DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/V1Q1-BT91
Author ORCID Identifier
0009-0001-6623-8631
Defense Date
2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Media, Art, and Text
First Advisor
Michael Hall
Second Advisor
Leigh Ann Craig
Third Advisor
Rebecca Gibson
Fourth Advisor
Grace Gipson
Fifth Advisor
Cameron Kunzelman
Abstract
This dissertation explores how high fantasy, single-player, East Asian role-playing videogames represent and simulate the experience of everyday life in imagined worlds. Through close and too-close readings, I argue that there is value in exploring in depth the way these worlds are crafted for the insight they give into the materially lived experiences of everyday life encountered by humanity. From a vantage that alternates between and occasionally melds optimism and pessimism, futurity and defeatism, criticality and naivete, these games are envisioned to offer the revolutionary potential of utopian dreams, the ameliorative potential of critical modes of survival, and the liberatory potential of pure escapism. This ideological and analytical work simultaneously connects the disparate fields of game studies, speculative fiction, and critical theory of the everyday to work towards integrating not only these areas, but to provide a working example of the value of doing so towards understanding the culture and mediascape of the mid-2020s in which the non-mimetic, the ludic, and the relatable increasingly dominate.
Rights
© Rian Johnson
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
4-23-2025