Ecogames: Playful Perspectives on the Climate Crisis
Deep Insights
Oxford: Amsterdam University Press (2024), 612 pp.
"With the climate crisis and its repercussions becoming more and more tangible, games are increasingly participating in the production, circulation, and interrogation of environmental assumptions, using both explicit and implicit ways of framing the crisis. Whether they are providing new spaces to imagine and practice alternative forms of living, or reproducing ecomodernist fantasies, games as well as player cultures are increasingly tuned in to the most pressing environmental concerns. This book brings together chapters by a diverse group of established and emerging authors to develop a growing body of scholarship that explores the shape, impact, and cultural context of ecogames. The book comprises four thematic sections, Today's Challenges: Games for Change, Future Worlds: New Imaginaries, The Nonhuman Turn, and Critical Metagaming Practices. Each section explores different aspects of ecocritical engagement in and through games." (Publisher description)
Ecogames: An Introduction / Laura op de Beke, Joost Raessens, and Stefan Werning, 9
PART I. TODAY’S CHALLENGES: GAMES FOR CHANGE
1. Change for Games: On Sustainable Design Patterns for the (Digital) Future / Alenda Y. Chang, 73
2. Do You Want to Set the World on Fire? Amplifying Player Agency to Demonstrate Alternatives to the Climate Crisis / Peter Kristof Makai, 89
3. Between the Lines : Using Differential Game Analysis to Develop Environmental Thinking / Hans-Joachim Backe, 109
4. A Dynamic Engagement Model to Provide Ecological Awareness of the Climate Crisis through Video Games / Thomas Bjorner and Henrik Schonau-Fog, 129
5. Postcoloniality, Ecocriticism and Lessons from the Playable Landscape / Soraya Murray, 145
6. No Cyclones in Age of Empires: Empire, Ecology, and Video Games / Souvik Mukherjee, 163
7. Games for Better Futures : The Art and Joy of Making and Unmaking Societies / Joost M. Vervoort, Carien Moossdorff, and Kyle A. Thompson, 181
PART II. FUTURE WORLDS: NEW IMAGINARIES
8. Climate–Game–Worlds : A Media-Aesthetic Look at the Depiction and Function of Climate in Computer Games / Sebastian Moring and Birgit Schneider, 201
9. Healing a Life out of Balance: Slowness and Ecosophy in Death Stranding / Victor Navarro-Remesal and Mateo Terrasa Torres, 223
10. Ecology in the Postapocalypse : Regenerative Play in the Metro Series and the Critical Dystopia / Gerald Farca, 241
11. There Is No Planet B : A Milieu-Specific Analysis of Outer Wilds Unstable Spaces / Lauren Woolbright, 259
12. Green New Worlds? Ecology and Energy in Planetary Colonization Games / Paweł Frelik, 275
13. Dark Play and the Flow Time of Petroculture in Oil-Themed Games / Laura op de Beke, 295
14. The Underrealized Ecocritical Potential of ABZU / Gabrielle Trepanier-Jobin, Maeva Charre-Tchang, and Sylvie Largeaud-Ortega, 311
PART III: THE NONHUMAN TURN
15. “Have You Ever Heard a Worm Sing?”: The Spectral Ecology of Kentucky Route Zero, Act V / Jordan Youngblood, 335
16. Hiding (in) the Tall Grass : Rethinking Background Assets in Video Game Plantscapes / Merlin Seller, 353
17. Symbiosis, or How to Make Kin in the Chthulucene / Joost Raessens, 373
18. Mutate or Die: Neo-Lamarckian Ecogames and Responsible Evolution / Colin Milburn, 395
19. No Man’s Game : The Infinite Boredom of Procedurally Generated Environments / Paolo Ruffino
20. Trans Ecologies in Digital Games and Contemporary Art / Micha Cardenas, 433
21. The Earth’s Prognosis: Doom and Transformation in Game Design / Kara Stone, 447
PART IV: CRITICAL METAGAMING PRACTICES
22. What Do We (NDNs) Do with Games? / Jordan Clapper, 465
23. Imagining the Future: Game Hacking and Youth Climate Action / Chloe Germaine and Paul Wake, 483
