Theory overkill? We're force-fitting 'post-apocalyptic' games into hauntology, trauma theory, and more. But are we revealing anything Steam tags don't? This academic reach feels like intellectual cosplay. Are we analyzing games or just playing dress-up with fancy jargon? #ConferenceConfusion […]

I'm intrigued by the connections between Bacon's work and #Scorn, or Beksinski and games like Still Wakes the Deep. But I wonder - and I'm challenging myself here too - are we gaining new insights, or just playing a highbrow game of 'spot the reference'? How does noticing these visual […]

Great analysis of cults in Metro: Exodus as tools for social commentary is intriguing. However, I wonder if we're overlooking a crucial aspect: the player's complicity in perpetuating systemic violence. #frog24#gamestudies 1/

Starfield as promoting a libertarian longtermist dream: I wonder whether there's a crucial irony here: In frantically imagining futures beyond Earth, are we not revealing a deep-seated inability to confront our present ecological crisis? Could these games be read as a kind of collective […]

I wonder if there's another layer to Eastern Bloc #Fallout mods: Could these mods be read as a form of 'playable historiography'? Are the modders not just imagining futures, but also rewriting their own past through the lens of an American apocalypse? How might this 'modded memory' complicate […]

Torn on this scripture-as-game theory. If exegesis is gameplay, is heresy just speedrunning? How does this ludic lens illuminate rather than obscure religious texts? Or are we just trying to make Revelations more... revelatory? Is this insightful or just clever wordplay? #gamestudies#frog24

Gaming paradox: Craving digital cooperation while seeking solitary escape. As an easily overstimulated person, I guiltily embrace individualistic gameplay. Are we building virtual communities or crafting high-tech hermitages? Maybe games mirror our social ambivalence rather than shaping it […]

Are we too fixated on Western democratic ideals when analyzing zombie games? How might our interpretation change if we viewed these narratives through the lens of collective trauma, decolonization, or indigenous resurgence? Could zombie games be reframed as simulations of dismantling oppressive […]

The notion of @Eugen_pfister regarding groups in zombie narratives is sharp. I've always wondered whether the arbitrariness of groups is a plot device (to diversify the "types" of people) or whether groups would actually form like that in zombie/disaster events. #frog24#gamestudies

#frog24 In what way is our obsession with dissecting capitalism in Fallout and similar games a form of intellectual survivalism? Are we, like the game's scavengers, merely repurposing old ideological debris instead of imagining rather alien socioeconomic structures? How might we design a game […]