Beyond Barren Wastelands: The Greening of the Post-apocalypse in Video Games
First author: BianchiYear: 2024
Abstract
Video games often depict post-apocalyptic environments characterized by loss and destruction. Some video games, however, challenge this paradigm through representations of lush greenery and thriving gardens that signify environmental recuperation in the wake of world-ending devastation. This essay explores how these virtual worlds engage with ecological recovery and connection by drawing on critical plant studies and scholarship about video games as ecomedia. Specifically, the essay analyzes two video games: Plants vs. Zombies and Cloud Gardens. Despite their different mechanics and aesthetics, both games envision speculative futures where vegetation thrives in the post-Anthropocene. Plants vs. Zombies tasks players with amassing an army of formidable foliage to combat hordes of the living dead, while Cloud Gardens prompts players to cultivate flora in neglected manufactured landscapes. In each game, plants are cast as vital agents in shaping the environment, encouraging players to critically consider nonhuman ontology and humans’ ecological entanglements. These playful plantings also reflect on practices concerning resource scarcity, sustainability, and related environmental issues. In examining these games, the essay demonstrates the potential for video games to promote ecocritical or “green” perspectives through the post-Anthropocene, posthuman, and post-apocalypse.Details
Language: EnglishCountry of affiliation: United States
Published in: Journal of Games Criticism
Publication type: Journal article
Source: https://gamescriticism.org/2024/09/06/bianchi-6-a/#:~:text=This%20essay%20explores%20how%20these,Zombies%20and%20Cloud%20Gardens.
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