Unplayable:Videogames for the Post-Anthropocene

What videogames can tell us when life itself is in crisis.

The Anthropocene, the current geological epoch marked by human impact on the environment, is putting life itself at risk. In Unplayable, Paolo Ruffino argues that the effects of the Anthropocene reverberate in our media consumption practices, and that by paying attention to our media engagements, we can draw ethical and philosophical directions for our lives in the post-Anthropocene: a way of living in the age that separates us from extinction.

The author focuses specifically on videogames, and in particular, videogames that relegate humans to the background of the interactive experience by recalibrating their agency, automating the creation of digital environments, and generating content that far exceeds the lifespan of our species.

The book considers what videogame players and makers can teach us about our remaining time on this planet—when both the real world and its simulations no longer function as expected. | Paolo Ruffino is Senior Lecturer in Digital Curation and Computational Creativity in the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London. He is the author of Future Gaming (Goldsmiths Press) and editor of Independent Gaming.