Abstract:

This book brings together a selection of papers delivered at the Video Game Cultures 2023 conference, held from 7 to 9 September 2023 at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. An interdisciplinary collection drawing on disciplines from literary and cultural studies through to evolutionary psychology, this book critically investigates many developments in video game cultures, technologies, practices, texts, paratexts, and genres. Through examining ideas such as narrative and time, gender and sexuality, ethics and affect, and technology and spaces, our authors aim to expand our shared understanding of video games, and the cultures and communities which surround them.

The work presented here reflects authors at different points in their academic careers, and will appeal to a variety of readers, from those wanting to find out more about academic writing on video games, through to those with a focused scholarly interest in particular fields of enquiry. With sections addressing Queer Game Studies, Historical Game Studies, and Game Design Perspectives, alongside ideas of solidarity and kindness in video games, the collection speaks to numerous subfields within games research. The chapters within offer conclusions and recommendations for academics and other educators, for established and aspiring game designers, and for anyone interested in how games can be understood as meaningful contributors to our cultural lives.

Contents

Introduction: Exploring Cultural Horizons Old and New
Nick Webber, Ewan Kirkland, René Schallegger & Felix Schniz

Section I: Solidarity and Kindness in Video Games

Of Dead Heroes and Growing Networks: Crisis, Agency, and Solidarity in Canadian Video Games
René Schallegger

Cultivating kindness in the tiny MORPG Book of Travels
Tan Schütz

Section II: Queer Game Studies

Video Games as Safe Spaces: A Walking Perspective
Kseniia Harshina & Tom Tucek

The Performance of Queer Identities in the Gameplay of Final Fantasy VII (1997) and Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020)
Laura Arnott

Queering the Walking Simulator – The Legacy of Gone Home
Nicole Kilzer

Section III: Historical Game Studies

Playing Resistance without Restrictions: Nazi Germany in Through the Darkest of Times
Lydia Kleinstück

Playing Time Capsules: Layered Temporalities in Gone Home and Return of the Obra Dinn
Kristina Jevtic

‘Watch for fairies, fen-folk, and fiends’. An Authentic and Didactic Approach to Historical Xenophobia in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s Multi-Cultural World of the Ninth Century
Tamara Urach

Section IV: Game Design Perspectives

Simple and Choice Response Times of Females and Males Rating the Wilhelm Scream: An Important Null Result for Gaming Sound Engineers
Hermann Prossinger, Jakub Binter, Daniel Říha, Tomáš Hladký & Silvia Boschetti

Embodied game play: Exploring human and non-human experiences through affective game design in What Remains of Edith Finch and Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons
Christina Obmann

Contributor Details