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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion, media and digital culture
Main Author: McGuire, Beverley Foulks (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2020
In: Journal of religion, media and digital culture
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Computer game / Death / Coping
B Lamaism / Bardo / Computer game
RelBib Classification:AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism
BL Buddhism
ZG Media studies; Digital media; Communication studies
Further subjects:B Tibetan Buddhism
B Grief
B Death
B Vulnerability
B Videogames
B Digital Games
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary: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.
ISSN:2165-9214
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion, media and digital culture
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/21659214-BJA10014