Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil: Building ludofictional deities in the trashumanist context

Main Article Content

Samuel Gil Soldevilla
Aarón Rodríguez Serrano

Abstract

This article explores the construction of divinities in video games and its narratives implications from a reflection on the technological evolution, the mythical reenchantment and transhumanism. After a theoretical review of these concepts, the research is based on a qualitative methodology through textual analysis, using first a gender classification based on a semantic-pragmatic classification of ludofictional elements in order to analyse two representative examples the so-called God-Games: Populous (Bullfrog, 1989) and Cities: Skylines (Colossal Order, 2015). On the one hand, this analysis shows a crystallization of the ideals and transhumanists tensions. On the other hand, each game generates a theology itself limited by the diegetic own design that goes in two directions: a gamer empowered under military and polytheists proposals, or generating scenarios of economic type based on sanitised and social control strategies.

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Article Details

Section

Monograph

Author Biographies

Samuel Gil Soldevilla, Jaume I University

Personal Investigador en el Departamento Ciencias de la Comunicación de la Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales

Aarón Rodríguez Serrano, Jaume I University

(Universitat Jaume I de Castellón)

How to Cite

Gil Soldevilla, S., & Rodríguez Serrano, A. (2017). Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil: Building ludofictional deities in the trashumanist context. Journal ICONO 14, 15(1), 211-234. https://doi.org/10.7195/ri14.v15i1.1028

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