by Eugen Pfister
This text originally appeared here in German.
London 1918: the Spanish flu claims thousands of victims, hitting the poorest of the city hardest. Whole neighbourhoods stand empty; communist trade unionists and street gangs fight bloody street battles. While the upper class of the West End considers building a wall around their district, Romanian immigrants in Whitechapel desperately fight for survival at the very bottom of the steep social hierarchy. Women are increasingly taking over the work of men, hundreds and thousands of whom are dying in a senseless war, whilst not gaining the same political rights and economic opportunities as them as them. “Vampyr” (Dontnod: F 2018 / PS4 and others).

Change of scene: In 1960 deep beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Frightened, we run through the (retro-)futuristic ruins of the former megalopolis “Rapture” and become witness to the catastrophic dissolution of a utopian city-state-project, as only Ayn Rand could have dreamed of. “No Gods or Kings. Only Man” can be read on a banner at the city gates, a city whose goal is to avoid limiting the creative expression of its inhabitants, politically, socially or culturally, and which is now being brutally destroyed in the struggle of all against all. “BioShock” (2K Boston: US 2007 / XBOX360 and others).

Another change of scene: a luxurious cabin in the Rocky Mountains, 2015: Eight prototypical (not to say stereotypical) American teenagers have come together for a weekend to commemorate two friends who vanished the previous year, when they successively fall victim to a mythical monster. The land on which the manor now stands was taken one hundred years before from an indigenous tribe. A mine was built on the site and, after a mining accident in the 1950s, the buried miners fall victim to an ‘Indian curse’. When the miners are admitted to the nearby hospital, however, inquisitive scientists appear less interested in treating them as are in observing them. “Until Dawn” (Supermassive Games: UK 2015/PS4).
„Political Communication in Digital Horror Games“ weiterlesen