Books:
Playing Dystopia: Nightmarish Worlds in Video Games and the Player’s Aesthetic Response. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2018.
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.
In “Playing Dystopia” I explore the genre of the video game dystopia and the player’s aesthetic response to its nightmarish gameworlds. Players, thus goes my argument, will gradually come to see similarities between the dystopian gameworld and their own contemporary surroundings. They thus not only learn to stay wary of social and political developments but are also encouraged to actively engage in cultural change and transformation.
In my analysis I draw from a variety of research fields–such as theories of fiction, reader-response, utopian/dystopian/science fiction studies, game studies, and dream theory–combining them into a coherent theory of aesthetic response to dystopian games in particular and video game narratives in general.
Book Chapters:
“Regenerative Play and the Experience of the Sublime in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.” in Exploring Mythopoeic Narrative in The Legend of Zelda, Routledge, 2020.
“The Concept of Utopia in Digital Games.” in Playing Utopia: Futures in Digital Games. Eds. Benjamin Bein, Gundolf Freyermuth, Hanns Christian Schmidt, Transcript, 2019.
Conference Proceedings:
“Regenerative Play and the Experience of the Sublime in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.” Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, 2018 (Part of the Game Studies Triple Conference), Copenhagen.
Link: Game Studies Triple Conference
PDF-File: 06 – farca et al – regenerative play
“The Journey to Nature: The Last of Us as Critical Dystopia”. Proceedings of DiGRA and FDG First Joint International Conference (together with Charlotte Ladevèze), 08/2016.
Link: DiGRA/FDG ’16 – Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG
PDF-File: 246_farca_ladeveze_the-journey-to-nature-the-last-of-us-as-critical-dystopia
“The Emancipated Player”. Proceedings of DiGRA and FDG First Joint International Conference, 08/2016.
Link: DiGRA/FDG ’16 – Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG
PDF-Download: 205_farca_the-emancipated-player
Magazine Articles:
“Agency and Personal Responsibility in The Walking Dead“. Making Games (01/2014). IDG Entertainment Media GmbH, 2014. (62 – 67)
Link: Making Games
PDF-Download: Agency and Personal Responsibility in The Walking Dead
Game Projects and Interactive Media:
German Translation (with Ralph Knörzer) and narrative consulting of “A Story About My Uncle”. Gone North Games. Coffee Stain Studios, 2014.
Link: Gone North Games
HIERARCHY / NEXT LEVEL: GLÜCK (Game / Narrative Design), Theater der Jungen Welt, Leipzig, 2019.
The Child of the Lost Woods (narrative design/writing), 2019 (together with Arnaud Briche, Alicia Günther, Tobias Häussler, Danesh Wohlfart, etc.)
Interviews:
Interview by Dominik Stenzel: “Videospiel-Boom: “Eine Möglichkeit zur Flucht aus dem Alltag.” Augsburger Allgemeine, 2020.
Link: Augsburger Allgemeine
PDF-DOwnload: Interview_ Videospiel-Boom_ _Eine Möglichkeit zur Flucht aus dem Alltag_ _ Augsburger Allgemeine
Interview by Simon Roliggaard: De hungrer efter publikum Men har kunsten egentlig brugt coronapausen til at se fremad? (Games and Art in the Corona Pandemic), Politiken, 2020.
Link: Politiken
PDF-Download: Politiken Newspaper Games During Corona Pandemic
Interview by Simon Roliggaard: Dystopisk tidsalder (Dystopian Games). Politiken, 2019.
Link: Politiken
PDF-Download: Politiken Newspaper Dystopian Games
Interviewed by Sebastian Richly: Super Mario: Deshalb ist der hüpfende Videospiel-Klempner so beliebt. Augsburger Allgemeine, 2016.
Link: Augsburger Allgemeine
