Games and Bereavement: How Video Games Represent Attachment, Loss, and Grief

Sabine Harrer

Open Access Published by transcript Verlag 2018

Games and Bereavement

How Video Games Represent Attachment, Loss, and Grief

Sabine Harrer
Funded by: Knowledge Unlatched - KU Select 2018: Frontlist Collection

Volume 55 in the series Edition Medienwissenschaft

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839444153

Overview
Contents

About this book

How can videogames portray love and loss? Games and Bereavement answers this question by analysing five videogames and conducting a participatory design study with grievers. Sabine Harrer offers both theoretical and practical perspectives on videogames and grief and suggests a design model for videogames to include grievers into game development. Overall, she explores how videogames can be used as contemporary medium for personal storytelling.

Author / Editor information

Sabine Harrer (PhD), born in 1984, teaches game design at the University for Art and Design (BTK) in Berlin. As a member of the Copenhagen Game Collective, she has created experimental games and performative play experiences since 2014. Previously, she worked as a lecturer in media and game studies at the University of Vienna and at the IT University of Copenhagen. She was also a research fellow at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In her work, she blends cultural studies and game design to explore the workings of human experience, social power, and modes of intimacy.

Supplementary Materials

Leseprobe

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	1
Table of Contents Open Access Download PDF	5
Credits Open Access Download PDF	7
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	9
Part 1: Theory
1.1 Videogame Representation Open Access Download PDF	23
1.2 Understanding Bereavement Open Access Download PDF	45
Part 2: Analysis
2.1 Of Limit Breaks and Ghost Glitches: Losing Aeris in Final Fantasy VII Open Access Download PDF	69
2.2 “You Were There”: Losing Yorda in Ico Open Access Download PDF	85
2.3 Conjugal Love: Losing the Spouse in Passage Open Access Download PDF	105
2.4 Losing Big Brother in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Open Access Download PDF	121
2.5 “Let’s All Be Good Mothers OK”: Losing the Badger Cubs in Shelter Open Access Download PDF	143
2.6 Designing for Loss and Grief: A Summary Open Access Download PDF	161
Part 3: Design
3.1 Grief-Based Game Design: A Case Study on Pregnancy Loss Open Access Download PDF	181
3.2 Ideation with the Bereaved: The Trauerspiel Workshop Open Access Download PDF	193
3.3 Designing Jocoi: A Game about Pregnancy Loss Open Access Download PDF	219
3.4 On the Question of Impact: Evaluating Jocoi Open Access Download PDF	239
Making Space for Grief: Conclusive Thoughts Open Access Download PDF	253
References Open Access Download PDF	261

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: transcript Verlag
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 274
Keywords: Attachment; Grief; Media Design; Art Therapy; Media; Computer Games; Media Aesthetics; Media Studies

eBook

Published: March 27, 2019
ISBN: 9783839444153