Abstract
A growing number of independent videogames explore matters of loss, death, and remembrance. The genre of walking simulators, first and foremost, tends to take players onto sojourns into lives gone, incidentally exploring strategies of memory and coping amidst virtual funerary monuments.
I explore the narrative and mechanical features used in the portrayal of grief in walking simulators. I highlight that the very gameplay conventions for which the genre is often ridiculed, combined with features of fragmentary narration, create an ambience of encouraging mystery that eases the coming to terms with the departed. In conclusion, I juxtapose my research insights with contemporary traditions of grief in western societies and argue for the consideration of new modes of coping.
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Schniz, F. (2019). To Save What’s Gone. In: Elmenreich, W., Schallegger, R., Schniz, F., Gabriel, S., Pölsterl, G., Ruge, W. (eds) Savegame. Perspektiven der Game Studies. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-27395-8_11
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