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Video games permeate our everyday existence. They immerse players in fascinating gameworlds and exciting experiences, often inviting them in various ways to reflect on the enacted events.
Gerald Farca explores the genre of dystopian video games and the player's aesthetic response to their nightmarish gameworlds. Players, he argues, will gradually come to see similarities between the virtual dystopia and their own ›offline‹ environment, thus learning to stay wary of social and political developments.
In his analysis, Farca draws from a variety of research fields, such as literary theory and game studies, combining them into a coherent theory of aesthetic response to dystopian games.
Frontmatter 1
Contents 5
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction 11
Preface to Part I 35
1. Utopia and the Dream of a Better World 37
2. Dystopia: Nightmarish Worlds as Distorted Anxiety Dreams 65
3. Warning, Effectiveness, and Targets of the Video Game Dystopia 113
Preface to Part II 155
4. Towards the Implied Player 159
5. Estrangement Through World and Agency 251
Preface to Part III 323
6. Night-Time Dreams and Wish-Fulfilment: The Struggle for Utopia in BIOSHOCK INFINITE 325
7. THE LAST OF US and the Journey to Nature 373
8. Horizons and the Video Game Dystopia 403
List of Abbreviations 409
Glossary 411
Ludography 415
Bibliography 417