Abstract
The ecology of games is a new and crucial trend in recent theory on videogames. As a branch of media ecology, it not only reflects the two related aspects of the “apparent” and the “latent”, but also implies a deep concern with the underlying gray and dark dimensions. However, in the early studies of the ecology of videogames represented by Ian Bogost, the emphasis on subjectivity is overshadowed by a return to operation system and its materiality. Therefore, this article uses Timothy Morton’s landmark contribution to dark ecology to reflect on the two related points of subjectivity and experience. It then focuses on the ecology of videogames, clarifying the fundamental difference between “game feel” and “game experience” and further illustrating the dark poetry that centers on the atmosphere of nightmare and the experience of suffering on the basis of several recent games, in order to understand the unique artistic and aesthetic characteristics of videogames.
Keywords
media ecology, dark ecology, metagaming, game feel, experience, ambience
First Page
56
Last Page
67
Recommended Citation
Jiang, Yuhui. 2022. "Little Nightmare in a Vast Cosmos: Dark Ecology and the Poetics of Nightmare in Videogames." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 42, (3): pp.56-67. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol42/iss3/7
