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<p>This article starts with the observation that growth-oriented, techno-futurist narratives are predominant in climate change videogames. It then accounts for the lack of variety by arguing that these videogames are privileged expressions of premediation. Premediation cultivates a multiplicity of future scenarios, while at the same time delimiting them to suit presentist concerns, evoking a sense of inevitability and predictability strengthened by repetition. The iterative, branching temporality at work in this logic is deeply ingrained in videogames, as the trope of mastery through repetition and its analysis requires attentiveness to the affective dimensions of gameplay. If videogames are to engage with the climate crisis more productively, they must develop different temporalities in which the potentiality of the future is preserved. In this article, I analyse the games <italic>Fate of the World</italic> and <italic>The Stillness of the Wind</italic> to demonstrate how videogames premediate climate change and how they can explore other temporalities latent in the present.</p>
</abstract>

This article starts with the observation that growth-oriented, techno-futurist narratives are predominant in climate change videogames. It then accounts for the lack of variety by arguing that these videogames are privileged expressions of premediation. Premediation cultivates a multiplicity of future scenarios, while at the same time delimiting them to suit presentist concerns, evoking a sense of inevitability and predictability strengthened by repetition. The iterative, branching temporality at work in this logic is deeply ingrained in videogames, as the trope of mastery through repetition and its analysis requires attentiveness to the affective dimensions of gameplay. If videogames are to engage with the climate crisis more productively, they must develop different temporalities in which the potentiality of the future is preserved. In this article, I analyse the games Fate of the World and The Stillness of the Wind to demonstrate how videogames premediate climate change and how they can explore other temporalities latent in the present.

Premediating climate change in videogames: Repetition, mastery, and failure

Nordic Journal of Media Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Premediating climate change in videogames: Repetition, mastery, and failure"}

This article starts with the observation that growth-oriented, techno-futurist narratives are predominant in climate change videogames. It then accounts for...

Premediating climate change in videogames: Repetition, mastery, and failure

Published Online: Jul 06, 2021

Page range: 184 - 199

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2021-0010

Keywords
videogames, premediation, climate change, futures, failure

© 2021 Laura op de Beke, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Premediating climate change in videogames: Repetition, mastery, and failure

Published Online: Jul 06, 2021

Page range: 184 - 199

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2021-0010

Keywordsvideogames, premediation, climate change, futures, failure

© 2021 Laura op de Beke, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Keywords
videogames, premediation, climate change, futures, failure