Games and Bereavement: How Video Games Represent Attachment, Loss, and Grief

Sabine Harrer

Mar 2019 · Edition Medienwissenschaft Book 55 · transcript Verlag

About this ebook

How can videogames portray love and loss? Games and Bereavement answers this question by looking at five videogames and carrying out a participatory design study with grievers. Sabine Harrer highlights possible connections between grief and videogames, arguing that game design may help make difficult personal feelings tangible. After a brief literary review of grief concepts and videogame theory, the book deep-dives into examples of tragic inter-character relationships from videogame history. Building on these examples, the book presents a case study on pregnancy loss as a potential grief experience that can be validated through game design dialogue.

Ratings and reviews

Kudos to the efforts of Sabine Harrer to challenge orthodoxy and redefine rules of game development. Highly recommended for those who believe in the power of games to achieve catharsis.

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About the author

Sabine Harrer (PhD), born in 1984, is a game designer and media artist based in Vienna, Berlin and Copenhagen. As a member of the Copenhagen Game Collective, she has created experimental games and performative play experiences since 2014. Previously, she worked as a lecturer in media and game studies at the University of Vienna and at the IT University of Copenhagen. She was also a research fellow at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In her work, she blends cultural studies and game design to explore the workings of human experience, social power, and modes of intimacy.