystopian world.

FROG 2024 – Talk

In Inside (Playdead 2016), unnatural narrative devices (metalepsis and second-person narration) are combined with the cinematic platformer genre’s conventions, particularly the bodily characterisation of the avatar. These two aspects allow the game to involve the player beyond the game’s diegesis (see Schallegger 2017; 2023), making her reflect on existential questions about her relationship with the digital world. Using a narratological approach and building on the works on unnatural narratives (Alber et al. 2010; Alber, Nielsen and Richardson 2013; Alber 2016), more specifically metalepsis (Bell and Alber 2012; Bell 2016; Genette 1980; 2004) and second-person narration (Fludernik 1993; 1994), I analyse the dissolution of the literary narrator in Inside’s avatar, game world, and User Interface as well as its effect on the player’s experience (see Schallegger 2017). I focus on the role of the avatar from phenomenological (Klevjer 2022) and cybertheory (Ensslin 2010; Kirkland 2009; Salen and Zimmerman 2003) perspectives with the support of taxonomies developed by game studies scholars (Barnabé and Delbouille 2018; Schallegger 2017; Willumsen 2018) to show its potential to create enriching transformative experience for players through ethical design (see Schallegger 2023).

Video games construct the artificial unity of the player, avatar, and protagonist by using ‘you’ narration. In Inside, this united ‘you’ is subverted by dissociating the avatar (what the player controls) and the protagonist (the agent body shown on screen). The mise en abyme of the avatar control with a mind control mechanic that allows the protagonist to transfer the player’s agency to a chain of virtual bodies is a constitutive part of the dystopian setting. In this metalepsis, the different narrative layers intrude on each other, moving the extra-diegetic player mechanically and narratively along the chain of control of the game’s diegesis. These video game-specific narrative and mechanic devices serve the dystopian qualities of Inside’s experience and prompt the player to question her relation to the virtual world. The subversiveness of Inside goes beyond its diegesis to offer the player the key to understanding the artificial nature of video games’ avatars and narratives. Working on video game-specific unnatural narratives may help designers create games that democratise game design literacy, thus elevating players’ critical thinking about their media.

Selected Bibliography:

Alber, Jan. 2016. Unnatural narrative: impossible worlds in fiction and drama. Frontiers of narrative. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Barnabé, Fanny, and Julie Delbouille. 2018. “Aux frontières de la fiction : l’avatar comme opérateur de réflexivité“. Sciences du jeu 9. https://doi.org/10.4000/sdj.958.
Bell, Alice. 2016. “Interactional Metalepsis and Unnatural Narratology”. Narrative, 24 (3): 294-310.
Ensslin, Astrid. 2010. “Respiratory Narrative: Multimodality and Cybernetic Corporeality in “Physio-Cybertext””. In New perspectives on narrative and multimodality, edited by Ruth E. Page, 155–65. New York: Routledge.
Fludernik, Monika. 1993. “Second Person Fiction: Narrative ‘You’ As Addressee And/Or Protagonist.” AAA: Arbeiten Aus Anglistik Und Amerikanistik 18 (2): 217–47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43023644.
Genette, Gérard. 2004. Métalepse: de la figure à la fiction. Poétique. Paris: Seuil.
Klevjer, Rune. 2022. What is the Avatar?: Fiction and Embodiment in Avatar-Based Singleplayer Computer Games. Revised and Commented Edition. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839445792.
Schallegger, René Reinhold. 2023. “From High Heroism to Abject Abyss: Ethical Aspects of Highly Aestheticised and Critical Videogames”. Colloquium: New Philologies. https://doi.org/10.23963/cnp.2022.8.1.1.
Willumsen, Ea Christina. 2018. “Is My Avatar MY Avatar? Character Autonomy and Automated Avatar Actions in Digital Games.” In DiGRA 2018. http://www.digra.org/wp-content/upload

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Felix Schniz is the co-founder and programme director of the master’s programme Game Studies and Engineering at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and American studies from the University of Mannheim, where he subsequently joined the master’s programme Cultural Transformations of the Modern Age: Literature and Media. After asking ‘What is a Videogame Experience?’ in his dissertation, his contemporary research focuses on the meaning of experience, genre theory, and the importance of subjectivity for the research of analogue games, video games, and virtual worlds.

Tim Sanders is a Master’s student in the program Game Studies and Engineering at the University of Klagenfurt. After graduating with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of Antwerp, Tim is trying to live up to the interdisciplinary nature of Game Studies and Engineering by shifting focus on the humanities side of the program instead of solely on the technical side with his background in programming. He is writing his Master’s Thesis and soon attaining his Master’s degree.

