Relying primarily on close readings of a number of games from the genre, I also draw upon eco-theory from thinkers working across fields like human geography, philosophy, and feminist ecocriticism. Specifically, I claim that these games instead reflect the hegemonic orthodoxy of contemporary economics, which underpins and undergirds contemporary ecological crises from climate change to deforestation and biodiversity loss. I describe common features and dynamics of the genre in order to illuminate its structural or formal implications, and I investigate whether they measure up to the ecological and environmental claims that have become implicit in the discourse around notions like “emergent gameplay.” This paper argues that these games do not reliably represent an ecological ethos, and I claim that the structural features common to most survival-crafting games (those that receive the lion’s share of attention from players, press and designers), bear far more resemblance to the structures and organizing logics of technological capitalism. The saturation of “natural” and even ecological metaphors throughout virtually all game discourse reaches its greatest extent around a popular genre of digital game which has emerged over the past decade, one that re-combines many pre-existing design tropes into the highly successful generic edifice defined loosely under the moniker of “survival-crafting games.” The “survival-crafting” genre and the games that are developed, marketed, and categorized as such is what this paper takes as its primary focus. This includes some key terms like “environmental storytelling” (Jenkins)-the technique of embedding fragmentary evidence of a game world’s history via spatial arrangement of objects (think of a decomposing skeleton hidden beneath a freshly-dislodged boulder)-and also rather more fraught ones, like the term “realism” deployed to describe visual verisimilitude in games. The uptake of spatial and environmental terms in more recent times follows a slightly different trajectory, with ideas often initially employed by developers and spread into popular and scholarly discourse after adoption by journalists in the enthusiast press. This is visible in the work of theorist Graeme Kirkpatrick (“Constitutive Tensions,” “Making Games”), who examines the discursive construction of the term “gamer” through advertising and marketing materials in the 80s and 90s. This adaptation process has occurred through marketing individual games and during the creation and maintenance of entire genres and the markets that support them. As an extension of this drive, game discourse has begun to borrow ideas from ecology and systems theory, as well as associated natural and environmental concepts, to describe the systemic and procedural aspects of certain genres. More recently, games have sought to distance themselves from other media by highlighting their distinct formal characteristics (Aarseth Juul Bogost). This paper concludes that a truly ecological game only becomes conceivable in a partial and fragmentary way through what Timothy Morton calls “the ecological thought”-by thinking across the connections and assemblages involved in digital gaming as an activity or experience.ĭigital game discourse has long made a habit of borrowing ideas, terminology, and metaphors from other fields and media, most frequently in its early period from film discourse with terms like cutscenes, cameras, etc.

Often these processes resemble a simplified and stylized re-enactment of industrialization. Many games lead players to prioritize resource acquisition and structure their play experience according to rates of resource accumulation that mirror capitalist economic activity. Analysis of both these mechanics reveals their role in creating game dynamics that are less ecological and more economic in character. Beginning with an examination of the ecological and environmental metaphors embedded within terms commonly used to describe features of the genre, I then focus on Minecraft’s two nominal pillars: survival and crafting. They also include a heightened sense of dependence upon the natural environment for shelter, sustenance, entertainment and other necessities. This paper focuses on the genre of games known as “survival-crafting.” Games of this genre, popularized in the wake of Minecraft’s success, often feature high degrees of environmental interactivity and simulation of plant and animal behaviours.

Farsky and subnautica