Animal Agency. Collapse, moral frames and incommunicability in ecogames

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Mateo Terrasa Torres
Universidad Católica de Valencia
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8967-2118
Alberto Porta-Pérez
Universitat Jaume I
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4887-9918
Jordi Montañana Velilla
Universitat Jaume I
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8809-9292

Decadence-bound game-fictional worlds encourage the player to play out the era of human destruction. In some of these dystopias it is still possible to inhabit a character and for the player to participate in the events of his or her life to the point of constructing a comfortable space in which to feel protected. However, doing so through the eyes of a helpless animal, with strict performance conditions, pushes him or her towards a heightened vulnerability that is repulsive to the player. That is, the familiar and traditionally safe space of the video game can hide obscurities or resistances to the player’s progress and provoke a felt pain, even though it is not a real experience, that makes it an emotionally unsafe place. In this research we address the discomfort and displeasure towards the ecosystem in game fiction delimited by moral frames derived from the play experience, the ethical design and the cultural, ethical and moral values of the player.

Keywords
Ludofiction, Agency, Environment, Collapse, Ecogames

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Terrasa Torres, Mateo et al. “Animal Agency. Collapse, moral frames and incommunicability in ecogames”. Hipertext.net, 2024, no. 29, pp. 25-38, doi:10.31009/hipertext.net.2024.i29.02.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

(c) Mateo Terrasa Torres, Alberto Porta-Pérez, Jordi Montañana Velilla, 2024


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Author Biographies

Mateo Terrasa Torres, Universidad Católica de Valencia

Mateo Terrasa Torres has a PhD cum laude in Philology and Philosophy from the Universitat de les Illes Balears. He specializes in aesthetics, narrative and culture of games and video games. He is the author of the book “La estética de la dificultad. Teoría y motivos en el videojuego” published by Shangrila Editorial. He is professor in the Degree in Diseño y Narrativa de Animación y Videojuegos at the Universidad Católica de Valencia and in the Master’s Degree in Diseño y Desarrollo de Videojuegos at UNIR. He also participates in the research project “Myth and ideology in contemporary video games (LUDOMYTHOLOGIES)”.

Alberto Porta-Pérez, Universitat Jaume I

Alberto Porta Pérez is a PhD candidate in Comunication Sciences at the Jaume I University where he teaches classes in Hypermedia Narrative and Video Game Analysis at the Degree in Diseño y Desarrollo de Videojuegos. He studied the master's degree in New Trends and Innovation Processes in Communication (Extraordinary Award for the End of the Master's Degree, 2019-2020) and the Degree in Audiovisual Communication (Extraordinary Award for the fourth year of the degree, 2013-2014) at the same university. He is currently developing his PhD on ethical dilemmas in video games.

Jordi Montañana Velilla, Universitat Jaume I

Jordi Montañana Velilla is a PhD Candidate in Comunication Sciences at the Jaume I University where he teaches classes in Teoría y Práctica de la Producción Audiovisual at the Degree in Diseño y Desarrollo de Videojuegos. He studied the master's degree in Digital Postproduction at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (2015-2016) and the Degree in Audiovisual Communication at the Universitat Jaume I (2011-2015). He is currently developing his PhD on complex narratives in video games.

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