Survival as Species Narrative: (Supra-)Referentiality in Humanitarian Crisis Video Games

Abstract

Survival is one of the main drivers of action in video games. The gamer's quest to survive zombie attacks, to end the siege of the earth by aliens, to fend off wild animals and human 'savages,' and to outlive and curb global natural disasters makes games not only appealing, but, more importantly, possible – that is playable. Among these instances of survival, the focus of the present article is on humanitarian crisis video games (HCGs) – a rather recent development in the ludisphere that, to simplify, casts a critical look at historically significant humanitarian crises of various degrees and their repercussions on the local and individual levels. HCG games place emphasis on the individual (actors who have caused, denied, and fallen victim to disasters in the making) in their encounters with local, national, or global disasters in the Anthropocene. Providing a detailed, comparative analysis of the different ways the siege of Sarajevo is rendered in Saragame and This War of Mine, the article categorizes HCGs into 'referential' and 'supra-referential' games as they take inspiration from specific events in modern history, such as September 11th or the recent refugee crisis, in order to tell the tale of individual suffering and survival as a common human fate in a world closely and chaotically wired through globalization.