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Games and the Environment

First author: Cole
Year: 2020


Abstract

Games that focus on the value that animals and the environment can bring to humans or human-equivalents-particularly the player-character-reflect an anthropocentric view of ecosystems. Games can use companionship between the player and the environment as a way of establishing empathy that can then be applied to their real life. Representations of the environment and animals in some games can inadvertently lend itself towards messages of conservation, while other games explicitly attempt to disseminate this message. Just as many games inadvertently represent the environment as something to exploit or as a potential companion, texts can also encourage acts and attitudes of conservation. Ecocriticism can be used to analyze any game featuring environments and creatures. Human characters and their experiences are sometimes easier for human audiences to acknowledge and consider; it’s important that the people do not forget non-human creatures and the environments they inhabit when deconstructing texts.


Details

Language: English
Country of affiliation: -


Published in: Games as Texts: A Practical Application of Textual Analysis to Games
Publication type: Book chapter


Source: 9780429331329


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