Increasingly, digital games center their narratives during or after the apocalypse. In 2017, the action role-playing game Horizon Zero Dawn offered a new take on society after the end of the world. Horizon has since become a multimedia franchise, with a second video game released in 2022, in addition to comic books, a board game, and other adaptations in development.
This collection analyzes the Horizon franchise and its presentation of the apocalypse, ecology, gender, history and more. Game story and game mechanics are fundamental to each essay and contributors offer a close reading--or close playing--of the games from perspectives as diverse as hauntology, postcolonialism, contemporary feminism, and historiography. This first collection on the Horizon franchise argues that we now live in an Apocalyptic period in the same way previous periods were known as Romantic, Modernist or Realist Periods, and makes the case that Horizon belongs at the crest of this new Apocalyptic Period and at the center of contemporary gaming and of game studies.
Reihe
Sprache
Verlagsort
Illustrationen
Halftones, black and white
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
Dicke: 17 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-4766-9192-3 (9781476691923)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Matthew Wilhelm Kapell teaches American studies, anthropology, and writing at Pace University in New York.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
After the End of All Things: A Ludic Eschatology of Hope in Horizon ¿ Matthew Wilhelm Kapell
Part One: On Environmental Concerns
Ghosts Are Part of the Future: Holographic Hauntings Through Premediated Environmental Concerns ¿ Hannah A. Barton
Climate Catastrophe as Virtual Holiday: An Ecocritical Close Playing of Horizon: Zero Dawn ¿ Carolin Becklas
Horizon's Anthropocene: Conservation Psychology and Environmentalism ¿ Todd O. Williams
The White Savior of Meridian: Environmentalism and Ethnocentrism ¿ Jason C. Cash
Part Two: On Cultures and Societies
More Than Just a Side Quest: The Cultural Mechanics of Appreciation vs. Appropriation ¿ Vanessa Hemovich
Of All-Mothers and Sun-Kings: Gendered Societies in the Horizon Franchise ¿ Kenzie Gordon
Aloy as Feminist Icon? Exploring Feminism and Postcolonial Identity in the Horizon Series ¿ Ashley P. Jones
Part Three: On the Identity of Aloy and Others
"Survive!" Gender, Loss, and Post-Apocalyptic Landscapes in Horizon and The Last of Us ¿ Joanna Starzynski
Aloy, Artificial Life, and the Abstraction of Mothering ¿ Marshall Needleman Armintor
Girl, Living in a Post-Apocalyptic World ¿ Tanja Sihvonen
"In you, all things are possible": Aloy's Postmemory Identity Through Datapoints and Walking Simulator Design ¿ Lis Moberly
"This is what I am now; what I overcame": An Analysis of Disability and Ableism in the Horizon Videogame Series ¿ Lauren Rouse
Part Four: On Myth, History, and Understanding
Mythology in Play: Reading the Apocalypse Myth in Horizon ¿ Michä K¿osi¿ski
Myths of Future Past: Horizon: Zero Dawn's Representation of the Feminist Descent Narrative ¿ Rebecca Käpernick
Girl with a Silver Focus: Ancient Archives and Preserving More Than Vermeer ¿ Jamie Henthorn
Part Five: On the Board Game
"Between Disc and Board": Analyzing the Game Mechanics in Horizon: Zero Dawn: The Board Game ¿ Maren Kraemer
Our Apocalyptic Period: Ludic Hadiths and the Ink of the Scholars ¿ Matthew Wilhelm Kapell
About the Contributors
Index
