The analysis that follows is a close reading of one recent independent game that - by way of narrative and mechanics in equal parts quotidian and chthonic - stands out as a rare and explicit critique of Capital and its deleterious fallout in the rural United States. So long as "the relation between politics and literature," as it is expressed in a work, "is interesting enough to warrant investigation," Howe argues that we may consider said work a political novel (p.17). Literary critic Irving Howe (2002) describes the "political novel" as a novel "in which we take to be dominant political ideas or the political milieu" (p.17). But what is a political game? There is precedent for answering this question. Its aesthetic import must be analyzed or critiqued on that basis. On the other hand, a game that is political must be reckoned with politically. (Nintendo EAD, 1985) that has nothing to do with the Mushroom Kingdom, its monarch, or her mustachioed savior - but rather concerns itself with the impact of the game on Japanese and North American techno-entertainment economies. One can imagine a thorough inquiry into the politics of Super Mario Bros. Because they're made in a time, in a place, and by people for an audience of players, the politics of games are inherent, even if they aren't expressed. The uncertain and unending conflict of "the political" emerges as the dominant mode of human activity and its meaning-making.Īll games, as products of culture and labor, have politics. People live together because of politics, despite their disagreements over the political. Politics, then, is something like the ground-level manifestation of higher-order, political antagonism. On the contrary, Mouffe defines "the political" as "the antagonistic dimension which is inherent to all human societies" (p.2). The word "politics," according to political theorist Chantal Mouffe (2013), "refers to the ensemble of practices, discourses and institutions that seeks to establish a certain order and to organize human coexistence" (p.3). There is a difference between having politics and being political. Keywords: Night in the Woods, Mark Fisher, Lovecraft, weird fiction, horror, close reading, capitalism, politics, queerness, hauntology Introduction: Night in the Woods as a Political Game I have always longed to be a part of the outward life, to be out there at the edge of things, to let the human taint wash away in emptiness and silence as the fox sloughs his smell into the cold unworldliness of water to return to the town as a stranger. Finally, it examines the game's eldritch-capital antagonist in order to characterize the outlook of the game's protagonists as resolutely hopeful and reparatively queer in the face of an outwardly meaningless cosmos. Next, it examines how eeriness pervades the playable and political environment of the gameworld. This article first examines how a pathological sense of weirdness is internalized by main character Mae. To make its case, this article draws from the critical vocabulary of theorist Mark Fisher, whose notions of "capitalist realism," (2009) "the weird" and "the eerie" (2016) serve to identify explicitly and categorically much of what the game in question represents implicitly and aesthetically. Following literary critic Irving Howe's (2002) notion of the "political novel," this article demonstrates that Night in the Woods exists as a rare and audacious interrogation of Capital and its deleterious fallout in the rural United States. This article presents a close reading of the videogame Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall, 2017). They are not required background material for Night in the Woods.Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Gods: Reading Night in the Woods through Mark Fisher by Patrick Fiorilli Abstract Both are available here on Windows, Linux and Mac for a “pay what you want” asking price if you want to get them standalone. What's This About Supplemental Games?ĭuring the development of Night in the Woods the developers created two (canon) experiences that act as side stories to the game. The supplemental games are also included in this release of the game on all platforms except for PS4 which will be getting them early next year. It adds "a whole bunch of new content" like new mini-games, and dream sequences. The Weird Autumn Edition acts as a “director’s cut” of sorts for Night in the Woods. What’s different in the Weird Autumn Edition? After a successful Kickstarter was created by Infinite Fall, a teamup of Alec Holowka (Aquaria), Scott Benson (Late Night Work Club), and Bethany Hockenberry. NIGHT IN THE WOODS is an adventure game focused on exploration, story, and character, featuring dozens of characters to meet and lots to do across a lush, vibrant world.
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