Books:
Ecogames: Playful Perspectives on the Climate Crisis.
Eds. Laura ob de Beke, Joost Raessens, Stefan Werning, and Gerald Farca. Amsterdam UP, 2024.
With the climate crisis and its repercussions becoming more and more tangible, games are increasingly participating in the production, circulation, and interrogation of environmental assumptions, using both explicit and implicitly ways of framing the crisis. Whether they are providing new spaces to imagine and practice alternative forms of living, or reproducing ecomodernist fantasies, games as well as player cultures are increasingly tuned in to the most pressing environmental concerns.
This book brings together chapters by a diverse group of established and emerging authors to develop a growing body of scholarship that explores the shape, impact, and cultural context of ecogames. The book comprises four thematic sections, Today’s Challenges: Games for Change, Future Worlds: New Imaginaries, The Nonhuman Turn, and Critical Metagaming Practices. Each section explores different aspects of ecocritical engagement in and through games. As a result, the book’s comprehensive scope covers a variety of angles, methodologies, and case studies, significantly expanding the field of green media studies.
Playing Dystopia: Nightmarish Worlds in Video Games and the Player’s Aesthetic Response. Transcript and Columbia UP, 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:
“Fallout Series,” Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology and Art of Gaming. Second Edition. Ed. Mark J.P. Wolf.Greenwood, 2021.
Pdf-File: Fallout_Series
“Dystopian Games,” Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology and Art of Gaming. Second Edition. Ed. Mark J.P. Wolf.Greenwood, 2021.
Pdf-File: Dystopian_Games
Baur, Michael and Gerald Farca. “Die ökologische Utopie als Persuasive Game. Das Spiel Solare (2021) als didaktisches Beispiel im Hochschulunterricht.” Science MashUp: XR – Gesellschaft – Utopien. Eds. Gabriele Hofacker and Benjamin Bigl. Springer, 2020.
“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 Beil, Gundolf Freyermuth, Hanns-Christian Schmidt, Transcript, 2019.
PDF File: The_Concept_of_Utopia_in_Digital_Games
Conference Proceedings:
“Farming a Cosy Utopia: A Regenerative Escape to Simpler Times.” Proceedings of DiGRA 2023, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain, 2023.
Link: DiGRA Sevilla
Pdf-File: Farming_a_Cosy_Utopia_A_Regenerative_Escape to Simpler Times
“Ecology and the Post-Apocalpyse: Regenerative Play in the Metro Series,” Proceedings of DiGRA 2023, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain, 2023.
Link: DiGRA Sevilla
“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
Interviews:
Interview by Pascal Wagner. “Hochschulen: “Nachfrage nach Nachwuchs mit Unity-Fähigkeiten könnte abnehmen.” GamesMarkt, 2023
Link: Gamesmarkt
Interview by Pascal Wagner. “Die wichtigsten Games-Studienrichtungen: Games Engineering.” GamesMarkt, 2023.
Link: GamesMarkt
Interview by Gamers.de “Mehr als ein Hobby: Der Einfluss von Gaming auf Kultur & Industrie.” Gamers.de, 2023.
Link: Gamers.de
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
