Gaming and Grieving: Digital Games as Means of Confronting and Coping with Death
Abstract This paper explores structural similarities between playing a digital game and experiencing grief. The digital game Mandagon evokes a sense of loss through its game environment of grey mountainous landscapes, broken wooden scaffolds, and Tibetan temples and prayer flags in states of disrepa...
1. VerfasserIn: | |
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Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Veröffentlicht: |
Brill
2020
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In: |
Journal of religion, media and digital culture
Jahr: 2020, Band: 9, Heft: 3, Seiten: 326-346 |
normierte Schlagwort(-folgen): | B
Computerspiel
/ Tod
/ Bewältigung
B Tibetischer Buddhismus / Bardo / Computerspiel |
RelBib Classification: | AB Religionsphilosophie; Religionskritik; Atheismus BL Buddhismus ZG Medienwissenschaft; Digitalität; Kommunikationswissenschaft |
weitere Schlagwörter: | B
Tibetan Buddhism
B Grief B Death B Vulnerability B Videogames B Digital Games |
Online Zugang: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (Verlag) |
Zusammenfassung: | Abstract This paper explores structural similarities between playing a digital game and experiencing grief. The digital game Mandagon evokes a sense of loss through its game environment of grey mountainous landscapes, broken wooden scaffolds, and Tibetan temples and prayer flags in states of disrepair. It elicits feelings of disorientation and dependency as players repeatedly fall from scaffolds but ascend by using lifts or finding air bubble streams underwater. It encompasses terrestrial, corporeal, and cosmic crossings as players move through air, land, and water, as they neither inhabit nor encounter a human body, and they cross various cosmic thresholds through the course of the game. For players struggling with grief, it validates and normalizes feelings of emptiness, loneliness, and vulnerability in the wake of death and loss. |
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ISSN: | 2165-9214 |
Enthält: | Enthalten in: Journal of religion, media and digital culture
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/21659214-BJA10014 |