Scales of Apocalypse: Space and Affect in Dystopian Video Games between Sacred and Profane

FROG 2024 – Talk

Dystopian video games provide drastic emotional experiences between desperation and hope. The spatiotemporal capabilities of the medium that allow players to explore vast wastelands and confined shelters of safety alike enable the exploration of these emotions in varying magnitudes. Hence, these spaces have a decisive role in how they affect players’ vision of the end of the world.

We propose that the ‘scales of apocalypse’ in video games operate between the axioms ‘sacred and profane’ (Woodward 2012, 29-30) and ‘game world dimensions’. Infused by Graeme Kirkpatrick’s observations on rhythmic embodiment in ludic spaces (2011, 73-79) and Massumi’s theory of affect in movement (2002, 3-5), we showcase three negotiations on various tipping points of the scale: Local affect is often present in cosy apocalyptic motifs, where the game world becomes an abstract, guided spiritual metaphor and thus, sacred to the players. We illustrate them with Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (The Chinese Room 2015). A global affect of apocalypses pervades many AAA titles and allows players to lose themselves in assemblages of desperate motives, turning apocalyptic horrors into mundanities. Finally, liminal affect games are a series of titles where one is apocalyptic, and the other is not. This inter-artefact aesthetic is utilised in the games of auteur-designer Yoshimune Kouki (Âge, 2016, 2017). With this strategy, they create a mirrored space that contrasts sacred and profane game states entirely – confronting players with the sacristy of a peaceful world only after separating them from it.

By highlighting the correlation of feeling and form, we raise awareness of the opportunities in experience-based game design. We conclude with a discussion on the unique connection in video games between affect and the game world and how they allow to prepare meaningful journeys in end-of-the-world scenarios.

Sources:
Âge. 2016. Muv-Luv. Microsoft Windows. Ed, All ages English Translation. Tokyo: aNCHOR.
Âge. 2017. Muv-Luv Alternative. Microsoft Windows. Ed, All ages English Translation. Tokyo: aNCHOR.
Kirkpatrick, Graeme. 2011. Aesthetic Theory and the Video Game. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Massumi, Brian. 2002. “Introduction.” In Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation, 1-21. Durham: Duke University Press.
Nihon Falcom. 2017. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel. Microsoft Windows. Ed, English Localization. California: Xseed Games.
The Chinese Room. 2015. Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Brighton: The Chinese Room.
Woodward, Kathryn. 2012. Identity and Difference. London: Sage.

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Krzysztof Chmielewski is assistant professor of game design & game studies at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and game producer at Flybridge Studio.

Krzysztof has been a serious games producer since 2008 – from military simulators, through LARPs, board games, finally landing in the video games industry (for two reasons: passion and mortgage). For the past decade, his main objective has been teaching video game adepts at various universities in Poland, France, USA and India.

Lawyer and political scientist by education, coffee addict by choice.

Convincing the convinced – games with a message of ecology and identity. Space Gliders case study.

FROG 2024 – Talk

Either cross-generation identity and responsibility or ecological safety become more and more visible topics that appear in games (Larreina-Morales, Gunella, 2023). The author, an executive producer of a medium-budget, independent videogame Space Gliders (2021), analyses the failure of a message included in the narrative. Its reception was investigated on the basis of a quantitative study among Polish youth – both engaged in environmental protection and distancing from this fondness.

Using a survey conducted on a sample of approximately 200 students of fields that forge leaders in diplomacy and international security who had played the game, as well as in-depth interviews with six young Polish gaming influencers, author tries to validate the hypothesis about an enhancement of pro-ecological and protecting the local identities attitudes among the young adults who already present such inclinations with a simultaneous internalization of the game’s message by the recipients who do not identify themselves this way. The author looks up to leading edu-games for the same target audience and runs a comparative analysis of selected solutions based on data provided by the users.
The following step was to learn the lesson regarding good practices that would increase the chances of building a deep, positive reception of an educational background in games designed for Central European youth.

To summarize this deliberation and help the future entrepreneurs to establish a greater degree of accuracy on this matter, the author provides a post-mortem analysis of the game narrative from the producer’s perspective.

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Dr. Katerina Goryczka is a dedicated researcher in sustainable living and gamification. She holds a Ph.D. in Interactive Architecture and focuses on integrating technology and behavioral science to promote sustainability. Dr. Goryczka’s research explores transforming residential units into interactive joysticks, which helps quantify household behaviors and encourages eco-friendly practices through engaging gameplay. Her work includes developing systems that reward sustainable actions with digital tokens. With experience in the building industry as an architect and designer, Dr. Goryczka aims to inspire both academic and industry communities to use technology for a more sustainable future.

