Can We Programme Utopia? The Influence of the Digital Neoliberal Discourse on Utopian Videogames

Abstract

This article has a dual purpose. The first is to establish the relationship between videogames and utopia in the neoliberal era and clarify the origins of this compromise in the theoretical dimension of game studies. The second is to examine the ways in which there has been an application of the utopian genre throughout videogame history (the style of procedural rhetoric and the subgenre of walking simulator) and the way in which the material dimension of the medium ideologically updates the classical forms of that genre, be it through activation or deactivation. The article concludes with an evaluation of the degree in which the neoliberal discourse interferes with the understanding of utopia on behalf of the medium and with its imaginary capabilities to allow for an effective change in social reality.

«Fregonas bloqueando el paso» Walking simulators, nostalgia lúdica y la estética de pasados autoritarios irresueltos en comunidades de videojuegos

“…After the emergence of the genre with the commercial release of Dear Esther (The Chinese Room and Briscoe, 2012), and its explosion as an aesthetic practice after the critically praised Gone Home (The Fullbright Company, 2016), First Person Exploration (FPE) games, ambience action games (Zimmermann and Huberts, 2019), wandering games (Kagen, 2022), or walking simulators (WS)-as they were originally and derogatorily labeled-have received much critical attention (e.g. Carbo-Mascarell, 2016;Grabarczyk, 2016;Navarrete-Cardero and Vargas-Iglesias, 2018), even more after the release of Death Stranding (Kojima Productions, 2019) (see also Cuadrado, 2022;Ferland-Beauchemin et al 2019;Jørgensen, 2022;Kagen, 2022;Majewski and Siuda, 2023;Montembeault and Deslongchamps-Gagnon, 2019;Zimmermann and Huberts, 2019) as Hideo Kojima's conception of the new strand game genre 1 .…”

“…Thus, the underlying politics of WS, which have shown a connection with a wide range of issues regarding the human condition 3 , have also sparked a debate concerning the hegemonic limits of what does and does not constitute a video game (cf. Bogost, 2017;Bowman, 2019;Navarrete-Cardero and Vargas-Iglesias, 2018).…”

The Upscaling of the Early Cinema Image through Artificial Intelligence. A New Aesthetics between Continuity and Dissent in Image Theory

“…Cómo citar:Navarrete-Cardero, L.; Ramírez-Moreno, C. (2024). The Upscaling of the Early Cinema Image through Artificial Intelligence.…”