End-Game: Apocalyptic Video Games, Contemporary Society, and Digital Media Culture

Book

End-Game

Apocalyptic Video Games, Contemporary Society, and Digital Media Culture

Edited by: Lorenzo DiTommaso , James Crossley , Alastair Lockhart and Rachel Wagner

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2024

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This book is in the series

Volume 16 | Video Games and the Humanities

About this book

Video games are a global phenomenon, international in their scope and democratic in their appeal. This is the first volume dedicated to the subject of apocalyptic video games. Its two dozen papers engage the subject comprehensively, from game design to player experience, and from the perspectives of content, theme, sound, ludic textures, and social function. The volume offers scholars, students, and general readers a thorough overview of this unique expression of the apocalyptic imagination in popular culture, and novel insights into an important facet of contemporary digital society.

Author / Editor information

L. DiTommaso, University Montreal; J. Crossley, MF Oslo; A. Lockhart, University of Cambridge; R. Wagner, Ithaca College.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Preface Lorenzo DiTommaso, James Crossley, Alastair Lockhart and Rachel Wagner Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Contributors and Editors Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
Overture
Video Games and the Contemporary Apocalyptic Imagination Lorenzo DiTommaso Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
Essays
Frostpunk, the Apocalypse, and the “Enduring Temptation” of Ecofascism Megan Condis and Ben Alfonsin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	29
The Missing Middle Class in The Outer Worlds Mia Consalvo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	49
Masculine Apocalypses: Navigating Masculinity, Male Spaces, and Violence in Days Gone (2019) and The Last of Us Part II (2020) Ellie Fielding-Redpath Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	73
Cities of the (Digital) Apocalypse – The Meeting of Video Games, Ruins, and Urban Studies Emma Fraser Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	91
My Ruined Town: Fallout 4 Modding and Digital Storytelling Samuel Fuller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	109
“I Am Making Everything New”: Animal Crossing as Postmillennial Apocalyptic Progress During the Covid Pandemic Jovi L. Geraci Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	131
“All Sound Will Be Muted. All Life Will Scream”: Music and Sound as Existential Resistance in Disco Elysium (2019) William Gibbons Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	145
The Two Broken Messiahs of Far Cry 5 Amy M. Green Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	159
“There Will be a Reckoning”: Galactic Apocalypse as Endgame in Stellaris Robert Houghton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	177
A Playlist for the Apocalypse: Popular Music in Death Stranding Andra Ivănescu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	193
Horizon Zero Dawn as Genre-Medium Coevolution Stephen Joyce Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	209
End Game: Determinism and Human Instrumentality in Apocalyptic Video Games Gi Soo Kim and Lorenzo DiTommaso Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	223
Anthroponyms, Apocalyptic Dualism, and Identity Formation in Post-Apocalyptic Video Games Oleksandra Kuzmenko Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	239
Death Stranding, Connections, Timefall, and Our Interactive Past Ryan Lizardi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	257
Undead Ecosystems: Death Stranding and the Contemporary Video-Game Zombie Lawrence May Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	271
“Everyone in This Story Is Already Dead”: Death Matters in Disco Elysium’s Apocalypse Conor McKeown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	285
The Haunted Environment: Ellie’s Engagement through Retrospection Gerardo M. Muniz Villalon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	305
The End of Everything Sascha Pöhlmann Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	319
“Pick Your Plasmid and Evolve!”: Individualization, Genetics, and Choice in BioShock Lars Schmeink Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	339
The Dystopia Industry: Video Games and the Commodification of Cultural Collapse Rowan Tulloch and Craig Johnson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	365
Video-Game Religion beyond the Anthropocene Lars de Wildt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	385
Giving Pandemic a Face: Ecophobia in A Plague Tale: Innocence Lauren Woolbright Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	401
Medieval Fantasy in Video Games and Apocalypse in Digital Culture Sunny Yoon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	415
Coda
Apocalypticism Today James Crossley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	433
Bibliography
A Bibliography of Critical Scholarship on Post/Apocalyptic Video Games Lorenzo DiTommaso Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	451
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	479

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

September 3, 2024

eBook ISBN:

9783110752809

Hardcover published on:

September 3, 2024

Hardcover ISBN:

9783110752687

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

16

Main content:

485

Coloured Illustrations:

32

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110752809

eBook ISBN: 9783110752809

Hardcover ISBN: 9783110752687

Keywords for this book

digital media; popular culture; religious studies; video games

Audience(s) for this book

Scholars of history, popular uses of history, and historiography; Game scholars, Game designers, students

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Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com

End-Game

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Table of contents

Bibliographic data