Co-Authors:
Henri Achten

IASTIJL

FROG 2024 – Talk

This research explores the innovative application of an interactive video game to influence and improve behavioral habits in unit residents, with a focus on promoting sustainability. The primary objective is to quantify users’ behavioral patterns and motivate the adoption of positive habits that contribute to a more sustainable living environment. In this concept, the unit itself is conceived as a joystick, where the switch on/off buttons of lights and IoT systems function as control buttons. The interactive video game integrates these real-life controls into its system, allowing the management of the household to be directly quantified and reflected in the game.

The study involves the development and deployment of a gamified system where users can interact with various scenarios that mimic real-life situations within a unit. By integrating elements of game design such as challenges, rewards, and progress tracking, the system aims to enhance user engagement and foster a deeper understanding of the impact of their actions on the environment. The game is designed to be intuitive and accessible, making it appealing to a wide demographic of users.

Data collected from user interactions within the game, including the use of household controls, are analyzed to identify common behavioral patterns and the effectiveness of different motivational strategies. This data-driven approach allows for the customization of feedback and incentives to better align with individual user preferences and habits. The study evaluates both short-term and long-term changes in behavior, providing insights into the sustainability of these changes over time.

Preliminary results indicate that the interactive video game, with the unit acting as a joystick, is an effective tool for promoting sustainable habits among unit residents. Users reported increased awareness of their environmental impact and a greater willingness to adopt sustainable practices. The gamified approach not only makes the learning process enjoyable but also encourages continuous improvement through ongoing engagement.

In conclusion, this research demonstrates the potential of interactive video games, utilizing the unit as a joystick, as a powerful means to foster sustainable behaviors. By leveraging the principles of gamification and integrating real-life household controls, the study offers a compelling method to drive positive change and contribute to environmental sustainability in residential settings. In wider future prognoses, this system could be expanded to operate with ecological bonity and incorporate a crypto karma system, rewarding users with digital tokens for sustainable behaviors, thereby creating a comprehensive eco-friendly ecosystem.

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Daniel Singh started studying architecture in Innsbruck in 2018. After graduating from the bachelor program in summer 2021, he decided to start studying comparative literature additionally to enrolling in the master program in architecture. He is interested in chthulucenic human-animal coexistence, which he investigated in his architecture bachelor project, but also in popular culture, fantasy literature and game studies. He held talks student conferences “Studientag der allgemeinen und vergleichenden Literaturwissenschaft 2023” at Bergische Universität Wuppertal and „Studierendenkongress Komparatistik 2024“ at Freie Universität Berlin. He currently writes his master thesis titled “Einsatz und Wirkung historischer Architektur in Videospielen”.

Of romanticised ruins and provisional shelters: Architecture in games after the fall of civilisation.

FROG 2024 – Talk

The first part of the talk (5 min) offers a general overview of different types of architecture in post-apocalyptic games, focusing primarily on ruins and shelters. I will draw on theories originating from cultural geography and architectural theory, as well as game studies. In order to understand how architecture functions as sign and how it relates to its real-world counterpart, I shall refer to the semiotic theories proposed by Eco and Barthes.

Ruins are very much present in contemporary popular culture, according to DeSilvey and Edensor, they are associated with both disastrous futures as well as tension, exhilaration, and excitement (see DeSilvey, Edensor, 478). According to Hill, they combine both fragmentariness and monumentality, and additionally capture human imagination, making recipients envision a past – or a future – for them (see Hill, 294–295).
Provisional shelters, on the other hand, are an architectural form which only emerges after an apocalyptic event, resulting in the necessity to ensure one’s survival. With the shelter, humanity’s claim to control the environment is rendered ridiculous. It is possible for players to build their own shelters in certain games.
In the second and longer portion of the talk (15 min) I will examine three post-apocalyptic games based on their architectural structures, following the mentioned theories.

Horizon Zero Dawn contains mostly modern or contemporary ruins, having been built during the last 150 years. Some of them are easily recognizable landmarks, serving as witnesses to a failed or defeated humanity and increasing dystopian atmosphere (see Bonner, 41).

Players can construct their own shelter in Fallout 4. These buildings always follow the aesthetics of makeshift shelters, demonstrating not only the scarcity of resources but also the population’s will to survive and their uncertainty about the current situation.

The ruins in Elden Ring are inspired by architectural styles that have been out of use for several centuries. According to Burström, this creates more distance than Horizon Zero Dawn’s modern ruins, since recipients are unaware of their appearance and feel when in active use (see Burström, 122). Furthermore, distance and monumentality create an aura of sublimity associated with the lost, pre-apocalyptic era.

