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- Volume 9, Issue 2, 2017
Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds - Volume 9, Issue 2, 2017
Volume 9, Issue 2, 2017
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The multiple lives of permadeath: An introduction
Authors: Alenda Chang, Jesús Costantino and Braxton SodermanAbstractIn the introduction to this special issue, the editors argue that permadeath games respond to the increasing prevalence of the social, ecological, psychological, and economic conditions of precarity. Permanent death, or permadeath, has experienced a renaissance of sorts with the release of games such as DayZ, Don’t Starve, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, One Chance and Minecraft. Permadeath games emphasize the precariousness of play by making defeat, failure, and death irrevocable, countering mainstream design paradigms that embrace infinite retries and the devaluation of death. Drawing on Judith Butler’s deployment of the term ‘precarity,’ the editors contend that permadeath’s resurgence is evidence of a growing awareness of the tenuousness of human existence, not only in economic terms, but also in terms that are moral and ecological. In other words, the recent rise in experiments with the mechanics of death might relate directly to contemporary issues such as anthropogenic climate change, neo-liberal economics and even the so-called death of the monolithic ‘gamer’ identity. Permadeath games are uniquely situated to voice the inherent precarity of what it means to live and play in the early twenty-first century.
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The culture of permadeath: Roguelikes and Terror Management Theory
By Rob ParkerAbstractIn this exploratory article, Rob Parker examines the function of permadeath in the roguelike subgenre of computer role-playing games (cRPGs) through the lens of Terror Management Theory (TMT). In doing so, he provides a broad history of the subgenre, with specific attention to providing a productive distinction between modern and traditional roguelikes that lies in how they handle permadeath. He suggests that this focus on permadeath is one of the primary motivating factors for the resilience of the roguelike community over time, and what the implications of those motivations might mean for other members of the gaming community.
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Fear, loss and meaningful play: Permadeath in DayZ
Authors: Marcus Carter and Fraser AllisonAbstractThis article interrogates player experiences with permadeath in the massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS) DayZ. We analyse the differences between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ instances of permadeath and argue that meaningfulness – in accordance with Salen and Zimmerman’s concept of meaningful play – is a critical requirement for positive experiences with permadeath. In doing so, this article suggests new ontologies for meaningfulness in play, and demonstrates how meaningfulness can be a useful lens through which to understand player experiences with negatively valenced play. We conclude by relating the appeal of permadeath to the excitation transfer effect, drawing parallels between the appeal of DayZ and fear-inducing horror games such as Silent Hill 2 and gratuitously violent and gory games such as Mortal Kombat.
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Permalife: Video games and the queerness of living
More LessAbstractThe mechanic of ‘permadeath’ has recently garnered increased interest among video game players, designers and scholars. Yet it is equally critical, in talking about death in video games, to talk about life. Just as every video game systemises dying, it also systemises living. The social meaning contained within these systems can be termed the biopolitics and necropolitics of video games. Indeed, the renaissance of permadeath is occurring alongside the emergence of a second mechanic: permalife. In contrast to permadeath games, where players can die only once, permalife games make it impossible for players to die. While there are many video games that lack an official death state, permalife games set themselves apart by making the inability to die a central theme and/or core gameplay mechanic. In contrast to permadeath games, permalife games are primarily being designed by LGBTQ indie game-makers. It is no coincidence that queer designers are exploring biopolitical game systems structured around permalife. For queer subjects today, and particularly those operating within the reactionary vitriol of games culture, permanent living represents a particularly potent trope for expressing both hopes and concerns about existence in the face of an uncertain future. To demonstrate the varied expressions and meanings of permalife mechanics, this article looks at three works from the contemporary queer games avant-garde: Dietrich ‘Squinky’ Squinkifer’s Quing’s Quest VII: The Death of Videogames! (2014), Mattie Brice’s Mainichi (2012) and Anna Anthropy’s Queers in Love at the End of the World (2013). Together, these games demonstrate how permalife operates in a space of contradiction – between life and death, futurity and stagnation, optimism and resistance – that reflects the complexities and challenges of real LGBTQ lives. In this way, permalife creates space for alternative modes of living in video games, challenging teleological narratives of temporal and affective progress as articulated by queer theorists like Elizabeth Freeman and Sara Ahmed. Permalife, as seen through queer games, also stands as a challenge to look to interactive systems and not just character representation as important sites of identity, desire and political meaning in video games.
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Reviews
Authors: Mark Mullen and Yousif KassabAbstractEVENT HORIZON
Elite Dangerous: Horizons, Frontier Developments (2015–17)
PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One, $59.99 (USD)
Game Art and Culture Review
Inside Let it Die: The art of game economics
Absurdities as aesthetics: The play and payoff is in the details
Let it Die, Grasshopper Manufacture (2016)
Playstation 4, avg. 50 hours gameplay, free
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