24. Reframing the Backlog: Radical Slowness and Patient Gaming / Rainforest Scully-Blaker, 505
25. Material Infrastructures of Play : How the Games Industry Reimagines Itself in the Face of Climate Crisis / Sonia Fizek, 525
26. Sustainable Fandom : Responsible Consumption and Play in Game Communities / Nicolle Lamerichs, 543
27. A Field Guide to Monsters: Practices of Wildlife Watching in Video Games / Melissa Bianchi, 559
28. Remediating Green Practices : Landscape Photography and Nature Documentary Filmmaking in Video Games / Stefan Werning, 577
PART I. TODAY’S CHALLENGES: GAMES FOR CHANGE
1. Change for Games: On Sustainable Design Patterns for the (Digital) Future / Alenda Y. Chang, 73
2. Do You Want to Set the World on Fire? Amplifying Player Agency to Demonstrate Alternatives to the Climate Crisis / Peter Kristof Makai, 89
3. Between the Lines : Using Differential Game Analysis to Develop Environmental Thinking / Hans-Joachim Backe, 109
4. A Dynamic Engagement Model to Provide Ecological Awareness of the Climate Crisis through Video Games / Thomas Bjorner and Henrik Schonau-Fog, 129
5. Postcoloniality, Ecocriticism and Lessons from the Playable Landscape / Soraya Murray, 145
6. No Cyclones in Age of Empires: Empire, Ecology, and Video Games / Souvik Mukherjee, 163
7. Games for Better Futures : The Art and Joy of Making and Unmaking Societies / Joost M. Vervoort, Carien Moossdorff, and Kyle A. Thompson, 181
PART II. FUTURE WORLDS: NEW IMAGINARIES
8. Climate–Game–Worlds : A Media-Aesthetic Look at the Depiction and Function of Climate in Computer Games / Sebastian Moring and Birgit Schneider, 201
9. Healing a Life out of Balance: Slowness and Ecosophy in Death Stranding / Victor Navarro-Remesal and Mateo Terrasa Torres, 223
10. Ecology in the Postapocalypse : Regenerative Play in the Metro Series and the Critical Dystopia / Gerald Farca, 241
11. There Is No Planet B : A Milieu-Specific Analysis of Outer Wilds Unstable Spaces / Lauren Woolbright, 259
12. Green New Worlds? Ecology and Energy in Planetary Colonization Games / Paweł Frelik, 275
13. Dark Play and the Flow Time of Petroculture in Oil-Themed Games / Laura op de Beke, 295
14. The Underrealized Ecocritical Potential of ABZU / Gabrielle Trepanier-Jobin, Maeva Charre-Tchang, and Sylvie Largeaud-Ortega, 311
PART III: THE NONHUMAN TURN
15. “Have You Ever Heard a Worm Sing?”: The Spectral Ecology of Kentucky Route Zero, Act V / Jordan Youngblood, 335
16. Hiding (in) the Tall Grass : Rethinking Background Assets in Video Game Plantscapes / Merlin Seller, 353
17. Symbiosis, or How to Make Kin in the Chthulucene / Joost Raessens, 373
18. Mutate or Die: Neo-Lamarckian Ecogames and Responsible Evolution / Colin Milburn, 395
19. No Man’s Game : The Infinite Boredom of Procedurally Generated Environments / Paolo Ruffino
20. Trans Ecologies in Digital Games and Contemporary Art / Micha Cardenas, 433
21. The Earth’s Prognosis: Doom and Transformation in Game Design / Kara Stone, 447
PART IV: CRITICAL METAGAMING PRACTICES
22. What Do We (NDNs) Do with Games? / Jordan Clapper, 465
23. Imagining the Future: Game Hacking and Youth Climate Action / Chloe Germaine and Paul Wake, 483
24. Reframing the Backlog: Radical Slowness and Patient Gaming / Rainforest Scully-Blaker, 505
25. Material Infrastructures of Play : How the Games Industry Reimagines Itself in the Face of Climate Crisis / Sonia Fizek, 525
26. Sustainable Fandom : Responsible Consumption and Play in Game Communities / Nicolle Lamerichs, 543
27. A Field Guide to Monsters: Practices of Wildlife Watching in Video Games / Melissa Bianchi, 559
28. Remediating Green Practices : Landscape Photography and Nature Documentary Filmmaking in Video Games / Stefan Werning, 577
