Tabletop RPGs as Environmental Texts

Abstract:

In Video Games As Environmental Texts, Alenda Chang suggests a framework for “reading” video games as texts which teach and reveal our beliefs about nature.1 Chang argues that “almost by definition, all computer and console games are environments” – that is, video games are only playable because they simulate environments for the player to interact with.2 She draws on a reading of Adventure, an early dungeon-crawl style game in which a player uses text-based commands to explore a fantastical cave in order to argue that even the most low-fi video games create immersive “virtual realities” and represent fictional “natural” worlds. However, Chang also notes that even when video games use rich visuals to immersively depict natural environments, many games’ mechanics depict nature superficially, and as secondary to human actions: “game designers [tend to treat] game environments as mere scenery…rather than attempting to plumb their biogeographical complexity.”3 Furthermore, video games often fall into a limited set of extractivist tropes, rewarding players for exploiting natural resources, and eliding the ecological consequences of these actions. In the past ten years, Chang’s paper and following works4 have kicked off a flourishing of ecocritical readings of video games and environmentally motivated video game design, asking what other stories about nature video games could be used to tell.

In Video Games As Environmental Texts, Alenda Chang suggests a framework for “reading” video games as texts which teach and reveal our beliefs about nature.1 Chang argues that “almost by definition, all computer and console games are environments” – that is, video games are only playable because they simulate environments for the player to interact with.2 She draws on a reading of Adventure, an early dungeon-crawl style game in which a player uses text-based commands to explore a fantastical cave in order to argue that even the most low-fi video games create immersive “virtual realities” and represent fictional “natural” worlds. However, Chang also notes that even when video games use rich visuals to immersively depict natural environments, many games’ mechanics depict nature superficially, and as secondary to human actions: “game designers [tend to treat] game environments as mere scenery…rather than attempting to plumb their biogeographical complexity.”3 Furthermore, video games often fall into a limited set of extractivist tropes, rewarding players for exploiting natural resources, and eliding the ecological consequences of these actions. In the past ten years, Chang’s paper and following works4 have kicked off a flourishing of ecocritical readings of video games and environmentally motivated video game design, asking what other stories about nature video games could be used to tell.