The World Is Born From Zero: Understanding Speculation and Video Games

Cameron Kunzelman

Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg 2022

The World Is Born From Zero

Understanding Speculation and Video Games

Cameron Kunzelman

Volume 8 in the series Video Games and the Humanities

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110719451

Overview
Contents

About this book

The World is Born From Zero is an investigation into the relationship between video games and science fiction through the philosophy of speculation. Cameron Kunzelman argues that the video game medium is centered on the evaluation and production of possible futures by following video game studies, media philosophy, and science fiction studies to their furthest reaches. Claiming that the best way to understand games is through rigorous formal analysis of their aesthetic strategies and the cultural context those strategies emerge from, Kunzelman investigates a diverse array of games like The Last of Us, VA-11 Hall-A, and Civilization VI in order to explore what science fiction video games can tell us about their genres, their ways of speculating, and how the medium of the video game does (or does not) direct us down experiential pathways that are both oppressive and liberatory. Taking a multidisciplinary look at these games, The World is Born From Zero offers a unique theorization of science fiction games that provides both science fiction studies and video game studies with new tools for thinking how this medium and mode inform each other.

Author / Editor information

Cameron Kunzelman, Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, USA.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 A Method for Thinking Speculation, Science Fiction, and Video Games Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Chapter 2 Potential Labor: On VA-11 HALL-A Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
Chapter 3 Anti-Blackness and the Aesthetic Grounding of Speculation: On the Last of Us and the Last of Us Part 2 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Chapter 4 The Politics of Design in Climate Change Games Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
Media Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	192
Index of Names Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	194
Index of Subjects Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Audience: Scholars of history, and philosophy; Game scholars, American studies, Digital studies; students
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 198
Keywords: Quentin Meillassoux; video games; speculation; philosophy; science fiction

eBook

Published: July 18, 2022
ISBN: 9783110719451

Hardcover

Published: July 18, 2022
ISBN: 9783110718324

Paperback

Published: May 8, 2023
ISBN: 9783111282169