Bibliography:
Bonner, Marc: Offene-Welt-Strukturen. Architektur-, Stadt- und Naturlandschaft im Computerspiel. Marburg 2023.
Burström, Mats: Creative Confusion. Modern Ruins and the Archaeology of the Present, in: Ers, Andrus, Ruin, Hans (ed.): Rethinking Time. Essays on History, Memory and Representation. Huddinge 2011, 119–128.
DeSilvey, Caitlin, Edensor, Tim: Reckoning with ruins, in: Progress in Human Geography 37.2013, 4, 465–485.
Elden Ring. Tokio Bandai Namco Entertainment, 2022, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series.
Ers, Andrus, Ruin, Hans (ed.): Rethinking Time. Essays on History, Memory and Representation. Huddinge 2011.
Fallout 4. Rockville, Maryland Bethesda Softworks, 2015, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, XBox One.
Hill, Jonathan: The architecture of ruins. Designs on the past, present and future. London, New York 2019.
Horizon Zero Dawn. Santa Monica Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2017, PlayStation 4.

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Simon Huber completed his studies in History and Educational Science at the University of Vienna, followed by Cultural Studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. His doctoral thesis was honored with the Award of Excellence 2022 by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science, and Research. He contributed to the exploration of historical aspects of game cultures and has also initiated a venture centered around coffee culture, titled Second Sunrise (www.secondsunrise.at).

He is instructing “Game Design as a cultural technique” and “The Anatomy of Games”, thus fostering a creative and analytical perspective among students. He organizes the “Ludological Symposium”, a transdisciplinary and also playful format in which Game Designers and Scholars are trying to lay the theoretical groundwork for a coherent Ludology.

From Pandora’s Box to the Book with Seven Seals. Apocalyptic Thinking in Pursuit of Ludology

FROG 2024 – Talk

The apocalypse (literally “revelation”) is commonly understood as the end of the world. However, it also represents a religious interpretation of the course of history. This contribution examines how this eschatological reading of the Bible is presented to readers through a ludological lens, interpreting the Book of Revelation as a game in its form. Thus, the text is not seen as a message that needs to be delivered to the faithful but as a text that cross-references the holy scripture, prompting readers to navigate back and forth within it. This method reveals meanings beyond the literal sense and helps the Christian community find hope in times of distress through (re-)reading.

Hope, notably, is also the last thing that escapes Pandora’s box after all the other curses of mankind. If we think of Zeus as a game designer, he implemented an important feature for replayability.

I propose comparing the apocalypse with mythology rooted in oral traditions. Hans Blumenberg (1981) suggested that the stars falling from the sky can be seen as an analogy for letters disappearing when the scroll with the sacred text is wrapped up—this signifies “Game Over,” the end of the actual world that emerged from the text. Gaming the apocalypse, therefore, means exploring the boundaries of a primitive cultural technique (Siegert 2015) like opening and closing a container, which is remediated (Bolter/Grusin 2001) in the use of books as containers of texts, such as the book with seven seals.

I would like to offer the FROG24 audience insights into the wide cultural history of apocalyptic thinking. It can be understood as a fundamental design practice that is conceived as tinkering with the medium of communication, embedding rules that allow the reader to produce meaning by navigating its contents in a haptic manner that appear playful to us.

Literature:

Blumenberg, Hans. Die Lesbarkeit der Welt. Frankfurt am Main 1981.
Bolter, Jay David & Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge 2001.
Siegert, Bernhard: Grids, Filters, Doors, and Other Articulations of the Real. New York 2015.

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Andreas Wieser is a master’s student at the University of Innsbruck and a student assistant at the Institute for Subject Didactics. His research focuses on subject didactics in the field of history and civic education and their intersections with game studies. He is particularly interested in the reception of video games by consumers and the associated influence on their historical culture and historical identity.

Playing Civilistis at War. But what about the Players?

FROG 2024 – Talk

When talking about an apocalyptic scenario, one is most likely talking about a future event. But it is something a lot of people are experiencing right now in areas of conflict and war such as Ukraine and Gaza. For the rest of us in a peaceful Europe it is difficult to fathom such catastrophic experiences. Different Serious Games try to depict similar scenarios of destruction, failing laws and missing solidarity, so players can understand the misery coming with war and conflict. This War of Mine tries to highlight the civilian perspective and the struggles of surviving in a besieged city facing lack of food, medicine and heating materials.

From a teaching perspective, the question arises as to whether players are independently encouraged to reflect on existing pre-concepts on various topics such as power, room for manoeuvre, distribution and norms through playful consumption of an apocalyptic scenario. By analysing more than 2000 Steam reviews and four interviews with players who had never played the game before, quantitative and qualitative statements could be made about the four concepts mentioned above: Most of the times the players feel powerless. They only noticeable feeling of power consists of information about the situation in general and about others. This form of power subsequently also enables room for manoeuvre and facilitates related decisions. The lack of resources, in turn, forces people to make unpleasant decisions calling their own standards into question. It can therefore be concluded that the existing pre-concepts of power, room for manoeuvre, distribution and norms are reshaped through the consumption of This War of Mine.

This presentation is based on the results of the masters’ thesis of the author.

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